Romaric André isn’t your typical watch designer—he’s a self-proclaimed misfit who turned a love for Swatches and vintage oddities into a cult marque that’s shaking up the horology world. Imagine mixing highend watchmaking with the cheekiness of a pop-culture prankster, and you get seconde/ seconde/. Before his days of swapping Rolex hands for pixelated mouse cursors, Romaric was crunching numbers as a financial auditor. It didn’t take long for him to realise that the sterile world of finance wasn’t his vibe.

His next gig? Celsius—a brand fusing luxury watches with mobile phones. Yes, tourbillon flip phones were a thing in the late ’00s and Romaric soaked in the madness, peripherally honing his passion for timepieces. He began with small tweaks to vintage watches, injecting them with a playful dose of irony. Today, his work is a delightful middle finger to the traditionalists, taking iconic pieces and twisting them with elements of pop culture and nostalgia. Think floppy disks, cassette tapes, and even the Legend of Zelda sword making cameo appearances on some of the most revered dials in watchmaking history. Romaric’s magic lies in balancing the serious craftsmanship of watchmaking with his own brand of humour. But don’t mistake his fun-loving tweaks for mere gimmicks. Each design is a thought-provoking commentary on the industry’s rigid traditions and our collective attachment to ‘serious’ luxury.

With seconde/seconde/, Romaric has built a bridge between the elite world of horology and everyday cultural references. He’s not here to dismantle tradition but to nudge it, ever so cheekily, reminding us all that even in a world of mechanical precision, there’s room for a bit of chaos. From his inspirations to his process, we peeled back the layers of seconde/seconde/ and uncovered what drives Romaric to keep twisting the dial on watchmaking convention. Excerpts:

What inspires you to bring 'forgotten' objects like cassette tapes or floppy disks into the world of luxury watches? 

Evoking vintage objects is an efficient trick. Vintage objects have always an instant charming look...they have this ultimate elegance because they have been at the top, but they cannot be bragging anymore, not flexing anymore, so they are like classy old and quiet champions. They also evoke ambivalence; the sweet memories and nostalgia of a lost time, but also, the always worrying notion that we all can be replaced really fast.

What’s your process for deciding which elements of pop culture or everyday objects to transform into watch elements? 

I don’t know if I can define a process. My approach is usually quite empirical. I’m not specifically looking to tie pop culture. I basically enjoy ‘twisting’ things. I like to contradict things. So, I try to deconstruct and rebuild another narrative. I’m not saying nor pretending I have a better narrative… I just like to show that, even when something sounds or looks ‘solid’, you can twist and bring a counter-perspective... which is something sometimes frightening, because you end up wondering what to believe if everything can be ‘twisted’ and contradicted.

Could you walk me through how your development process works—from perhaps meetings with a brand to actually designing and executing your ideas? 

This is different every single time. Sometimes I meet a CEO and the discussion starts. Sometimes I have an idea that I want to proactively propose to a brand. Sometimes I have 3 ideas in a few days. Sometimes I have nothing relevant after weeks of brainstorming. You never know at the beginning which sometimes results in frustrations and dead ends… but also results in great satisfaction when you feel you are ‘onto something’. Then when both the brand and I have the feeling and we want to go further on an idea, the usual next steps are designing it and defining the ‘why’ of the collab.

What's the wildest idea a customer, associate or friend has pitched to you? 

I’m not really triggered nor impressed by wild ideas. Wild ideas bear no constraints and, because of that, are quite easy to come up with. You just let your imagination go. I’m usually more impressed and passionate about ideas that glow and find their way through a space filled with constraints.

What role do you think humour plays in the world of high-end horology? 

Watches are the fruit of craftsmanship, dedication, delicate work, and so on. That explains why they are so highly considered. They have a special place amongst accessories; they are living on some sort of pedestal. They are not common goods. They are on another level, almost ‘above,’ so they are the perfect targets for sweet little satire. Like kings and queens needed their buffoons, right? I’m not saying, “watches should be more fun”. I’m actually saying, “watches should remain those untouchable icons,” so I can keep applying my iconoclastic filter on some of them. But humour is also for me a double-edged sword. It is a superpower for sure. As Romain Gary said, it is “an affirmation of dignity, a declaration of man's superiority to all that befalls him" ...so I’ve been using humour repeatedly in my life when I was falling short. But using humour consistently tends to normalise everything and may lose its own ‘surprise effect’ when overused. I don’t want humour to become something systematic in my work, I guess.

What's your dream watch, if any, and what does your personal collection look like? 

The question of the dream watch has never really been a question to me. If we resume the watch as its ‘tool’ function, then yes, you can answer what would be the perfect tool. But I tend to consider watches as ‘colours’ or ‘notes’ that need to be surrounded by other colours or other notes. I see watches as being part of a bigger group, part of a watch-pack. So, the question would then become, what’s the dream collection? Then I would definitely answer a blend, a mix of elegant watches, complicated watches, simple watches, fragile watches, tough watches, fun watches, eccentric watches, boring-yet-essential watches, historically important and so on. Basically, a collection so diverse that it shows how ‘the ultimate dream watch' does not exist.

Where do you see independent watch design evolving, and are there untapped elements of horology you’d still like to explore? 

Really good question. And a tough one. I don’t really have any ideas. It sometimes feels everything has been designed, said, showed, expressed, discovered. And then, every now and then, you see someone, or some brand, proposing a new way of mixing elements between story-telling, design, mechanical complications, horology, art, entertainment...horology is of course strongly rooted in its heritage, but as an art form, horology needs to morph and constantly adapt so…exploration needs to happen. Will I be part of this exploration? I hope so. But I don’t have the clear map yet.

What’s next for you?

I’ll hope to repeat myself. That’s how you try to leave a small mark. I also hope to do work totally outside of the watch world to prove to myself that I’m not a one-trick pony.