ITERATION
Marloe are in a new, exciting phase of iteration. For 10 years we’ve chased the new, the fresh and exciting, and abandoned, to a degree, the myriad foundations that we painstakingly laid.
The Solent set the tone, and the Sceptre followed the same architecture, with a more robust, more capable design. The Tay rounded out the trio of “ocean furniture” watches, and we moved on.
But so much is left unsaid when we charge onto the next design, and as we crested our Decade in Time, we really felt like some of these pools deserved to be revisited. The Sceptre was the first that sprang to mind.
Probably on account of the inimitable aesthetic, but also because of its fantastic attributes - 200m water resistance, bi-directional bezel, screw-down crown and exhibition caseback. The “what if” questions were thick and fast.
What if we updated the bezel so that we could time things easier?
What if we changed the domed sapphire, that gave so much reflective fun, to a tamed, less reflective slimline flat crystal?
What if we updated the dial, using our knowledge of dial manufacture and our new in-house assembly abilities, also improving the speed of assembly and quality control?
What if we could iteratively improve upon a foundation already laid?
This is the Sceptre S2. Improved, yet still unique in its own right. It’s big, bold and bright - the new Marloe. We hope you love it as much as we do.
To the future, and whatever it may hold.
OLIVER GOFFE - OPERATIONS & MARKETING
There’s a reason that Marloe is regarded as the most customer-loyal and friendly watch company around. It’s because of Oliver’s unwavering commitment to doing things the right way; he could be called a perfectionist, but we prefer to call him immensely pernickety.
GORDON FRASER - CREATIVE & PRODUCTION
Design through immersion is what makes each Marloe watch unique. A professional empathiser, Gordon highlights the spirit of pioneering, human endeavour and love of discovery in everything we do. A patriotic Scotsman, lover of pretzels and whisky. Maybe jazz too.
AGGRESSIVE DESIGN
The world beneath the waves is not a place for the faint-hearted - it’s a dangerous place, obviously, but formidable, challenging, changing and complicated too. The Sceptre built upon the Solent’s formidable framework to deliver a watch more capable of surviving in the depths. The S2 crystallises it.
The case frame has remained more or less the same as the Sceptre but we’ve iterated the striking bi-directional bezel with rifled grips to include a new scale for timing - a Regatta timer of 5 minute countdown, with a further 10 minute scale that stretches outwards to 30 minutes.
We’ve changed the sapphire crystal from curved to flat, and bolstered the strength of the case sides to make this watch capable of reaching 20ATM / 200m depth.
The crown, sized for grip and designed for wet fingers, features an improved feeling screw-down, maintaining the water-resistance rating and keeping things locked in when the action is ramping up. The same bold, angled lugs point sharply downwards and feature faceted edges and top surface, to catch the light.
Finally, we have the dial design; the biggest iteration. Simplicity is a difficult balance to strike - one way is blandness, the other is muddled. We’ve kept things neat with a raised outer ring featuring the printed minute track, with a lower section holding bold new applique atop a deeply etched, textured surface.
Read on to discover more of what has made the Sceptre S2 a fresh and compelling iteration upon the original design.
TURBINE BI-DI BEZEL
When we were thinking about the design of the original Sceptre we knew that it had to be capable of reaching the depths, but also have the feel of a more “traditional” sub-surface watch. We have experience with our Morar 310 range of 300m-rated “proper” divers’ watches, and we knew that the general use for the bezel was to time land-based activities, like meetings or eggs.
The Sceptre S2 isn’t strictly a dive watch, given that it’s rated to “only” 20ATM, and thinking what a bezel on a watch is typically used for, making the Sceptre bezel handy for day to day use, is more important..
Turning both clockwise and anti-clockwise, the bezel on the Sceptre S2 clicks 60 times - once per minute - and features a brand new etched and paint-filled scale; a central arrow leads on to 5 singular minute dots: the Regatta counter.
The 5 dots are then bridged with one final, solitary dot at 10 minutes. Thereafter it’s an unbroken line to the second arrow, where the scale begins again, this time with the arrow filled with Superluminova, rather than paint.
This allows the wearer to turn the bezel freely in both directions and set any of the timing points - 1-5 minutes, 10 minutes, 30 minutes, 31-35 minutes, 40 minutes and a full 60 minutes. It’s a unique scale, but something we reckon is quite handy.
The rifled grip on the bezel takes on an altogether more aggressive stance - looking similar to a turbine inside a nuclear submarine. This angled, chamfered grip makes turning the bezel in either direction utterly effortless.
BUILT IN-HOUSE
The Sceptre S2 is built and tested in-house at our Headquarters in Sonning Common.
