Baltic and SpaceOne Team Up to Present the Brilliant Seconde Majeure Watch

Some of the best creations often result from the least expected encounters… However, when two radically different creative minds start to work together, nothing says that the alchemy will develop. More often than not, the connection doesn’t come to fruition. At first, there was seemingly no reason for entities like Baltic and SpaceOne to collaborate. Both young brands carry two drastically distinct philosophies, almost at odds. Baltic focuses on vintage-inspired watches, and SpaceOne creates spaceship-looking timepieces. It’s like an accessible version of Urwerk meeting Laurent Ferrier (well, funnily enough, it did happen). But here, there’s more than just two creative minds; there’s friendship. And when the parties come together, the result is the Baltic x SpaceOne Seconde Majeure Jumping Hour. So, alchemy or not…?

The protagonists

On one side is Baltic, a Paris-based brand born in the mid-2010s, which has gained strong recognition (it used to be a microbrand… it’s not anymore) with its accessible, nicely designed, well-proportioned watches with retro-inspired designs. Compact divers, rally-ready tricompax chronographs, cool dress watches, vintage-style field watches or even mid-century-inspired tuxedo watches… You name it all. The other side of what could have been an unsolvable equation is SpaceOne, an even younger project created by a talented Paris-based watchmaker and movement designer, Théo Auffret, and Guillaume Laidet, the man behind the return of Nivada Grenchen. Funnily enough, the initial encounter between the two founders of SpaceOne occurred in 2021, in Baltic’s Parisian headquarters.

Five years later, all parties are united to give life to a watch that’s bringing Baltic’s sense of classic design, SpaceOne’s touch of sci-fi, and Auffret’s ability to build movements and complication modules. The result is a watch that has many of the classic codes of indie watchmaking, one of the most admired displays of the time, a characterful and distinctive design with vintage and futuristic codes reunited, a more refined construction than anything else before from Baltic, and a price that’s not out of this world.

The Seconde Majeure

Let’s start with the case of this Baltic x SpaceOne Seconde Majeure. As we mentioned, it relies on many of the design codes we’ve seen in the recent wave of high-end, young independent watchmakers, starting with a classic diameter of 38.5mm and a case made of 904L stainless steel. Entirely new for this watch, it comes with several highly appealing elements: a brushed middle case, a polished bezel with a concave profile, long-hanging and arched lugs with a lateral polished, concave recess and, for the modernist touch, a crown positioned at 12 o’clock. The 12.3mm thick and 47.5mm long case is framed by a domed sapphire crystal on top and a screwed, stepped caseback in solid steel, carrying all the necessary engravings. Elegant, refined, quite en vogue and in line with the codes used in watches at a much higher price point…

As nice as the case of the Seconde Majeure is, the star of the show is the dial – or should I say the two possible dials and the display above it. The whole face of the watch is dominated by the complication and the dedicated module created by Théo Auffret. A talented watchmaker capable of crafting impressive movements, he built this module around a jumping hour function and tight symmetry for the three main components. Indications are displayed thanks to two sapphire crystal discs, with a decentralised structure. Hours are read at 12 o’clock through a framed window, minutes are oversized at 6 o’clock with a dragging disc guided by an arrow-ended crosshair pointing to an arched, contrasting scale and large seconds with a blue hand that glides above, with its own peripheral white track.

The module created by Auffret is rather clever. A central control wheel lies beneath the minute disc, making a full rotation in 60 minutes. Every hour, it engages with the 12-tooth star wheel underneath the jumping hour disc. The jumper spring, visible on its left, keeps pressure on the Star Wheel, maintaining it centred, while also being responsible for the jump of the disc – energy builds up for a full hour, and the disc jumps when the spring settles back between the next tooth.

There’s no actual dial on this Baltic x SpaceOne Seconde Majeure. Instead, the mainplate of the complication module acts as a decorative canvas. Cut from a single piece of maillechort (German silver), its warm, light-gold colour can be finished in two different ways. The first and most accessible option is a classic straight brushed decoration. The second, more traditional and more “indie watch” inspired, is a so-called charbonné technique (coal finishing), performed by hand by the watchmakers at Théo Auffret’s atelier in Paris. This technique, which takes up to three hours, relies on a random scratched pattern that will make each watch unique.

Power for the watch and module comes from a reliable source, the automatic Soprod P024. An alternative to the ETA 2824 and Sellita SW200, this Swiss-made calibre runs at a 4Hz frequency and stores about 42 hours of energy. A wise choice for both serviceability and control of the costs.

Availability & price

Worn on a beige Alcantara strap by Delugs, with curved spring bars and a steel pin buckle, the Baltic x SpaceOne Seconde Majeure Jumping Hour watch will be available for pre-order from May 12th to May 17th, 2026. Production isn’t strictly capped, but limited by the number of orders placed during these six days. Prices are EUR 2,500 (excl. taxes) for the brushed dial and EUR 3,500 (excl. taxes) for the charbonné dial.

All in all, while it is quite a step up in price for Baltic (SpaceOne watches were already in the price range), the watch feels like an actual value proposition. Whether for its look, finishing, complication, spirit and sense of design, it punches way above its weight. A truly great collaboration, with all the ingredients of dream watches from indie watchmakers, but for a fraction of the price. For more details, please visit baltic-watches.com and spaceonewatches.com.