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- [00:00]
A
Foreign.
- [00:06]
B
Watch fans. And welcome back to Chronopolis Radio hosted by TRTS with me Rob Nudds. And I'm joined once again by Guillaume Ladet. This time talking about Space One, another one of his many brands from the most packed and exciting stable of Watch names in the industry. But Space One has to be right near the top when it comes to the excitement it generates amongst the community. I for one am absolutely ecstatic to to see what you've got to show at Chronopolis this year. So tell us guillaume, about space 1. Tell us how it started, tell us how it's going.
- [00:41]
A
Thanks for the invite. Glad to be there again. So, yes, yes, very exciting to this new Space One project because it started with the meeting of Theo Ofre and myself and in fact we have met thanks to Etienne, Etienne Malek, also one of the co organization of the show Chronopolis for the Baltic founder and one of my best friend in the industry. And so that's why it made sense to work on something with Baltic and Space One and the crazy project we are going to show at Geneva, but under embargo and we will release a few weeks after the show. It's a collaboration between Space One and Baltic where we bring the the cool complication side from space one. And you didn't see any 3D before? No, no, no, no. Okay. I'm wearing the very first prototype I'm showing you.
- [01:43]
B
Well, I can see it like it's still under embargo. So I guess it's probably a good thing that we're not showing this video. But it's not what you expect from Space One. So this is really interesting, bringing in another brand. A brand that's obviously been involved tangentially from the start of Space One's journey to bring a different flavor to the watch. What for you collaborating with another brand on something, did it unshackle you from the codes of design that Space1's enjoyed so far?
- [02:10]
A
Yeah, but in fact Space1 are doing very spacey ed design and Baltic is doing very classic romke watch and with very classic and vintage vibes. So it was a totally two different world. So that's why it was making sense to do something. They don't do anything complication like we did with the Tellurium or the World Timer or the Jumping Hour. That's what we are doing with Space One. So I think it was the perfect match also because I met Bateo thanks to Etienne and we are always traveling together to the different watch fairs around the world. So we have strong connection all together. We are doing also the Chronopolis show together and we are almost the Penguin and the Antarctic together. So without the. Without the erotic details. But I mean, it's. I mean, it was a cool project to work because we are all good friends and we have, how do you say, specific point for each brand that can be mixed and make something new all together. It was not possible, for example, to make a collaboration. It's always possible. But to make Nevada Baltic because they are too close in some ways. But Baltic Space one also because both of the Brown or Parisian, very French. So it was also another. Another thing to take into consideration. And all those details make, to be honest. I will show you the. On the. Check your WhatsApp. I will send you the pictures.
- [03:48]
B
Well, I'm getting an exclusive live on air, so I apologize to the listeners for not being able to share this just yet, but tell us. You'll show this piece at Chronopolis, but it won't actually be released. Until when are we talking? May, June?
- [04:01]
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At all? I'm a simple guy. Doing two things in the same time is quite complicated for me, but that's what my girlfriend is telling me. But.
- [04:14]
B
Every episode descends into filth.
- [04:18]
A
If you check your WhatsApp, you will see the.
- [04:20]
B
I've got it in front of me. So this is. This is something that's worth. Worth keeping your eyes peeled for. It is. It's very beautiful. I really. I mean that. And I have been a huge fan of space1 ever since its launch times. I think each model has got progressively better. That's my feeling. I loved the Tellurium because of its ambition, the incredible horology one was able to obtain for that price. But I thought that the GMT was just a real step forward in terms of wearability, daily functionality and fleshing out the aesthetic of the universe. This is not something that I would have been able to identify as a Space one when I first saw it. If it didn't have Baltic and Space One on the dialogue. I wouldn't know where it came from, but I would assume that it came from a much, much, much, much higher price bracket than I'm assuming it does. It's stunning. I won't say anything else because I don't want to blabber about an embargo piece, but if you're going to be in Geneva during Geneva Watch Week and you're going to be in the center of town and you're going to be in the vicinity of Chronopolis, please Come down and see this because this is something you're going to want to get on your wrist. Is it going to be limited?
