We’ve spoken before about how the entrepreneurial vision of Guillaume Laidet is resulting in some of the most exciting (and interesting) watch brands on the market today. Of the many offerings in his portfolio, the most conceptual and the coolest is, without doubt, SpaceOne. A space-age brand who, as luck would have it, has just dropped two new takes on their debut Tellurium, the Tellurium Black and the Tellurium Blue.

If the name sounds familiar, it might well be because the SpaceOne Tellurium was one of the finalists in the GPHG’s ‘Challenge’ category, one of the most innovative and challenging categories. Thanks to its tight criteria of a sub-3,000 CHF price point, Tellurium has achieved remarkable success at this accessible price point.

The swooping, spacecraft-like shape of this watch is the work of designer Olivier Gamiette, who works in automotive design by day but who has spent his spare time creating an unapologetically future-facing idea of watch design — full of smooth lines, bubbles and transparency. Gamiette’s designs owe a clear debt of inspiration to the likes of MB&F, Urwerk and DeBethune, but his consistency of vision is admirable. What’s even more admirable is how well Tellurium has translated this design into something within reach of many collectors. In and of itself, creating that sleek polished titanium case with a highly domed sapphire crystal is impressive, but on top of that, Tellurium has added genuine astronomical interest into the equation.

The aventurine dial sets the perfect tone for a glittering galaxy, while on top of that is a tellurion, a simplified orrery, which tracks the relative movements of the sun, Earth and moon — as depicted by three highly polished titanium spheres. The Earth does, in fact, rotate around the dial once per year, while the moon makes a 29.5-day orbit of the Earth. For more day-to-day uses, there are simplified hands and hour markers that wouldn’t look out of place on the Enterprise. The bottom of the dial has a separate aperture for the date and month, all of which adds up to a watch that offers a degree of complication you rarely (if ever) see at this price point.

To preserve the clean lines of the case, the crown sits at 12, a crown which handles all of the adjustments for the complications. The movement, in case you were wondering is a Soprod PO24, with an in-house module of star wheels and teeth on top.

The neatness of this package is only amplified by the two latest editions. Tellurium Black is finished with a glossy black treatment, while the titanium case of the Tellurium Blue lives up to its name in a particularly vivid style. The dial hardware matches the case, creating an even more homogenous and impressively monochromatic vision of horology’s future than even the first version. Both watches are limited to 200 pieces, and are now open to pre-orders via their website.

Tech Specs: SpaceOne Tellurium Black & Blue Titanium

Movement: Automatic-winding Soprod P024 H4; 38-hour power reserve
Functions: Hours and minutes; calendar date and month; heliocentric tellurion
Case: 42mm × 16mm; grade 5 titanium; 30m water-resistance
Dial: Aventurine or black
Strap: Black fabric strap
Price: € 2,990 (excl. taxes)
Availability: Limited to 200 pieces each