New Horological Heights

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New Horological Heights - New Horology
2 minutes read
With technology advancing at speeds that come close to outpacing design, some watch brands like HYT, Hautlence or Manufacture Royale are blending innovation and technical advancements to create timepieces that bring watchmaking to all new heights.

With advances in micro-engineering and technology moving by leaps and bounds, creative thinkers in the watch world are developing timepieces that turn heads, making people stop and do a double take

Among those brands is HYT Watches – an innovative brand that utilizes liquid as the time indication. Entering its third year in business, HYT’s liquid-time-display watches include the H1 Graphite, Titanium, Black DLC Titanium, Black DLC Pink Gold, Pink Gold, TB, Red2 (with red liquid instead of green) and the recently launched H1 Azo project that uses lighter weight material – an ultra-light resin alloy -- to offer a bold, futuristic look with less weight

 

 

The Polyepoxyde resin is seven times lighter than stainless steel and four times lighter than titanium. Still, it is 3 times as resistant to abrasion. The watch mechanics remains the same, with its bellows (like car pistons) that fill with liquid that extends into the veins to indicate the time on demand. The watch offers retrograde fluid hours and is water resistant to 100 meters. The mechanical hand-wound exclusive HYT caliber offers 65 hours of power reserve. It is being built in a limited edition of 25 pieces – each retailing for $65,000. The H2 watch, released earlier this year, features the same concept as the H1 watches, but with the bellows on an angle and a more skeletonized movement—devoid of any true dial

New from the dynamic Hautlence brand, which celebrates its 10th anniversary in 2014, is the round Avant-Garde Retrograde HL RQ – O1, 02 and 03 (the various model numbers representing different materials/colors). This newest HLRQ is part of the Avant-Garde line launched in 2012 as a way to make Hautlence watches more accessible. The watch features a 44mm case offered in steel, steel with black DLC, or in steel and titanium. The sapphire dial offers transparency, depth and dimension. The in-house mechanical hand-wound movement offers jumping hour and retrograde minutes via the Hautlence connecting rods system that has really set this brand apart from others horologically.

 

 

The 255-part movement offers 40 hours of power reserve and features a hand “Cote de Genève” finish. With a two-layer sapphire dial that reveals the in-house made caliber, the watches retail for between $32,100 to $39,400.

Another innovative watch brand, Manufacture Royale, unveils its Androgyne watch – a hand-wound mechanical piece that was produced, decorated and entirely assembled in the Manufacture according to the brand’s strictest standards of technological excellence. The watch house a tourbillon that combines classic and futuristic components for long-term accuracy. Incredibly alluring the Androgyne Fullblack and Rose Gold watch houses the Calibre MR02 movement with 178 components and 17 jewels. It offers 108 hours of power reserve and the tourbillon escape wheel and lever are crafted in high-tech, lubricant-free silicon. The 43mm watch is crafted in black PVD coated stainless steel for futuristic appeal and drama.

 

 

Each of these brands regularly celebrates the world of haute horology with a visionary, almost-futuristic style

Roberta Naas is the founder of atimelyperspective.com.

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