Christophe Claret, Ladoire and Peter Speake-Marin win Couture Time Awards

Three independent watchmakers were recently awarded with the Couture Time Jury Price. Coincidence or does the watch industry start to realize the amazing work done by independent watchmakers?

During the Couture Time show, that took place immediately after the get-to-gether organized by watch forum The PuristS Pro, Christophe Claret, Ladoire and Peter Speake-Marin won Couture Time Awards for Watch Architecture, Technical Excellence and Innovation. Coincidence? At the 2010 edition of the Grand Prix d’Horlogerie de Genève the Aguille d’Or was won by Greubel Forsey and Laurent Ferrier was awarded Best Men’s Watch. Is it still a coincidence?

Ladoire won the jury prize for Watch Architecture with the Black Widow Mr.Green. This jury prize is for excellence in case, dial and/or strap design. As the jury described it “a deconstructionist vision of a dual time zone watch, with open dial structure, a large, lever-style corrector in the caseside, and asymmetrical lugs“.

The photo above shows the Black Widow Mr.Grey in the dark exposing its superluminova hour, minute and seconds markers. The photo below is Mr.Green on my wrist and both photos perfectly show the beauty of Ladoire’s ‘Watch Architecture’ of the Black Widow collection.

The Jury Prize for Technical Excellence went to Peter Speake-Marin for his magnificent Marin 2 MK1 Thalassa. This is Speake-Marin’s first model featuring the new in-house designed, hand-finished, manual winding movement. This movement is build to last, oversized screws, jewels and the whole construction is designed for ease of service and longevity. When the Thalassa was released I explained more about the very interesting movement Peter Speake-Marin created.

Soon more news from Peter Speake-Marin, so check back in a few days to see more photos of the Marin 2 Mk1 Thalassa and… a new piece unique with incredible engraving.

The Jury Prize for Innovation was awarded for outstanding invention or innovation and it didn’t come as a surprise that Christophe Claret won this award for the 21 Blackjack Watch. This is not just a watch, it’s an entire casino on the wrist!

The 21 Blackjack Watch features a miniature mechanical re-creations of classic casino games. At the dial side is a Blackjack table with striking mechanism, on the back side is a Roulette on the winding rotor. To complete this miniature casino there is a set of dice in the pushers at the side of the watch. Oh yes… it also tells the time!

Congrats to all three for winning these awards… Well deserved!