HYT has an astonishing ability to reinvent itself. While focusing on a concept that is relatively easy to grasp (using liquids to tell the time), the company has succeeded in reinventing itself each year, and sometimes several times each year, because HYT now exhibits at both the SIHH and Baselworld.
Night time : H1 Ghost
HYT’s expert fluid technicians unveil two models at Baselworld. The first, the H1 Ghost, capitalises on the new black liquid perfected by the company wizards, which made its début on the recent Skull Bad Boy. The effect is arresting: it marks the very first time HYT has used a totally opaque liquid. Given that it doesn’t reflect any light – not even the faintest glimmer – you would be forgiven for thinking that the Ghost is useless in the dark.
To counter this, HYT could have deployed its mechanical micro-dynamo, which we glimpsed in Geneva on the recent Metropolis. This ingenious additional module could have illuminated the Ghost’s dial with an LED, thus displaying the time at any hour of the night. But perhaps that was too obvious for HYT. They have instead chosen to use another system, a slightly eccentric solution we haven’t seen before. To sum up briefly, SuperLumiNova has been applied underneath the capillary, which is consequently backlit at night time. The result of this ingenious trick is that the watch doesn’t actually tell the time, it tells the time remaining until 6 o’clock, when the liquid begins to move backwards.
Displaying the remaining time rather than elapsed time might seem confusing, but in fact, as HYT CEO Vincent Perriard explains, we use this method more than we might think. “This way of telling the time is embedded in the modern collective unconscious. When you’re downloading a file, for example, your eye spontaneously focuses on the time remaining, not the minutes or hours that have elapsed. On the H1 Ghost, the time remaining until 6 o’clock is significant. Whether it’s 6 in the evening or 6 in the morning, it is the time left before the start of a new day... or the start of the evening.”
The finish of the Ghost leaves its wearer in no doubt of its allegiance to the Dark Side. With its black DLC titanium case, black strap, black rider, black crown and black movement, the shadowy Ghost belongs to the night. Just 50 of these timepieces will be made.
Day time : H1 Full Gold
The H1 Full Gold is the polar opposite of the Ghost. This new model, also in a limited edition of 50, magnifies every angle, every curve and every facet of the sculptural H1. Could this mark a new classic-chic phase in HYT’s portfolio, following on from the H2 Tradition? “Not at all!” smiles Vincent Perriard, HYT CEO. “The Full Gold variation remains a pure H1. Its technical and aesthetic canons remain unchanged inside its new costume of light.”
Despite its gold case, as well as lugs, bezel, crown and even its dial, the H1 Full Gold nevertheless retains one major feature in common with the Ghost: the black fluid. Like its darker brother, during the day the timepiece uses the opaque liquid to indicate the time, and at night its translucent capillary is illuminated with SuperLumiNova. Guaranteed to shine, both day and night!
