Speake-Marin’s latest addition to its successful line of military-inspired sports watches is the Spirit Wing Commander. It’s the first Spirit in titanium, featuring an oversized date and power reserve indicator.

The Speake-Marin Spirit collection started three years ago with the Spirit Pioneer, which not only gave the brand a new look, but also made it more accessibly priced. Now the line-up has been joined by the Spirit Mk 3 Wing Commander, the first model with complications. Earlier models like the Spirit Mk II are time-only. Featuring an oversized date and power reserve display, the Wing Commander has the same military aesthetic as the other Spirit timepieces, which were inspired by historic British military wristwatches. For the first time Speake-Marin is using titanium for the case, which is 42 mm in diameter and in the signature Piccadilly form. It’s about time too, with its darker colour and lightness compared to steel, titanium is always a welcome alloy for a sports watch.

“Fight, Love, Persevere”, a trademark of the Spirit watches, is engraved on the case back, which also features the Speake-Marin topping tool logo. That logo also serves as the seconds hand on the dial. Notably, the topping tool seconds hand sits in a recess, so it is flush with the surface of the dial.

The big date display is at 12 o’clock, while the power reserve indicator is at six. Functioning like a fuel gauge, the power reserve display reads white for fully wound, black when running down, and red for nearly empty. The dial is a matte black resin with raised indices and markers. Made of white SuperLuminova, the indices and markers are moulded and then applied on the dial, giving them a height that regular application is unable to achieve.

There are few automatic movements with a sub-seconds at nine, so it’s no surprise that the calibre inside is the tried and tested Valjoux 7750, which has a 48 hour power reserve. This has the chronograph bits removed, with the modification and assembly done by movement specialist Timeless SA. The Wing Commander will retail for 7500 Swiss francs or US$8750 on a leather strap with a titanium pin buckle.