HYT T1 Titanium Green Millésime Edition
The HYT Hype: Meet the Indie Brand’s First Millésime Editions
There’s nothing like the look of an HYT watch, but the independent brand’s approach to marketing its timepieces is also quite unusual.
By Rhonda Riche
Editor-At-Large
At Geneva Watch Days 2024, indie brand HYT launched its first-ever Millésime Edition models. Part of a streamlined take on the T1 collection, these editions are available in rich shades of purple, green, and chocolate brown, all meant to evoke the fall and winter seasons.
HYT is also taking a page from the world of fashion by presenting these watches as its Fall/Winter collection, which brings us to the brand’s unusual marketing strategy: This trio will be available only between September 2024 and Watches and Wonders 2025, making them limited editions in time, not quantity.
With this in mind, let’s take a closer look at the new T1 Series Millésime Editions from HYT.
Time of the Season
While HYT is known for its cutting-edge style and innovative technology, the brand is not banking on trendiness with this collection. Case-in-point: In French, “millésime” refers to the year a wine was produced. Thus, the brand’s goal is to make a “vintage” (the literal translation of the word “millésime”) with a long shelf life.
Also, by introducing two case variants – one in titanium and DLC titanium, the other in 5N gold complemented by DLC titanium – the brand has chosen au currant materials that never seem to go out of style. And while the Millésime’s bold and trendy dial colorways may fall short of being described as “timeless,” that wasn’t why, we think, HYT chose these colors anyway.
We think HYT chose these dials because, if these colors become passé in the future, these Millésime Editions will act as a time capsule, of sorts, for this era of watchmaking and, thus, retain their undeniable appeal.
Visible via the sapphire caseback, the mechanics are equally intriguing, with its hand-wound, 352-component 501-CM calibre movement guiding the liquid inside HYT’s signature fluidic time display, which, itself, is powered by the brand’s two iconic bellows.
Blinded Me with Science
The brand’s core pillars remain science, technology, haute horlogerie, and design. However, it is how HYT melded these elements together that makes these Millésime Editions a standout from Geneva Watch Days.
At 45.3mm in diameter and 17.2mm-thick, the new T1 Millésime models certainly pops, but these timepieces aren’t merely eye-catching. It’s clear the Maison also set out to use the study of ergonomics to make them more comfortable.
For example, the faceted, octagonal shape case architecture feels quite slender, and the fully closed dial creates balance across the design elements to make it more readable. Meanwhile, the dial colors warm up the T1’s more industrial design codes.
Finally, to marry the hallmark fluidic time display mechanism with the collection’s vibrant design for these special editions, the chocolate and green models have a vibrant red liquid pulsing through their metaphoric veins. The purple version has a black liquid.
Pricing & Availability
With these thoughtful touches (including a domed crystal made of anti-reflective sapphire that feels like it’s hovering like a UFO above the dial), the new T1 Series Millésime Editions combine a refined, distinctive, and contemporary style with undeniable presence and astonishing comfort.
The T1 Titanium Green Millésime Edition (CHF 50,000), T1 Titanium Purple Millésime Edition (CHF 50,000), and T1 5N Rose Gold Chocolate Millésime Edition (CHF 66,000) are available now but only until Watches and Wonders 2025. To learn more, check out the HYT website.
