In a bit of a surprise move, Peter Speake-Marin recently announced that he had signed well-known actor Pierce Brosnan as the ambassador for the Speake-Marin brand. It’s rare for a small, independent brand to have an ambassador.
“It wasn’t planned or searched for, it was the result of meeting on the filming of the movie ‘Survivor’ and becoming friends,” explains Speake-Marin, who worked as a watchmaking consultant on the film. “Pierce started posting pictures of himself and his watches on Instagram and it seemed like a natural thing to do to ask him if he was interested in taking it to another level.
“He is classical with a twist as is my work; he is also in his own right an artist as well as an actor,” Speake-Marin continues. “When we first met we became friends within minutes, in a slightly surreal way. We are kindred spirits from different worlds. We both love what we do and we both live in creative worlds.”
Brosnan has had an incredible career, appearing some of the biggest movies made, including playing James Bond four times, while sporting an Omega, of course. Now, whenever he has a chance, Brosnan will wear his Speake-Marin. “Pierce has worn a Speake-Marin in the last film he made, called ‘IT’ and will do likewise in a new movie starting in the coming months,” Speake-Marin details. Currently, Brosnan wears the Resilience timepiece (large photo above), the same one he wore in “Survivor.”
Does an ambassador really pay off, especially for a small brand that struggles for recognition? Having a recognizable face of the brand certainly can’t hurt. “Speake-Marin is a small company and we are slowly growing from year to year at a steady rate,” Speake-Marin says. “This year was exemplary, which I believe was due to Pierce but also the evolution as a whole within the collections and the growing awareness of my work. Each year we are alive we grow.”
Speake-Marin sees the association with Brosnan as a sign of future success. “Business is good, but I have no illusions, life for a small company in a competitive industry life can be challenging, but we are growing at a time when many companies are shrinking and making cutbacks,” he says. “For the industry as a whole it is forever changing as it has been for the last 30 years with peaks and troughs, there is no longer a genuine sense of stability but this brings in its own way a need for creativity and originality to adapt to the new and changing world we live in.
“For Speake-Marin, I am more optimistic today than I have ever been due to the reality of our situation with growing sales, knowledge and maturity as a whole,” he continues. “Also, I have a freedom for development now that I have never had before, due to a growing team to whom I have been able to delegate the daily activities of running the business.”
When asked whether Brosnan will have a hand in the design of any Speake-Marin watches, Speake-Marin is tight-lipped. “For that you will have to wait and see,” he says.
