HYT H1 (Hydro-Mechanical!) Luxury Watch Review

http://www.thewatchbox.com Unless you lived in ancient Egypt, China, or Greece, chances are you’ve never seen anything like the otherworldly HYT H1. Welcome to the future, courtesy of the past. HYT’s hydro-mechanical H1 combines Swiss mechanical high horology with the first fluid-based time interface since the ancient clepsydra “water clock.” Twin metallic bellows form the technical and aesthetic centerpiece of the revolutionary HYT Caliber 101. Each bellows acts as a reservoir for a high-viscosity fluid: one fluorescent green, one clear. The calibrated circumferential tube linking the reservoirs acts as the hour track, and the visible meniscus between the two fluids acts as the mobile hour index or “hour hand.” Moreover, the HYT H1 is a regulator and a retrograde in the traditional Swiss sense. A conventional 60-minute hand sits at 12 o’clock and tracks the movement of the meniscal hour index. The constant seconds indication is provided via a moving turbine wheel at nine o’clock, and the 65-hour power reserve is displayed by a conventional sweeping index at 2:30. The retrograde function of the HYT H1 “jumps” into action when the fluorescent fluid fills the entire 12-hour span of the display and reaches the six o’clock mark. At that point, the green fluids rapidly retreats 360 degrees to its point of origin on the other flank of the six index; the entire calibrated hour track will be clear and the green fluid will begin to trace the progress of the next 12 hours of the