- [05:28]
A
Yes, it will be limited to a time frame period of pre order. I think it will be like one few days or one week to. To pre order. It will be on a. On the common website between Baltic and. And Space one and. And yes, when you see the price, when you see the. The piece on. On your wrist and on pictures, you think it's like a few 10, 10, 15, 20, 50, 000 and it should be priced at €2,500.
- [05:58]
B
So this is going to be €2,500.
- [06:00]
A
Yeah, exactly.
- [06:02]
B
Good grief.
- [06:03]
A
Yeah.
- [06:04]
B
May I ask if that is somewhat of a gift price to people to say thank you for following the brand? Because, you know, when Studio Underdog and Fierce released their gimlet together in British Watchmakers Day 2025, I think it was, they charged obviously an extremely accessible price just to sort of make a lot of buzz around the event and that model. And it was a huge success and has become an incredibly collectible piece. Is the same thinking applied here or if you just managed to utilise your years of experience and mastery of these complications to bring us a watch at an extremely friendly price and still make a bit of cash yourself?
- [06:44]
A
Yeah, but we definitely do less cash for sure, because we're also sharing the profit with Baltic and SpaceX. But as the complication was already developed because we are reusing one of the complications we have developed on another project. And because also we are managing to develop everything in house, we still manage to do some cash, of course, on this, because we need to make the two brands work and pay the salaries at the end of the month. But yes, it's definitely also one of my goal with Space One is always to be affordable. So it was not making sense to make a €10,000 PCs, especially also because biotech is doing affordable PCs too. So we want it to be definitely below 3,000. It's 2,500 without taxis. So with taxis in Europe it would be just below 3,000. And we didn't want to be more expensive than the Tellurium also, which is our most expensive piece at Space1, but we will do also a version with different decoration, a bit more expensive because there will be a special dialogue finishing with the Charbonnet, which is crazy. And we'll be all doing by hand in house in Paris. And also because we are assembling and doing everything in Paris in our own workshop. So that's also why we can do this pricing because we don't work with third parties to assemble the complication and everything. So this is thanks to the experience of the previous project for sure.
- [08:23]
B
In the previous episode when we talked about Nevada Grenstrom, we were talking about your expanding retail network and obviously financial balancing act that has to be struck there to make sure that you have the right proportion of sales going direct to consumer and otherwise going to businesses. I assume that this Baltic Space 1 collaboration will be direct consumer only.
- [08:44]
A
Yeah, except if some point of sale want to have like 15 or 10% margin and even that not sure we can offer. So it will not fare except very few exceptions maybe. But it's not the plan at first to do that. But yeah, it would be incredibly difficult to give some margin for this project to third parties.
- [09:08]
B
You know, this is a difficult time of year for watch collectors as they await the massive deluge of releases that we can expect to see coming out during Watches and Wonders time to Watches Chronopolis and all the Beaux Revage brands and whatnot. But I would say to anybody that is a fan of independent watchmaking that likes creative collaborations and enjoys the odd complic for under €3,000, keep some of your powder dry until this piece hits the market because it's quite special and I could see it being a sought after classic in years to come. It's very unexpected, extremely unexpected. But maybe I should expect the unexpected whenever I talk to you because Space One has made its name on doing just that, blowing people's minds with every release. Will we see a Space One only release this fair or will there be something coming maybe later in the year? For Geneva watch days?
- [10:00]
A
Yeah, but for Geneva it will be the big talking piece, the one we want to show. And then we are working on a few different projects. For end of the year, we are working on a Mark 2 jumping hour because it was our first release and we are out of stock for a few months here now on these pieces and they are still quite demanding. So the challenge was to do something cool with that. And so we are doing, we do a better version of the jumping era, but with a space designer still to keep the roots of the bronze. And for a few years now I break the balls of Teo with Sonory. So I want a scenery on the watch. So I hope we will be able to show something before the end of the Yandel.
