Baselworld 2014: HYT H2 Tells Time with Blue Fluid


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Last year HYT launched the H2, the brand’s latest in hydro-mechanical timepiece. This year we’re treated to new aesthetic enhancements, including a striking new model with blue blood in its veins. For the uninitiated, HYT uses fluids and complex micro-mechanical control systems to tell time in an entirely unique way. Let’s dive in.

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The hours are presented in the traditional way, with a single hand, regulator-style. The fun begins with the minutes, which are indicated by the point where brightly colored fluid meets clear fluid inside a thin, curved glass tube. The system of gears and wheels that turn the hands in a normal watch also operate a pair of bellows in HYT’s watches, moving the fluid in the tube. This causes the point where the clear and colored liquids meet to move, and the line between them marks the minutes.

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One of the most challenging aspects of HTYT’s design is finding clear and colored liquids that will never mix. Each watch with different color liquids uses different chemical formulas. It is not as simple as oil and water with coloring added. Indeed the brand has spent as much as two years developing individual formulas.

This new model, with white gold case, will retail for $160,000. Find the complete technical specifications below.

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Technical Data

Case

– Diameter: 48.8 mm  
– Height: 17.9 mm
– Screw-down dynamometric crown sheathed in rubber
– Protected crown
– Screwed lugs
– Titanium dome at 6 o’clock
– Domed sapphire crystal (box) with anti-reflection coating
– Screwed sapphire back
– Water-resistant to 50 meters

Functions:

– Retrograde fluidic hours
– Minutes with jumping hand (« dephaseur angulaire » at 30 minutes )
– Crown position indicator (H-N-R)
– Temperature indicator

Movement:

Mechanical with manual winding, exclusive HYT caliber

– 21,600 vib/h, 3 Hz, 28 jewels
– 192-hour (8-day) power reserve

Dial:

-Sapphire minute dial  

 

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  1. The HYT H2 watch.
    I agree it’s novel and certainly a demonstration of manufacturing excellence.
    But in essence the result is a complicated way to indicate time in a casing of precious metal the size of Big Ben. Maybe that’s the point.
    I would buy it though, if I had the money, but never wear it.

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