AnthonyTsai
[PuristS]
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Introducing the HYT H1 Ghost
HYT H1 Ghost: light emerges from the dark
We sometimes imagine them to be black. Or sometimes wearing a white sheet, sometimes misty and transparent. In the collective unconscious, ghosts are like the passing of time or the time we have remaining: elusive.
The H1 Ghost combines all these ideas. It has been designed around a new black fluid produced in-house by Preciflex, HYT’s sister company which is responsible for developing fluids for HYT. But this fluid is unlike any other; it is completely opaque. A first for HYT.
The passing of time... or the time we have remaining
This is not just an aesthetic challenge; an opaque fluid does not emit or reflect any light. This means that come night, it is invisible. However, so that the H1 Ghost can be read in the dark, HYT developed a unique use of Super-LumiNova: the material illuminates the capillary from underneath along its entire translucent stretch, beyond the black fluid.
In concrete terms, this means that in the dark, the H1 Ghost does not only display the elapsed time, but also the remaining time up to 6 o'clock. When it reaches this precise moment, the fluid performs its retrograde movement.
"This is a display method that has roots in the modern collective unconscious," explains Vincent Perriard, CEO of HYT. "For example, when downloading something, we look at the remaining time, and not the minutes or hours that have already passed. On the H1 Ghost, the time remaining before 6 o'clock is not insignificant. Whether it is 6 o'clock in the evening or the morning, it is the time remaining until a new day... or the beginning of the night."
Light emerges from the dark
The aesthetic features of the H1 Ghost play on this duality. Day and night, light and darkness are constantly in contrast. The black DLC titanium case presents alternating brushed, micro-blasted and satin-finished finishes, but their intense black only serves to better reflect the light.
These very dark, nocturnal tones highlight the white hour and minute indices and the white power reserve. Although in the minority, they are the most visible, dominating the black with their radiant white. The minute hand continues the fight: entirely black, it ends in a luminescent dot. And while the black fluid tirelessly pushes back its luminescent counterpart, only the light alone is capable of indicating the hour.
The H1 Ghost will only be released as a series of just 50 pieces.
Specifications
H1 GHOST
Case: black DLC titanium with brushed, micro-blasted and satin-finished finishes
- Diameter: 48.8 mm
- Height: 17.9 mm
- Black rubber sheathed screw-down black DLC titanium crown
- Crown protector in black DLC titanium
- Screwed offset lugs
- Black DLC dome at 6 o'clock
- Domed sapphire crystal with anti-reflective coating on the dial side
- Screw-down sapphire case-back
- Water-resistant to 100 metres.
Functions: black retrograde fluidic hours; minutes, seconds
Movement: Mechanical with manual winding, exclusive HYT calibre
- 28,800 Vph, 4 Hz, 35 jewels
- bridges hand-bevelled and adorned with Côtes de Genève, rhodium-plated bellows
- 65-hour power reserve
- bridges and main plates treated with anthracite grey NAC
Dial: unstructured, fluid hour display,
- Black hour dial, with white indices and numerals
- Hour chapter filled with Super-LumiNova®
- Minute dial in mass-dyed resin
- White Super-LumiNova® minute numerals and indices
- Black luminescent minute hand
- Minute counter at 12 o'clock
- Small seconds wheel at 9.30 using LIGA® technology
- Power reserve indicator with curved hand at 2.30
Strap: black rubber, black DLC titanium ardillon buckle
Product reference: 148-DL-60-NF-RU, Limited edition of 50 pieces
HYT in a few words
HYT’s Hydromechanical Horologists have turned fantasy into reality, mixing mechanics and liquid within a wristwatch. While addicted to non-conformism, these alchemists have drawn upon the strictest codes of fine watchmaking, and shattered them.
The principle
Two flexible reservoirs with a capillary attached at each end. In one, a coloured liquid; in the other, a transparent one. Keeping them apart is the repulsion force of the molecules in each fluid.
The hours are indicated by the coloured liquid released from a flexible reservoir compressed by a piston. These reservoirs, or bellows, are located at six o’clock and are made from a supple alloy. The first coloured liquid travels through the capillary pushing the transparent one back into its own reservoir and then returning to its original position at six o’clock in what is referred to as a retrograde manner.
The two reservoirs at 06:00. While the first compresses, the second expands, and the other way round, resulting in the movement of the liquid in the capillary. As the hours go by, the coloured liquid advances. The meniscus, in the shape of a half moon, marks the separation point with the other fluid in the tube, indicating the time. At 18:00, the coloured liquid comes back to its original position, going backwards.
The secret that gets the reservoirs going? Two bellows made of a highly resistant, flexible alloy, each driven by a piston. And this is where watchmaking comes in to activate the system.
HYT is continuing its all-encompassing quest for hybridisation by introducing its H2 in 2014, and the very new H3. This timepiece was born of a vision shared by the teams of HYT and Audemars Piguet Renaud & Papi overseen by Giulio Papi.
The founders & the CEO
Patrick Berdoz, Lucien Vouillamoz, Emmanuel Savioz, Vincent Perriard (CEO)
HYT in a few figures
Objectives realized in 2015:
· Production: sale of 450 pieces
· 66 points of sale
· 13 novelties launched
2016 Pipeline Objectives:
· More than 80 points of sale
· 7 novelties will be launched in 2016
· Opening of the first HYT Boutique in Kuala Lumpur