Alison and Jaz check each part for quality, finish and fit, before building each Sceptre S2 by hand. Each watch is then tested for water resistance, quality of assembly and time-keeping, before heading out into the world.
We control everything now, from assembly through to maintenance, servicing and repair, reaching new levels of quality assurance across our entire fleet of watches
OVER ENGINEERED
The case construction has been beefed up to offer increased wall thickness, while the crystals we’ve used are that bit thicker to protect the transparent apertures from the crushing force of the deep.
The case back features a screw-down mechanical seal with 12 tool positions that, when removed, allow the dial module, including the movement, hands and dial parts, to be removed from the rear of the case, making servicing and maintenance convenient and easy.
Finally the crown has the extended ability of being screwed into the case, improved on the Sceptre S2, adding another layer of water resistance and sealing. Given that the crown is the most vulnerable part of a wrist watch, we’ve made the thread post for this mechanical seal a bit longer to give us that extra bit of security.
All in all, the Sceptre S2 will survive down to 20ATM, but that only matters if the person wearing the Sceptre S2 can survive those depths too... for all other environments this little beast of the sea will do just fine.
UNDER THE GLASS
The dial is the most important part of a watch, we think, because of the proportion of time you spend looking at it, compared with the rest of the watch. It’s the functional side of these mechanical wonders - the reason it’s on your wrist: time.
The Sceptre S2 builds upon the original design with an altogether bolder aesthetic.
Comprising a multi-part construction, the dial starts with a tall, squared chapter ring featuring a printed 60-minute/second scale.
Dropping down quite a way to the main dial surface, we’ve kept everything simple, leaning on texture, depth and space to afford maximum legibility of time. Upon the new etched dial are our new applique, designed exclusively for the Sceptre S2.
Taking its inspiration from the symbol that generates fear in most who see it, the cardinal applique is made up of three triangles and a circle. Radioactive. The remaining applique are batons, all filled with Superluminova and framed in polished steel.
The hands are new too, and give no doubt as to their position on the dial. We’re calling them the propeller handset.
The main hour and minute hands, with a polished sword profile, feature huge pads of Superluminova, with the minute hand continuing our love of apertures framing the hands beneath, in this case aligning with the hour hand’s lume perfectly.
The hairline seconds hand is embellished with an anchor counterweight, enjoys a polished finish and printed accent colours.
It’s a formidable look. It’s a powerful look. We wanted everything under the sapphire to feel bright, new, clean, protected. A counterpoise to the tougher, rougher, “exposed” exterior.
Above all, the hands, dial and colourways make the Sceptre S2 one of the clearest watches to date, and the dynamic play of the myriad depths, applique and textures, makes the S2 a marker in the sands of change.
FLAT SAPPHIRE
The Sceptre S2 comes with a brand new flat Sapphire crystal, but it’s not just any Sapphire crystal.
Whilst we loved the domed aesthetic of the original Sceptre design, the clarity of the dial depended on where you were at the time, and how many reflections were cast upon the glassy surface.
The Sceptre S2 comes with a new rounded-edge flat Sapphire that’s thicker than the original - this has three benefits.
The first is increased robustness - handy on any metric.
The second is angular clarity - essential on a legibility metric for the myriad of wrist shapes the Sceptre S2 will rest upon,
The last benefit is refractive boost from sapphire thickness - by using a thicker, flat crystal, the dial is projected closer to the eye, and improves the legibility, clarity and feeling of connectedness with time. It also looks really cool!
REGATTA
You can almost feel the salty spray when wearing the Regatta. Designed for life at sea, flying above the waves, this ultra clean and easy to read dial leads the way for the new Sceptre S2 range. A flat white, ripple textured surface radiates towards a tall metallic blue outer ring, where a pristine white minute scale is printed. Upon the white dial surface rests our new polished applique with thickly infilled Superluminova.
New hands adorn the Sceptre S2 with a hairline seconds hand printed with the same blue as the chapter ring. Outwards is the new bezel design featuring a dual-colour paint fill - red for port, green for starboard. This is the sailor’s Sceptre S2.
AC75
Unmatched speed, uncompromising geometry and brutal risk, the America’s Cup puts razor’s edge sailing mastery alongside Formula 1 technology to create a stunning spectacle of ultra-racing. Soaring above the waves on Aerofoils, these prototype monohull racing yachts feature soft wing sails, electrically powered hydrofoils and can reach speeds of over 55.5 knots/63mph. When you consider the speed of a typical 31ft sailboat is 6 knots, you can quickly see why these incredible vessels are used to challenge the best sailors in the world.
