Nowadays liquid crystal displays are a ubiquitous technology—including smartwatch devices. However, one watch company has recently taken the idea of “liquid” and fluidly incorporated it into mechanical timekeeping. We here at Times Ticking are—as the title suggests—talking about HYT. HYT is a wristwatch company comprised of 43 members (as of this writing) that just began in 2012. They build hybrid mechanical movements that use liquid to tell the time. On their unique pieces, two pistons/valves release two different types of liquid throughout the day—and both liquids repulse one another to create pressure. The timed movement of this pressure, via the mechanically regulated pistons, creates a consistent representation of time on their display. Tech like this has made HYT an iconoclastic brand among older Swiss watch houses. In fact, they’re the only company on the watchmaking scene with this kind of flair—which has made them a buzz worthy group in their short 8 years of official production.
The H5 Arrives
HYT has already released a few different models since 2012. These are the Skull, H0, H1, H2, H3, and H4. All of these releases have been met with warm praise from industry professionals from around the world. Debuting at WatchTime NYC in Oct. 2019, HYT’s most recent “H5” model was met with a similar welcome. It sports their brand new Caliber 501 movement. This movement incorporates a special camshaft that allows the user to manipulate the liquid-display time. H5’s gears, like their predecessors, regulate the pressures which run the liquid representation of hours. On this particular model,however, the liquid colors are either in black or green. This aesthetic choice is new to the brand. There are only 25 of each color scheme for the H5—making it a debut of just 50 watches. Needless to say, it’s a highly limited release. Exclusivity is surely part of the allure of these pieces, though, because of the rare vision and high production cost involved in their creation.
2020 and Beyond
It’s been five months since the release of HYT’s H5 watch and there doesn’t appear to be an immediate follow up coming in 2020. Every HYT requires up to 3 years (or more) of engineering and production to be born. What’s more, the industry is currently facing slow downs due to global pandemic. With all of these factors in mind it will be important to remain patient for any new releases from H5. Hopefully the gap between the H5 releases and any new pieces doesn’t erode any enthusiasm as time flows forward. Until their next release, we’ll continue to keep an eye out for more HYT news—so it does not go rushing by unnoticed.
Times Ticking has been in operation for more than 30 years, since 1982. We have performed watch repair for customers both locally and internationally. If it Ticks! We KNOW it! Our team of watch repair technicians have a combined experience in watchmaking of over 120 years.
