Some returns arrive without fanfare yet command attention. Peter Speake re-enters with PS Horology, founded in 2022 and now showing its first watch in early 2025. It feels like a watchmaker building from first principles, not a marketing department chasing a calendar.
Speake’s path is well worn by those who care: Hackney Technical College beside Stephen Forsey, WOSTEP in Neuchatel, Renaud et Papi from 1996, then co-founding Speake-Marin in 2002. His hand has touched MB&F’s first watch, Harry Winston complications, and Maitres du Temps Chapter 1. After leaving Speake-Marin in 2017, The Naked Watchmaker stripped movements for education, not spectacle. PS Horology is the next sentence in that same grammar.
The debut is the Tsuba – named after the guard between blade and grip on a Japanese sword. In the Edo period these guards shifted from pure function to family art. The case draws from two tsuba archetypes: quince for prosperity and octagon for balance. It reads as intention made metal.
Dimensions are measured, not macho: 38.3 mm across, 8.91 mm thick, cut in 316L steel. An integrated bracelet tapers with alternating brushed and polished planes. The scalloped, concave corners explain the reported five-stage finishing better than any spec sheet.
Two editions arrive. Tsuba Blue uses a sapphire dial base with indices printed on the crystal, echoing early 20th century heat-blued furniture and tower clock clarity. It is a neat inversion – modern technique in service of old warmth. Tsuba Dong Son moves far afield: a hand-finished gold dial carved with motifs from the Dong Son culture of northern Vietnam, a Bronze Age civilization from roughly 1000 BC to the first century AD. The run of 80 pieces marks the 80th anniversary of the Socialist Republic of Vietnam. Timekeeping, yes, but also time-marking.
Inside is Vaucher’s calibre 5401, a 2.6 mm thin micro-rotor automatic with 176 components, 29 jewels, and a rotor on a ceramic ball race. Power reserve is 48 hours at 21,600 vph. The rotor is tungsten. Speake once assembled minute repeaters for Vaucher, so the choice reads as relationship rather than convenience.
Prices and editions are precise: Tsuba Blue, 99 pieces at CHF 19,500. Tsuba Dong Son, 80 pieces. The brand puts it plainly: “Each collection distinct, born from a story worth telling.” Its audience is those who “collect not merely to possess, but to connect.”
Does the Tsuba succeed? On the wrist will decide. What is clear: studied casework, thoughtful sourcing, and cultural care. The watch says unhurried, curious, and technically serious. For a debut, that is enough – and rare.
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