A black dial with our new wave-texture is home to new polished applique, with a raised black chapter ring with teal and white printed markings. It’s a clean dial. Outboard is our bi-directional bezel with two-tone paint fill, in both aquamarine and blazing red, matching the accents on the dial and anchor counterweight for the seconds hand.
VAULT
The Sceptre design arrived through the research of nuclear submarines, and the Cold War - we called one of our original designs “October”, for goodness sake. When thinking about the new improvements and colourways for the Sceptre S2, Gordon was deep within a new TV show - a retrofuturistic, atompunk world based on a computer game of the same name. This colourway takes inspiration from the colours of the overalls worn by the people living in the Vaults - nuclear shelters that protected humanity from a Great War in 2077.
A faded navy blue dial with radiating textural lines leads to a raised darker blue ring, upon which golden yellow and white markings are printed. Polished applique around the dial are unmistakable in their radiation symbol shapes, and with the outwards bezel featuring full golden yellow paint fill, this is an evocative colourway that feels like it belongs in another world.
REACTOR
The blinding sunset, the raging fire, a glowing reactor. This is a bright, vivid version that epitomises what the Sceptre S2 is all about - the power of nuclear energy and the catastrophic impact it has when misused. This is the apocalypse in a watch. Waves of radiation. Brown dirt glowing red hot. It’s evocative and unmistakable. And also, really good fun! This is the first fume dial we’ve created, with a darker burnt sienna leading to a ripping hot orange in the middle, creating a beautiful sense of movement and focus around the dial.
The colours bleed onto the bi-directional bezel with the same hot orange on one side, and a glowing soil, fading as it cools, on the right. It’s a hot one, be careful!
SONAR
Deep beneath the ocean waves a face is illuminated by a screen, a glowing green screen that beeps and pips, flashes and fades - Sonar (Sound Navigation and Ranging). The proximity sensor of the sea, Sonar allows operators to track and identify undersea traffic, whether that be to map the seabed, minesweeping, for search and rescue or for commercial fishers.
This is the loudest yet most intriguing Sceptre S2 dial, purely on account of its fume faded lime dial and accents. It will split opinion, but nothing can take away the impact this beautiful, brutal Sceptre S2 enjoys.
OPERATION
WINDING THE MOVEMENT
POWERING YOUR SCEPTRE S2
Inside your Sceptre S2 is a Miyota 9039 automatic mechanical movement. The movement is powered by your every move; each swing of the arm, each flick of the wrist or each step of your body injecting power into your Sceptre.
Wearing your Sceptre S2 every day keeps it ticking. You can of course manually wind the movement and this can be done to top up every day or just to feel the movement between your fingers.
If you do want to manually wind your Sceptre S2, feel free. Unlike our manual movement watches, the Sceptre S2 doesn’t come to a hard stop. You can wind forever and ever, for there is a clutch attached to the automatic rotor mechanism that prevents over-winding.
You must first unscrew the crown from its thread (a preventative measure for water resistance). Once it’s unscrewed all the way, you can wind away and enjoy.
A fully charged Sceptre S2 will keep ticking for over 42 hours. Quite awe-inspiring considering it’s all down to the tiny mainspring, slowly uncoiling.
CHANGING ThE TIME & DATE
A SIMPLE PROCESS
The 9039 is an automatic movement with 3 hands, and has a very simple setting process.
Pull the crown all the way out, which will stop the seconds hand moving (hacking function) and allow the hour and minute hands to be set.
Progress the hour and minute hands around the dial. Simply set the current time and, once happy, push the crown all the way in again. This will kick the seconds hand into life again, showing that your watch is now accurate, on time and under power.
Remember to screw your crown back into the case in a clockwise direction (when looking face on at the crown), so that the watch is now protected and can achieve the full 200m water resistance.
SPECIFICATIONS
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42mm diameter x 12.60mm depth
22mm strap width
Dual-texture bespoke designed case w/screw-down crown
Sapphire crystal with anti-reflective coating
Multi-layer textured dial with lumed applied indices & raised minute track
Propeller hand design
Hairline seconds hands w/ anchor counter-weight
Luminous hands and dial perimeter
76g
20 ATM
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Miyota 9039 automatic mechanical movement
28,800 bph
24 jewels
Handwinding override capability
40+ hour power reserve
-10 ~ + 30 sec/day
Japanese Made
Hacking function
Parashock anti-shock
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A mechanical movement, like a car engine, uses oils to lubricate the moving parts. Over time this fine grade of oil can become gloopy, causing your movement to lose accuracy. Every 4-5 years, think about having your watch cleaned and re-oiled by a professional - it’ll keep everything ticking along nicely.
The Sceptre S2 enjoys a 2-year limited warranty which covers manufacturing defects. T&C - see our website.
