Looking around his atelier, you might think that Theo Auffret is an horological double agent. On one side of the workshop is his traditional watchmaking; on the other, his work for the SpaceOne pieces, which are the product of wild imagination, owing more to futuristic dreams than to classic manufacture.
The latest product of his partnership with Guillaume Laidet (former CEO of Nivada Grenchen and Vulcain Watches) is the SpaceOne Tellurium. As with the very first SpaceOne, the idea was the outcome of a conversation between the two friends. This time, Laidet insisted, “I want planets, I want planets, I want planets for the next watch.” It was initially dismissed as too difficult to implement, but further thought, and a small orrery produced by one of the prototypists in the Theo Auffret workshop brought the project to life. The problem for Auffret was time. He had too many orders for his own watches to serve and could no longer lead the work on SpaceOne.
A third person was needed, a designer, but someone who had the same passion for science fiction aesthetics as the two founders. By chance, they were introduced to Olivier Gamiette, by day and profession a mild-mannered car designer at Peugeot; by night and in his spare time, an insurgent designer of futuristic watches.
Olivier Gamiette’s sketches for the SpaceOne Tellurium showing the rotation of the Earth and Moon (left) and its translation into the watch.
At the initial meeting, Theo Auffret and Guillaume Laidet were remarkably impressed with the few drawings Olivier Gamiette brought along. They asked if he had more designs, to which he replied that he did, and to the next encounter, he brought 127 pages of work. In fact, he had been so prolific that there was a whole book of his drawings entitled Soon – Timepiece Phenomena, published in 2015.
SpaceOne Tellurium demonstrates the power of microbrands to overhaul the established players in the market. It is a unique timepiece both in terms of design and execution. Gamiette’s imagination created a mixed polished and sand-blasted titanium case, with a dial that mirrors every science fiction space captain’s wrist-wear from an imaginary future. Under a domed crystal and over an aventurine dial that resembles the night sky adorned with polished titanium stars, the display shows the time on earth, date and month, and the exact position of our planet and moon relative to the sun with such precision that it will take more than a century before it needs to be adjusted. Unless you are intending to embark upon interstellar travel, that should be sufficient for your lifetime.
The finished SpaceOne Tellurium housed in a polished steel case with blue aventurine dial, showing an orrery across the night sky.
As the Tellurium is considerably complex, there will be a complimentary website to help set the display and answer any other questions customers may have. With Gamiette as designer, Auffret has taken on the role of complication creator, a title he rightfully deserves after inventing the planetary display module on top of the Soprod P024 H4 movement. There seems to be no limits to how far into the universe of futuristic horology SpaceOne can reach.
Author: Dr Andrew Hildreth
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