It is very refreshing to see from time to time a watch that operates using a completely new system and a new way of displaying time. HYT pioneered the use of displaying the hours with coloured fluid in a capillary tube, pumped around by a pair of bellows, in their H1 and H2 watches. H3, which will be presented at Baselworld, adds another unusual touch, with a linear capillary that shows the hours against a scale that rotates every six hours, and a minute hand that slides against another linear scale.
The two bellows are now in a linear arrangement, one at each end of the capillary tube, which contains two immiscible liquids, the water-based yellow-green fluid and another transparent viscous fluid. What is radically new in this watch is the scale, a square-section rod on which each face is marked with a scale of six hours. At the end of each six-hour period, the rod rotates through 90 degrees and the fluid flows back to the start of the scale. The minutes are shown by a twin articulated arm ending in a white marker that slides along another scale on a transparent sapphire bridge. This is also retrograde, so the indicator slides back to zero at the start of every hour.
Time-setting requires two adjustments, with a pusher on the left of the case that turns the hour display bar by 90° to reveal the next set of six hours, and the crown that allows the exact hour and minutes to be set. The crown has three possible positions, Neutral, Time-setting and Winding (N, H, R in French), and the position is shown by an indicator on the front- The movement was designed by HYT in collaboration with APRP, Audemars Piguet Renaud & Papi, the watch design thinktank responsible for many ground-breaking watch concepts such as the Richard Mille Tourbillon Fleur and the 4N Sapphire Planet.
The case is 62 x 41 mm, 16 mm high, with a domed sapphire crystal providing a good view of the components. The watch has a movement with two manually-wound barrels, providing a 170-hour power reserve, about seven days. The power reserve indicator is on the back of the watch. The piece in grey PVD-coated titanium and platinum will be made in a limited series of 25, available from September 2015. Reference 361-TP-01-GF-AG. Price of the HYT H3, US$ 290,000 / CHF 280.000 / €280.000. See more at www.hytwatches.com
