HYT Collection H1 Colorblock: primary colors
HYT's rapid growth was well worth an interpretation that paints a vivid picture – with primary colors – of how the brand’s first three years in the industry have been emotionally-laden and as if they were inspired by a painter's palette.
The particular approach to contemporary art uses blue, red and yellow – the colors that refer to the palettes of Kandinsky, Mondrian and even Mirò. These painters were famous for their renditions of human emotions by using the vivacity and force that only primary colors can unabashedly convey: Kandinsky with his colorful projections, Mondrian with his geometric shapes and Mirò with his arabesques in italics.
The art of displaying time differently
Speaking of art, three years ago the young HYT, based in Neuchâtel (Switzerland), decided to revolutionize time display by foregoing hands and numerals affixed on rotating disks with colored liquids held in a catheter.
Such a significant innovation – developed thanks to their expertise in avant-garde technologies – enabled the traditional watchmakers of the young brand to successfully master the hydraulic control of a product which, even if it used to show time in the form of water clocks in the past, has also destroyed quite a few mechanical movements by causing some sensitive components to rust irreparably. When the first HYT H1 was released, many called this union "unnatural" and yet it was immediately acclaimed by the Grand Prix de l' Horlogerie de Genève (GPHG).
Time to be ahead of time
Futuristic, off-kilter and yet part of the Steampunk circle to some extent, the display of the first H1 watch was retrograde in the sense that it was inspired by water clocks. However, this ode to the past was still very marginal since the brand’s expertise in fluids resulted in its watchmaking teams becoming experts in new technologies of spatial research and the latest progress in medicine.
HYT has laid the ground for a contemporary approach to fine watchmaking, a movement to which the young brand, today led by Grégory Dourde, absolutely belongs. This has been official since June 2016, as the "Fondation de la Haute Horlogerie" highlighted in a report detailing the answers that forty-six selected expert watchmakers from around the world gave in a survey carried out last year.
A colorful collection
HYT is indisputably part of the rising generation that promotes fine watchmaking by using an ultra-contemporary approach of its art. To emphasize that it is just a budding brand, HYT chose to illustrate the three years of its existence by using three primary colors. To some extent, it gives a shade of reference to the ticking of time. However, such a dance of bright colors leads one to believe that these watches – with movements that can display passing time with a fluid – give a unique color to watchmaking, which is sometimes too deeply rooted in traditions.
And so, being a tad iconoclast, the brand has developed a three-piece range sporting three bright colors – blue, red and yellow – in a limited series of 10 sets per piece. By so doing, the brand has announced its intention to bring color to habits that are sometimes too uniform.
The basic blue
The first H1 Colorblock was made in electric blue. It's a cold color which reminds us of ice and of the hard summer sky. The undeniably visually powerful reference plays on the antagonism between coldness and strong heat to prickle the senses of those willing to wear it on their wrist. Currently for sale (or soon enough as deliveries will be made from early October 2016), this wonderful piece displays time thanks to a fluid which is as black as squid ink. The blue piece features a striking contrast, so much so as the deep anthracite PVD-coated titanium case resembles that of the "bronzing of a rifle barrel". Driven by the incredible hand-wound mechanical caliber on top of the two fluid-holding tanks, this watch deserves attention as it was designed, developed and assembled in-house.
The primal red
Radical and powerful (as Vincent Perriard – co-founder of HYT SA and today at the head of Preciflex – put it), the new H1 watch features a red flange and an ultra-robust fabric strap that has been especially designed for this collection. This highlights the strength that was required to launch a watch in which only a handful of watchmakers believed since the challenge seemed absolutely impossible to rise up to. And so, there's no denying it, red is the color of fire, power and energy. It will undoubtedly spark the interest of a new generation of aficionados in a brand that has chosen to design time display in a creative and yet basic way.
Yellow, the color of the sun
As Gregory Dourde, CEO of HYT, said of the three pieces, the yellow H1 Colorblock is probably the most vivid. Dynamic, radiant and warm, it has a quite solar aspect in its color. It is a sharp contrast to its "rifle barrel type" anthracite PVD-coated titanium case as well as the black fluid that is held in the technical glass catheter. And since this reference is supposed to display time in complete darkness, the teams of engineers have laid a layer of luminescent material (SuperLuminova®) under the hour tube that will enable time to be read by deduction.
However, this is of little or no importance as these watches are undoubtedly made to be seen and spotlighted so that they can be admired and consequently acquire fame. Indeed, the brand has literally and figuratively made a small revolution in function, time display and rapid growth since it has plans to open some of its own points of sale throughout the world, after only three years of existence. Ambition and originality are values that must not be underestimated. They often make it possible to progress quickly and to succeed, as it has been colorfully proven here!