New
Timekeepers Club / September 8, 2023

HYT Conical Tourbillon Titanium Blue

The new HYT Conical Tourbillon is a hypnotic, technical response to the promise made by the Neuchâtel company ten years ago: to take high-end watchmaking into the future. A symbiosis between science and the expertise of the finest watchmakers, this mechanical fluidic watch is fitted with a conical tourbillon. Created by master watchmaker Eric Coudray, who took inspiration from the unique inclined balance tourbillon developed by Walter Prendel in 1928, it provides a new solution to improve the stability and performance of the tourbillon.

HYT has been continuously pushing the boundaries of high-end contemporary watchmaking in both technical and aesthetic terms. The HYT Conical Tourbillon Titanium Blue is the result.

This contemporary timepiece is the most accomplished of those designed by HYT. The HYT Conical Tourbillon stands for everything that makes this independent Swiss watchmaking brand – founded in 2012 – so unique and different.

It is both animated and sensual thanks to the dual movement effect created by the retrograde fluid hour markers and the turning of the conical tourbillon with its dynamic movements. The HYT Conical Tourbillon Titanium Blue is a new form of life, symbolised by the central mechanism at its heart.

At the heart of this technical feat prowess, the 701 TC caliber, a hand-wound mechanical movement beating at a frequency of 21,600 vib/h (3 Hz).

The tourbillon movement is sublimated by living at the very heart of the timepiece with a spring-balance inclined at 30 degrees to horizontal, the escape wheel at 15 degrees, and a pallet at 23 degrees. This bold technical achievement takes its inspiration directly from the works of German watchmaker Walter Prendel and his inclined balance tourbillon.

n his workshops in Groitzsch, a part of Saxony which is as well-known as Switzerland for the development of cutting-edge watches, Walter Prendel aimed to prove the relevance of his research – based on the theories of master watchmaker Alfred Helwig – into improving the stability and regularity of the rate of his oblique tourbillon with a spring-balance inclined at 30° to horizontal.

It was in the early 2020s that master watchmaker Eric Coudray, winner of the Prix Gaïa and familiar with the complex works of Walter Prendel, decided to continue this work to improve the tourbillon, using this oblique tourbillon as his base.

Given its advances in contemporary fine watchmaking, it was only logical that HYT would decide to include a tourbillon in the design of the mechanical movement for its new watch.

At the very heart of the dial, where the conical tourbillon completes a clockwise revolution in 30 seconds, there are three spheres filled with blue liquid and rotating at different speeds which are easy to observe: the first completes four turns a minute, the second five turns a minute, and the third six turns a minute, clockwise.


Telling the time using liquids: a sophisticated contemporary response to an age-old principle

HYT was born in 2012 from a dream of using liquid to display the time on a mechanical watch. The independent Swiss watchmaker has developed a very personal approach to the art of watchmaking, guided by the ambition to return to the very sources of timekeeping as they were first established many thousands of years ago. In order to do this, HYT has developed cutting-edge technology which allows it to transfer the energy developed by the watch movement to animate the fluid mechanics.

Technical specifications


HYT Conical Tourbillon Titanium Blue

Reference: H03068-A

Limited edition of 8 pieces

Case

  • Material: Carbon & black DLC titanium case
  • Dimensions: Width: 48.00 mm x Length: 52.30 mm
  • Thickness: 25.15 mm
  • Crown in titanium with the core in DLC
  • Glass: Domed sapphire crystal (box) with anti-reflective coating
  • Titanium side grids with black background
  • Water-resistant to 30 meters

Dial and hands

  • Black coated brass (39 pcs)
  • 3D black coated appliques, white luminous numbers (Lumicast®)
  • Black grid with black background
  • Blue liquid inside borosilicate capillary tube
  • Blue minutes hands, white SLN

Movement

  • Calibre 701-TC
  • Winding: with winder tool
  • Frequency: 21'600 vph (3 Hz)
  • Number of jewels: 61
  • Number of parts: 533
  • Finishing: Finely sandblasted and satin
  • Coating: Black coating
  • Power reserve of 40 hours

Functions/Indications

  • Retrograde fluidic hours
  • Central minutes hand
  • Tourbillon
  • Chaotic animation

Strap and buckle

  • Black rubber strap
  • Black DLC titanium pin buckle
  • Satin & sandblasted finishes

MSRP: CHF 335'000 (excl. taxes)

For more information, please visit hytwathes.com

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