BY HARLAN CHAPMAN-GREEN
HYT is known as the hydro-mechanical watch company as it’s always been fascinated with using fluids to tell the time. Truth be told, this company has been through the wringer as of late and folded entirely in 2022 just ten years after its launch. The brand was resurrected by Kairos Technology Switzerland (KTS) SA, no, we’d never heard of them either, but they placed Davide Cerrato in charge. Cerrato has previously worked at Panerai, Tudor, and Montblanc and is currently heading up Bremont, although we’ll leave that up to you as to whether that particular venture is going well.
It seems that HYT’s return is going well. This new piece is one of the most complex pieces the brand has ever made. It features a conical tourbillon at its centre, which was developed by HYT’s master watchmaker, Eric Coudray. For this movement, a tourbillon was placed at the centre; the spring balance was then inclined at 30 degrees, the pallet at 23 degrees and the escape wheel at 15 degrees. The main tourbillon cage, I guess we can call it, performs one rotation every 30 seconds and is accentuated by three white agate gemstones, which, along with their counterweights, move around the dial in what HYT calls a “chaotic animation”. Honestly, describing this in writing is really hard; there are some videos of these watches out there, and I recommend watching one.
The tourbillon cage sits within another mechanism that rotates the arrow pointer around, indicating the minutes. Meanwhile, the hours are indicated by the progression of fluid through a fine capillary, which is traditionally how HYT watches measure the passing of time.
The mechanism that provides all of this can be seen through the open caseback. The hand-made and hand-finished calibre 701-TC has 533 individual components, a 3Hz beat rate, and a 40-hour power reserve. Of course, the most distinctive feature of the movement is the pair of blackened bellows which work to move the liquid through the capillary around the dial. They’re also part of the reason why this watch has a short power reserve, along with all the tourbillon stuff these bellows demand a lot of power, but they’re so cool it’s worth it.
Another reason this watch is unconventional, that is to say impractical, is its size. Fitting all of that in is tricky, and so the case measures a whopping 48.00mm x 52.30mm x 25.15mm. It is made of titanium and white ceramic-coated titanium with blackened titanium inserts. But it’s still not an everyday piece. It’s also pricey at CHF335,000 before taxes and limited to just eight examples worldwide. I also expect they’ve sold out by now, and if that is the case, then I apologise as I’ve completely wasted your time.