- [10:54]
B
Okay, very good. So still moving forward as a brand that inherently has perceptions tied to space, to the final frontier, as it were. Have you been inspired by the recent launch of Artemis 2 of what, sorry? The rocket that went to the moon.
- [11:14]
A
Ah, yes, yes, yes, I saw that, but I didn't follow very well, to be honest. But that's a cool stuff. But yes, to be honest, I only on radio yesterday, but I didn't check the images yet. But I'm not a watch. I'm a watch nerd for sure. But I'm not a astral nerd and cosmonaut thing. So I think it's cool to go back to the moon, but I will not wake up at night to check that.
- [11:48]
B
To be honest, I was just curious because I mean, you know what the watch industry is like. Whenever there's a moment of great human endeavor and exploration of the deep sea or the high mountains or space itself, then it will no doubt inspire decades of watch homages. But you're not going to go down that route. You're not going to follow the Omega playbook. You're going to stay in Space One's lane.
- [12:12]
A
Not at all. I will not fight with other bronze to put the watch on the wrist and everything, but so no, no, not at all. I think the complication and the watch itself make the noise and I. We don't need this to add something. It could be cool if one of. But we had one cosmonaut I think in Saudi Arabia who bought one of the. Yes, he bought a two Space One, I think, and he wanted to go. When he will go back to the international station, he wanted to bring his Space One on it. So this kind of thing, yes, are cool for sure, but it's not where we are going to run after.
- [12:56]
B
It's very satisfying to hear that and reassuring, I think for customers of space1 to know that you're not effectively going to sell out and cash in on low hanging fruit, which to be fair, it kind of is because it's super cool when an astronaut chooses their own watch to take into space, like they decide that's the one they want to wear. Yeah, that's the true marketing goal. You know, you saw like I think it was Henson had the. I think it was an old ish x33 Omega Speedmaster, which is, you know, a pretty ugly but kind of brutalistically beautiful take on the Speedmaster that's really, really good for that kind of mission. That means something to me. It's much more exciting than someone just saying, oh, this is a watch inspired by this adventure. But what it does suggest to me is that despite the wild creativity we've seen in the first Three mono brand releases from space. One that you have yet more ideas in your back pocket on where to take this brand, not just in September, not just next year, but far, far beyond. Talk to us about that long term planning when you've set such a high bar for yourself straight out the gate.
- [14:06]
A
My main issue is I have too much ideas of new projects. And then you need to choose between them, because if it was myself, I would bring new projects every week, every month. So we have a ton of IDE for space one but as I said, one with the sound to me to do some orbital sound or some sound from the space for something cool like this would make sense. Then also because I'm working with a genius in the industry with Teo, we're able to develop new complications overnight. So that's also the big, big added value of the project is that we can do that in house. And when I bring some ideas first you say, well, you are completely dumb. It will never work. Stop with this. It's like that. It's a ping pong. And then I said, no, no, no, we have to do that, we have to do that. So for example, for the tellurium, I broke his balls for four months with I want planet on the dial. I want planet on the dial. I like some global forset design. And he said, no, it's too expensive, it will never work. And no, no, no. And then he had the idea in the in the office watching a tellurium made by one of his coworker. We did that for end of today project. So. And then he said, why not me neutralize the tellurium? And then I saw his eyes clicked. And for the Sonori it was the same thing for two years. I broke his balls. I want a Sonori. I want a Sonori. Each time I went to the workshop, I said to the guys, I want a Sonori. And they stop, stop, stop. And then we had some cool launch with all the teams and interns and guys working in other brands and one made one idea and then I saw it click in intel and said, ah, this is not dumb. Maybe we have something. And then I know he was already processing and at night. And then two days after he was showing me some sketches of the ID and this we could make it. And then I said, okay, it's win and we can make it. And then I push him to do that. But he has also a lot of other projects his brand offret is doing crazy. I mean he has like three to five years of waiting list. People are queuing to get his crazy insane piece at €100,000. So. And I have Nevada also. So this is the fun part, is that we join, we see each other. We see us together like one or two times a month in Paris, in the office, but we are always connected by WhatsApp or phone. But when we see each other, it's always the ping pong to what we are going to do next. And that's how we came with the Baltic. I said, we need to do some collaboration with Baltic because it makes sense. And then I said, okay, right away. So sometimes the ping pong is quite easier. Then we had a cool WhatsApp group between all the guys from Baltic and us and the designer of Baltic and Theo and Etienne and myself, we are doing the ping pong for the design and everything. But it went very smoothly and naturally. And then the piece I have on the wrist right now is insane, to be honest.
