The Big Smoke: Meet the Accutron x La Palina Limited Edition Spaceview 2020

There are some watches that humble one’s writing skills, and the Accutron Spaceview is certainly one of them. I could go on and on about its pioneering tuning fork technological history or its current pioneering proprietary Accutron electrostatic energy movement. But at the end of the day, what always really gets me about this collection is its design – no other watch looks like it.

Despite its avant-garde look, the Accutron Spaceview continues to astonish me with how elastic its signature style can be. And the Accutron x La Palina Spaceview 2020 is the perfect example of how the brand continues to grow.

For this new collaboration between Accutron and esteemed cigar makers La Palina, the watchmakers have revisited the original 1960s Spaceview’s open work dial design. The big difference is that this edition has a brown open-work dial, a brown outer ring, and warm yellow secondhand. Moreover, the watch comes on a matching dark-brown genuine alligator strap. However, the Spaceview’s signature green is still present in details such as the light green super-luminous markers and the hour and minute hands.

Overall, the earthy tobacco-inspired palette takes the Spaceview collection in a direction we were not expecting. Still, many watch enthusiasts are also cigar aficionados, so it makes sense for two powerhouse brands to team up.
 

But this marriage of futuristic design with the old school traditions and rituals succeeds on a level that I don’t fully understand (which brings us back to the challenge of finding words to describe it).

I want to say something about how this take on a tobacco dial softens the harder edges of the Spaceview’s case like a curl of smoke wafting off a stogie. Or how, like a good smoke, this collaborative effort engages the senses. Or how wrapping it around the wrist has a sense of ceremony and of luxury. But sadly, I feel like even these descriptions somehow fall short.

The story of the Spaceview, in short, is that when Accutron debuted in 1960, they distributed see-through sales models to show off the revolutionary tuning fork movement. Customers demanded the displays, and the Spaceview was born.
 

Transparency is a big part of the Accutron x La Palina Spaceview 2020 story. The dial, in and of itself, is semi-transparent to show off its proprietary electrostatic Accutron calibre NS30 movement. This movement is powered by twin turbines that rotate as a result of human motion. Once generated, the energy produced is stored in an accumulator, which feeds two motors that are synchronized through integrated circuits to provide accuracy to +/- 5 seconds a month.