Baltic × SpaceOne Seconde Majeure: A Jumping Hours With Théo Auffret Charbonnage Finishing — From EUR 2,500

Description

The Baltic x SpaceOne Seconde Majeure is one of those collaborations that feels almost too good to be real. Two French micro-brands with completely opposite design DNAs — Baltic, the vintage-leaning steel-case purist, and SpaceOne, the spaceship-inspired futurist — have come together to deliver a hand-finished jumping hours watch starting at EUR 2,500. The kicker: the new module powering the display was developed by independent watchmaker Théo Auffret, one of the most respected young names in French haute horlogerie.

This is not a riff on a vintage regulator. The Seconde Majeure is a fully reimagined object built around a brand-new jumping hours complication. Its mainplate doubles as a dial, and that mainplate can be ordered with one of two finishes — a sober brushed treatment, or a hand-executed charbonnage (coal finishing) decoration that is normally reserved for five-figure independent watches. Pre-orders are open from May 12 through May 17, 2026 only, with deliveries by November 2026 and no second batch planned.

For value-driven collectors with a taste for serious independent finishing, this is the watch of the year. There is genuinely nothing else like it in the sub-EUR 4,000 segment.

Design

The case is a 38 mm steel cushion with crisp brushed flanks, polished bevels, and a faceted bezel that gives the watch its strangely architectural presence. There is no traditional dial. Instead, the entire mainplate of the jumping hours module — cut from a single piece of maillechort (German silver) — sits exposed under the sapphire crystal. The natural warmth of maillechort gives the watch a soft, golden-bronze hue that ages in a controlled way over time.

At 12 o'clock, a black-framed window reveals the printed sapphire hour disc. At 6 o'clock, the minute scale fans out under an arrow-tipped, crosshair-finished pointer. The brushed version uses tight straight grain across the plate; the charbonnage version replaces it with an irregular, hand-scratched pattern produced by Théo Auffret's atelier in Paris over roughly three hours per piece. No two charbonnage dials are identical. A black calf strap with a steel pin buckle finishes the watch.

Specifications

Reference: Baltic x SpaceOne — Seconde Majeure (Brushed / Charbonnage)
Case: 38 mm × 11 mm, polished and brushed stainless steel, cushion shape
Crystal: Domed sapphire with anti-reflective coating, sapphire caseback
Dial / mainplate: Maillechort (German silver) — straight brushed or hand-finished charbonnage
Movement: Newly developed jumping hours module by Théo Auffret on a Swiss self-winding base
Architecture: Central control wheel making one rotation per hour, engaging a 12-tooth star wheel beneath the hour disc; jumper spring controls the snap
Frequency: 4 Hz (28,800 vph)
Power reserve: ~40 hours
Functions: Jumping hours at 12 o'clock, trailing minutes at 6 o'clock
Water resistance: 30 m
Strap: Black calf leather with steel pin buckle
Price: EUR 2,500 (brushed) / EUR 3,500 (charbonnage), excluding taxes
Limitation: Pre-order only — May 12 to May 17, 2026; deliveries November 2026

What's Exciting

This is the lowest entry point ever for a watch hand-finished in a French independent atelier. Théo Auffret's charbonnage is the kind of decoration normally found on Le Locle independents priced at EUR 30,000 and up, and the fact that Baltic and SpaceOne have negotiated it onto a sub-EUR 4,000 piece is a genuine industry first. The jumping hours module itself is also new — not a reworked off-the-shelf module, but a freshly designed complication using a 12-tooth star wheel and central control wheel. For collectors building a meaningful set without a six-figure budget, the Seconde Majeure is a serious horological flex disguised as a small, elegant cushion-cased watch.

The closed pre-order window adds collector tension without resorting to artificial limited-edition numbering — once the six days are over, this watch is gone for good. That alone will likely drive secondary-market interest above retail within months.

History

Baltic was founded in 2017 by Etienne Malec in Paris, and within five years it became the reference point for affordable, vintage-correct French watchmaking — the brand's HMS, Aquascaphe, and MR series defined a generation of value buyers' first mechanical watches. SpaceOne arrived in 2022 with the Tellurium and Jumping Hour, championing science-fiction case design and accessible jumping hours mechanics. The two had circled each other for years; this collaboration, brokered partly through their shared Paris watchmaking community, brings together Baltic's restraint and SpaceOne's complication know-how. Théo Auffret, the third hand on the project, is a former Greubel Forsey watchmaker whose own atelier produces some of the most decorated French independent timepieces of the modern era — the Tourbillon Grand Sport in particular. The Seconde Majeure is the first time his finishing work appears on a watch under EUR 5,000.