- [17:30]
B
It's a magnificent partnership and exceedingly rare, I would say, in the industry. The closest corollary I can think of when I hear you describe the design process and the back and forth between you and Teo is probably Martin and Felix from Urwerk. You being visioned and him being the executor of those visions. It's something that will no doubt just continue to build your own legacy. Now, I know you're not that egoistic professionally, obviously, privately, you're a nightmare. But I do wonder if you've ever toyed with the idea of putting your name on a dial yourself, because, I mean, firstly, you're in Theo's surnames sort of rhyme, they sound quite, quite nice together. Ever thought about stepping up to like an extremely high level yourself and bathing in the glory you've established for your name?
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A
In fact, I was going to tell you, no, it's not possible. But my first project in the watchmaking industry, my first Kickstarter was a brand named William L1985. I made like €200,000 on Kickstarter in a few weeks to start the project. And in fact, William L is Guillaume in English. Guillaume in English is William l is the first letter of my family name and 1985 is my birth date. So I already did it, but it was very cheap watch, just like me at 99 Euro and between 99 to 150. But yeah, but we made quite a significant amount of watches in the end with this brand. And it was my MBA in the, in the watch industry after my years at J and Zenith, and so I did it already. But I will not do a beaver style watch. Very, very expensive with my mist. No, it's not. It's not my DNA. Not yet. Maybe I will tell you, no, I will not do that. I think with Space One and Nevada and also Vulcan, they have strong name and I'm not that egoistic guy to be to do that.
- [19:41]
B
Interesting. I still think that it's something that your following might enjoy in 20 or 30 years time when we're old men hunched over pints in the Grand Duke talking about a lovely career in watchmaking. I don't know, don't rule it out entirely. I remember William L. We've talked about it in the past. I never had the pleasure of owning one of those pieces. But I think, to be honest, what I'm mostly focused on now from your current output is either some of the incredible work you're doing with Nevada. I particularly like the recent hard stone dial you did. Was it Chronolite? What was the name of that material?
- [20:22]
A
Coralite Krisokol.
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B
Yeah, that's the one.
- [20:27]
A
The one we did with our German retailers, Chronofactum.
- [20:32]
B
Yeah, exactly. That was gorgeous. And I'm a huge fan of Space1. Space1 for me has always been the thing of yours. One of your many projects that just took me by surprise. It really did take my breath away. Every subsequent release has excited me and I really, really advocate anybody that's in Geneva this week, listen to Chronopolis Radio to get down to the Chronopolis event space and check out Space One in person. You will be surprised at the wearability of all of those watches. If you've only seen them online, you have to hold them in hand. They are extremely ergonomic, they're very forgiving on the wrist and they do look like nothing else, which is something a lot of people but very few can truly mean. Guillaume, thank you again for your time. Thank you for being an absolute dynamo in the industry and always bringing us stuff to get excited about and smile about and chat about. And you are an absolute gift to watchmaking and a great person to be around. So thanks again. I'll see you later on in Chronopolis for the happy hour.
- [21:32]
A
Of course. Always happy hour and happy to end the party with you.
- [21:39]
B
It.