No products in the cart.
I discovered him in 2024, when, as editor-in-chief of the now-defunct watch magazine Sixty, I was preparing a feature on the Tellurium by SpaceOne—a model with an otherworldly design. The man behind it was named Olivier Gamiette, and as far as I could tell, he had no ties to the world of watchmaking. His primary profession? Car designer for Peugeot. Digging a little deeper, I found him on social media—and realized that the eccentrically futuristic aesthetic that had impressed me in the SpaceOne Tellurium wasn’t an outlier. It was the rule. Gamiette had already published a book—SOON Timepiece Phenomena—a visual anthology of fantastical watches that looked like they belonged in a sci-fi movie. I reached out to him, curious to learn his story. He was surprised at first, but eventually agreed to speak with me.
The encounter with design
When I asked him how he began his journey as a designer, he didn’t beat around the bush: “I realized, quite late, that design is a profession.” At the time, he was studying engineering, and happened to watch a documentary about Franco Sbarro—a famed Swiss car designer. That was it. The spark was lit, and Olivier never looked back. He began sketching cars obsessively, with passion. Eventually, his dual identity—as both an engineer and a self-taught designer—allowed him to join Peugeot’s world-renowned automotive design studio in Paris, where he now works on the vehicles of the future.
And the watches?
They came along by chance. In 2012, Peugeot was preparing to unveil the Onyx, a concept car with a strikingly futuristic shape. Gamiette thought it might be fitting to accompany it with an object that embodied the same design spirit. That’s when the idea hit: a watch to be read from the side of the wrist—just like the rear of the Onyx. A driver’s watch. To his surprise, he discovered that such watches had already existed in the 1970s. The most notable example: the Amida Digitrend. And that was the “click.”
“It was like an electric jolt,” he told me with excitement. “In that moment, I realized I had stepped into a universe that encompassed everything I’ve loved since childhood: gears, design, geometry, imagination, engineering—the sense that you can tell stories through objects. I knew I had to continue.”
Listening to him, it becomes clear: Gamiette isn’t simply a designer who “experimented with watches.” He’s someone who seems to live simultaneously in two dimensions: the large-scale world of cars and the miniature, fragile realm of watches. Both domains have their constraints—and their own particular magic.
“My job spans both production cars and prototypes, like the EX1,” he explained. “I’m part of the team that defines every aspect of the exterior design for projects slated to launch in the next four to ten years.”
What pushed him to design watches?
Because he’s not a watchmaker and hasn’t been molded by the traditions of horology, he brings a fresh and different perspective. He isn’t bound by convention and feels freer to challenge unwritten rules. “To me, everything is possible,” he insists. “The only limits are simplicity, feasibility, and ergonomics. The engineer and the designer in me work together to develop new, realistic ideas for watches. I love things that are spectacular, cleverly designed, and expressive. It doesn’t take much to set my imagination in motion and launch me into a creative journey. Even though my creations appear futuristic, I’m not actually a big fan of science fiction. I think I’ve only seen one Star Wars movie—maybe two at most.”
It’s a matter of scale
Cars are large objects. Watches are tiny. So I asked if scale presented a problem—or a delightful challenge. “A watch is roughly 120 times smaller than a car,” he explained. “There’s definitely a mental shift required when switching from one to the other. But adapting is always a creative opportunity. Letting go of familiar references opens the door to new paths and perspectives. Because of their size and construction, watches don’t allow for excess—whereas cars can sometimes afford visual overload.”
And when he starts designing a watch?
He doesn’t turn to complex software or digital tools. Just pencil and paper. “A pencil is the only tool that can capture my ideas spontaneously,” he said. “I do a lot of freehand exploration, letting ideas simmer in order to feed my imagination. Even at the sketch stage, I can already envision the final object. I don’t need color rendering, 3D modeling, or realistic visualization to bring it to life in my mind. I don’t need a 3D model to imagine it.”
Naturally, the differences between cars and watches are substantial. “A car’s bodywork is painted in a straightforward manner, whereas a watch allows for various surface finishes—brushed, polished, satin—which add rhythm and luxury,” he noted. “This difference has to be considered from the initial design phase. Both fields come with strict constraints that significantly affect the feasibility of a concept. Do we start with an existing movement, or do we develop one specifically for the watch? Is the movement visible through the crystal? If so, the finishing of the components must be taken into account.”
When SOON was released, he didn’t expect it to attract so much attention. Many saw it as a bold move, a treasure chest of ideas laid bare to the public. But that wasn’t his mindset.
“I had long felt the urge to write a book that would share my creative universe,” he admitted. “My initial idea was to publish a series of ‘car’ designs that were quirky or purely imaginary. But as a professional car designer, I realized such a book might create friction with my employer—and also ignite the imagination of the competition.”
Α fearless naiveté?
His relationship with watch design, though, was something else entirely. Uninhibited imagination and a certain fearless naiveté—born from not being trained in the codes of horology—allowed him to approach the subject with fresh eyes. “The designs I explored were refreshingly unique and fun,” he explained. “Thrilled by the process, I gathered a number of ideas, which ultimately inspired me to assemble them into a collection.” He had no idea his concepts were so distinctive. “I just wanted to share my world,” he said. And that’s exactly what he did.
Since his watches sit completely outside the traditional framework of Swiss watchmaking, I had to ask: how close are his concepts to actual production? It turns out, they’re not that far off. “As an engineer, I never start from zero when envisioning an idea,” he told me. “I don’t create art for art’s sake. My aim is always to design watches that are both reliable and feasible. I still have a lot to learn, but the goal remains to develop credible mechanical concepts.”
Thousands of designs
And once he began, there was no stopping. For the past twelve years, he’s been designing around thirty watches per week. Do the math—that’s more than 18,000 designs! A veritable treasure trove. And among them, some are beginning to take shape. Like the Tellurium—a miniature solar system for the wrist, designed for SpaceOne. The collaboration was born on Instagram and quickly turned serious. So serious, in fact, that the watch became a finalist in the “Challenge” category at the Grand Prix d’Horlogerie de Genève in 2024.
How did it come about? “The brand’s founder, Théo Auffret, discovered my work on Instagram,” he said. “He reached out to me and introduced me to Guillaume Laidet, his partner in the SpaceOne project. They asked me to design their second watch. They envisioned a miniature tellurium you could wear on your wrist. I proposed an elegant, minimalist capsule to house this cosmic carousel.”
What does he hope for?
To one day create an object—perhaps a watch, perhaps not—that changes the way we think about design. Something that inspires, that is timeless, that transcends its era. Not necessarily for collectors, or just for innovation lovers—but for everyone who sees design as a bridge between imagination and reality.
And somewhere between a concept car and a watch that looks like it came from another planet, Olivier Gamiette continues to design and dream—shaping his own beautiful universe. With a pencil. And a whole lot of imagination.
Μπορείτε να διαβάσετε ολόκληρη τη συνέντευξη αυτή στο tovima.gr.
