By Osheen Arakelian
The brand’s new creation explores a style unveiled by the H1 Dracula DLC and developed by the SKULL. Its name: the H4 Gotham. With the new HYT exclusive calibre, the H4 Gotham represents the new generation of HYT skeleton watches.
After all the talk and hype surrounding the HYT H3 at Baselworld 2015, HYT are back again, this time with the release of the H4 Gotham that has a number of new features and innovations for HYT. Designed and engineered to be more sporty and more technical, the H4 Gotham combines the best that this young Manufacture has to offer. Beginning with what we usually do, the case holding this bad boy together. For the first time ever, the new H4 Gotham uses a case made entirely of the ridiculously rigid material known as 3DTP carbon. It measures in at a hefty 51mm in diameter and has a rubber sheathed screw-down DLC titanium crown and a convex sapphire crystal with anti-reflective coating on both dial side and caseback side. The use of sapphire crystals on either side provides a beautiful play on lights when seen in various angles and times of the day thanks for the skeletonization. However, it also features a chromium plated finish on the underbelly of the timepiece around the sapphire crystal, giving the piece a mirror like effect. Dial side has a reimagined bezel whereby the indexes have been engrave into the wide bezel providing maximum legibility.
While the case is beautiful and executed with the same level of care and precision that comes with all HYT timepieces, it’s what sleeps within that is the big talking point here. The dial and movement have been completely reimagined and provide a new direction for HYT in terms of design and aesthetics. The first most noticeable difference is the skeletonization of the timepiece. To achieve this, HYT has had to work on both segments of the calibre, these being the upper and lower segments. In the upper segment, you will find a large part of the movement, comprising a lot of the components that have been openworked with the big reduction coming from the elimination of the dial.
The entire gear train is now visible as well as parts of the barrel mechanism. The lower segment of the calibre meanwhile houses the iconic bellows (also known as the pistons) made famous by HYT. Their positioning and vertical architecture remains mostly unchanged, however, the cage housing them has been completely reworked. It now has an entirely visible two barrel mechanism in full view of anyone in the vicinity thanks to the skeletonization of the dial from 4 o’clock to 8 o’clock. The dial itself has been positioned off-centre and is located closer to 12 o’clock and is finished with black arabic numerals for the minute counter with a small seconds wheel located at 9 o’clock and a power reserve indicator positioned on the opposite side at roughly 2 o’clock. The dial has been finished off with the use of a red capillary and marks the progress of the hours with a retrograde display, a signature feature of HYT. The red contrasts nicely with the black and silver of the watch and really makes legibility as clear as possible.
The movement has also been detailed with hand-bevelled bridges decorated with Côtes de Genève for a bit of extra sex appeal from when viewing the movement from underneath through the crystal caseback. The entire piece is finished off with a black rubber base strap with integrated NOMEX fabric centre and black DLC titanium in keeping with the overall theme of the H4 Gotham.
Another beautiful and technical innovation from the folks at HYT and one that really shows off the skill and engineering that goes into each new timepiece.
For more info, please visit hytwatches.com
OSHEEN ARAKELIAN – CONTRIBUTING EDITOR
Drawing on a lifelong love of horology and a more recent introduction to appreciation of fine whisky, Osheen brought the two together with watch & whisky. He is proprietor of the site, which covers everything related to watches and whisky. In between completing a degree in commercial law and supporting a rich social life, he is out and about attending all the latest watch and whisky events Sydney has to offer. His passion has also taken him around Australia attending a number of events and he hopes to continue his career in the watch industry on a more serious level after he graduates. Read his articles here.
