Say hello to HYT’s new H5; a watch combining science and tradtional watchmaking.
HYT is one of those watch brands you might not have heard of. It was founded in 2012 and it’s all about ‘Swiss Luxury Hydro Mechanical Watches’. It’s as complicated in function as it is to say.
To put HYT watches ‘VERY’ simply, they use a round glass capillary filled with two liquids, one coloured and one transparent. One liquid is water based and the other is oil based so that they can never mix. These liquids are squeezed around the round tubing via a pair of bellows in the movement. The dial then has a 3D sapphire doming with number indications around the outer edge of the watch, where the end of the coloured liquid falls is the current time.
All in all, HYT watches are incredibly complex and use a technique to tell the time never before seen. Now however the brand has opted to introduce some more traditional aspects into its new collection; the HYT H5.
Three years in the making, the new in-house 501 caliber uses traditional horological techniques to provide energy to the bellows which pump the time-indicating fluid around.
The watch is hand-wound and entirely mechanical, as you wind up the watch, a steady supply of energy is provided to an interconnected cam, as this cam loses its energy, it goes through 13 different positions before resetting to its original position. As the cam moves back, it applies pressure to the bellows which power the movement of the liquids to tell the time.
This impressive movement can be admired in full via the exposed crystal display back, showing the entire process take place. The layered mechanical movement also has components to provide power to a small seconds dial and a power reserve indicator.
The hours and minutes can be viewed around the edge of the hefty 48.8 watch, with numerals edged into the dial itself. The watch itself is skeletonised, showing in the centre the exposed bellows and the small seconds at what would be the usual 12 o’clock position.
The H5 comes with a 65-hour power reserve and has two editions, a black liquid variant with a black rubber strap and a green liquid version with a grey rubber strap. The watches are just 25 pieces each and have a price of around US $55,000.
