The HYT H0 was the first pure expression of HYT’s philosophy and design under the leadership of CEO Grégory Dourde and designer François Nunez. It aimed to highlight what HYT stood for, taking a less testosterone-fuelled, mechanical-driven approach in favour of more organic lines and a more fluid design that shows what HYT is all about with its unique way of displaying the hours. The two bellows were still visible as the key elements moving the two immiscible liquids around the tiny capillary, but all other mechanical components were hidden. The case was completely revised to achieve the look of a pebble that many watchmakers like to use as an analogy for smoothness, but few with so much success as HYT, since a pebble has been smoothed over millennia by the primeval force of water – a liquid.
Having successfully set out their stall, the creative and philosophical minds at HYT are now ready to show us how their design will evolve. After the H0 comes, rather logically, the H1.0. The case shape remains the same but the designers were less constrained by the minimalism of the H0. The dial is opened up with a series of flourishes that, rather than just showing off elements of the movement (which, in point of fact, they don’t), add a certain value to the construction of the watch. We see a welcome return, for example, of the continuously rotating wheel at 10 o’clock to show the inexorable passage of the seconds without any graduations. And at 2 o’clock the power reserve scale has a more classic design of a stick hand read against a sectorial scale, even if that scale is in bright green and the hand seems to float in midair. The subsidiary minute dial at 12 o’clock has been enlarged and opened up, with the skeletonized hand read off against a three-dimensional ring. But the most prominent – and arguably most pleasing – detail is the work that has gone into the surrounds for the two bellows, with two domes giving the impression of a car’s engine that has been sliced open. There are no carefully bevelled and polished edges here, just the impression of raw mechanics. Two openings either side of the bellows, filled with what looks like wire mesh, only serve to accentuate this impression, as do the two studs fixing the equally raw bridges for the power reserve scale and the seconds.
The lines of the three-dimensional case have also been reworked, with grooves added to the flanks and the hour numerals barely discernible as shadows beneath them. The look is perhaps its most aggressive with the black DLC case and the green fluid, which is closest to the very-first HYT models. But a case with an anthracite DLC coating paired with red fluid and a brushed stainless-steel case (it’s quite rare for HYT not to apply a coating to a non-precious metal) and blue fluid prove once again just how versatile these HYT designs can be.
The movement powering the HYT H1.0 needs little introduction. It is the same proprietary hand-wound calibre used in all the models with upright bellows that offers a power reserve of 65 hours. An isostatic connection links this mechanical movement to the multi-layer bellows containing the two immiscible fluids that are pushed in both directions through the borosilicate glass capillary tube with its special interior nano coating. High-tech ceramic fluid restrictors ensure that this occurs at just the right speed to show the time accurately, while separate bellows within one of the two bigger bellows contain a special liquid that expands and contracts in reaction to minute temperature changes, ensuring that the movement works perfectly whatever the weather.
