Baltic and SpaceOne Built a Jumping Hour Watch That Neither Brand Could’ve Made Alone

Two of our favorite French indie brands have absolutely no business making a watch together, which is exactly why the Seconde Majeure is so damn good. Baltic has spent the last few years cementing itself as the go-to for vintage-leaning, well-priced mechanical watches (we’re still riding high off the Rally Timer from last week). SpaceOne, on the other hand, makes timepieces that look like they fell out of a Stanley Kubrick set design.

On paper, this collaboration shouldn’t work. In practice, it might be one of the most exciting indie releases of the year.

A Friendship, Not a Co-Brand

The backstory matters here, because this isn’t your typical brand-slaps-logo-on-product exercise. Back in 2021, Baltic hosted a meetup at its Paris HQ for fellow French watchmakers. That’s where Théo Auffret (the F.P. Journe Young Talent Prize winner behind the gorgeous Tourbillon à Paris) first crossed paths with Guillaume Laidet (the man responsible for resurrecting Nivada Grenchen and Vulcain). The two hit it off and went on to launch SpaceOne together.

Five years later, the four creative principals (Étienne Malec and Jas Rewkiewicz from Baltic, plus Auffret and Laidet from SpaceOne) decided to mark the friendship with a watch. The result lands somewhere neither brand could have reached alone.

The Display Is the Whole Show

The face of the Seconde Majeure is dominated by a jumping hour module Auffret built specifically for this project. Two transparent sapphire discs rotate above a maillechort base plate, with the hours appearing through a small black window at 12 o’clock and the minutes spread across a larger arched window at 6.

A long, blued central seconds hand sweeps across the whole composition. That hand is what gives the watch its name. The typography on the discs is straight out of SpaceOne’s playbook (chunky, brutalist, sans serif), but the warm German silver tone of the plate underneath is pure Baltic.

It’s a regulator-style layout in spirit, but the execution feels like nothing else on the market right now.

Charbonné: The Flex Worth Paying For

You can spec the Seconde Majeure with a vertically brushed maillechort plate (€2,500) or a hand-finished charbonné dial (€3,500). The charbonné technique is one of Auffret’s signatures, and it’s a properly old-school move. A piece of charcoal is rubbed across the surface of the plate by hand, producing a cloudy, organic texture that catches light in ways that brushed finishes simply can’t.

It takes up to three hours per dial, and no two are identical. If you can swing the upcharge, it’s definitely the version to get here.

The Case and Movement

Baltic and SpaceOne built an entirely new 38.5mm case for this watch, which is another impressive accomplishment worth noting. It’s 904L stainless steel, 12.3mm thick with a 47.5mm lug-to-lug, and the crown sits at 12 o’clock to keep the wrist line clean. The brushed mid-case plays off a polished concave bezel, and the lugs are arched in a way that should help it wear smaller than the spec sheet reads.

Powering the show is a Soprod P024, an automatic that’s roughly equivalent to an ETA 2824 or Sellita SW200. Not a glamorous base, but it does feel like the right call for a project like this.

Spec Sheet

Pricing & Availability

The Baltic x SpaceOne Seconde Majeure goes up for pre-order from May 12th through May 17th, with the brushed version priced at €2,500 and the charbonné at €3,500 (both excluding taxes). Production is capped at however many orders come in during that six-day window, and deliveries are scheduled for November 2026.

Recap

Baltic x SpaceOne Seconde Majeure

Two French indie brands with opposing design philosophies team up on a jumping hour with a hand-finished maillechort dial and a custom module by Théo Auffret, starting at €2,500.

Learn More: Baltic