When I previewed the new watch brand HYT just yesterday, I did not know that the brand’s first official watch release, the H1, was right around the corner.  So consider my timing fortuitous — because here is the new HYT H1, and it is a pretty damn cool looking watch.   But even greater, HYT represents a new concept in watchmaking — HYT stands for “Hydro Mechanical Horologists” and the brand will be dedicated to producing watches that not only contain liquid in them but use the liquid  for a functional purpose.  HYT claims seven pending patents for various aspects of the H1, further underscoring the new ground that HYT CEO Vincent Perriard is breaking with this watch.

The HYT H1 watch will be made in 3 case styles — titanium, black DLC-coated titanium, and red gold.  It is a very case size — 48mm x 18mm thick — but the minimalist, tapered bezel may help it wear smaller than that (we’ll see).  Of course the most notable aspect of the watch is the luminescent greenish-yellow liquid ring you see around the dial.  The H1 uses the liquid to display the hours on a circular tube around the edge of the dial (must watch the video below for a good look at the watch in motion).  The two piston looking devices you see on the bottom of the dial are used to push and pull the liquid to show the time on the scale.   The minutes are displayed on the medium-sized sub dial set near the center-top watch, with a cool paddle-wheel style seconds hand to the left.  On the right you can see there is also a power reserve indicator (65 hours) for the manual-wind mechanical movement. Even though this is a new concept in watchmaking, the watch design itself is not too far “out there” — which is a good thing.  The HYT H1 watch price is $45,000 for the titanium model (the titanium DLC and red gold models with be meaningfully higher).   Check it out!

HYT H1 Watch

48mm titanium case (17.9mm thick) (DLC-titanium and red gold also available), manual-wind mechanical exclusive HYT calibre (28,800 vph, 4 Hz, 35 jewels, bridges hand-chamfered and adorned with Côtes de Genève, rhodiumed bellows, 65-hour power reserve)

HYT H1 VIDEO

Dial close up:

Red gold and Black DLC-coated Titanium cases:

Movement

note the 2 liquid/hydraulic pistons