HYT HASTROID silver red
Limited edition of 15 pieces, the HYT Hastroid Silver and Red redefines the way we look at time. The use of liquid, capillary and bellows pumps may sound like the stuff of science fiction, but it's very real and incorporates a lot of Swiss watchmaking know-how. Mark McArthur-Christie can hardly contain his admiration for this beautiful piece of timepiece. replica HYT H1 watches
Watchmakers have a wholly undeserved reputation for being a bit quiet, perhaps a bit stuffy – even introverted. History has proven this statement wrong time and time again. Herr Henlein, for example, may have come up with the novel idea of a watch with an hour hand in the early 16th century, but watchmakers have been regularly and happily telling the time in different ways and to varying degrees ever since. of reason.
Different ways to tell time
A few years before digital watches appeared on Pulsar's radar, there were mechanical watches with horizontal and vertical digital readouts. Some manufacturers experimented with rotating discs instead of hands, while Breguet himself created montres à tact that allowed you to feel the time with your fingers. But these are mild amusement compared to craziness like the Bras en l'Air watch, where pushing the crown causes an animated character on the dial to raise its arms and point to the time.
crow and fox pocket watch
Perhaps the pinnacle of this creative timekeeping was The Crow & The Fox pocket watch conceived and manufactured by Louis Cottier on behalf of Patek Philippe. If you press the pusher at the top of the crown, the eponymous crow drops a small piece of platinum (of course) cheese from its open beak, a distance that indicates just minutes. At the same time, the fox secretly raised his paw to reach it, and in the process, showed the time. However, unlike the fox in Aesop's fable, this fox never had cheese for breakfast. replica watch store
HYT Mechanical Fluid Technology
The radical work of HYT in Neuchâtel is no surprise, then. However, the company has taken the idea of timekeeping a step further. Most non-traditional timepieces use mechanical or electronic means to indicate the hours and minutes. HYT chose to subvert all old-school mechanics—at least the hour hand—by replacing hands with fluid. But it's not just a fluid display watch, it's complex to design and build. HYT Hastroid Silver Red combines a fully mechanical movement with a part-liquid display.
To do this, you'll need more than some colorful liquid, a tube, and a nice smile. In fact, the HYT system brings together two immiscible liquids, some red dye, an inner coating, a curved 0.8 mm thin borosilicate glass capillary, a micro cam, a lever, and a set of metal bellows. and a temperature compensator. Try saying that sentence in one breath, let alone conceiving it, designing it, and actually making the damn thing.
HYT liquids and capillaries
Let's start with those liquids. Capillaries carrying liquid and air simply don't work, so HYT uses two different liquids to create the hour display. Both are naturally clear, so the company added a permanent red dye to them. Because they do not mix, the hours are indicated by their intersection in an almost circular capillary that surrounds the edge of the dial. replica Greubel Forsey GMT watches
You know how obsessed HYT watchmakers are when you understand that the coating on the inside of the capillary is one of the most expensive parts of the mechanism. This is because it needs to be completely transparent and as sleek as a politician's suit. Even the dye itself has been tested for color fastness for several years.
A mechanical movement ensures that two tiny, flexible-walled alloy bellows with walls about 20 microns thin expand and contract precisely over a 12-hour period, pushing liquid from one bellow to the other.
HYT caliber 501 CM
Powering the entire show is the Caliber 501 CM movement designed by watchmaker, mechanical artist and materials technology expert Eric Coudray. It's an engine almost the size of a pocket watch, with 352 parts and 41 jewel bearings (including one at the base of the bellows). Additionally, the movement is hand-wound, revs at 28,800 vph (4 Hz), and has a 72-hour power reserve.luxury watches replica
These stark numbers, however, do not do justice to Kudray's work. The significance of what he achieved only becomes clear when you understand the significance of the movement. If you think about the complexity of running a fluid hour indicator along with a mechanical minute and second hands, as well as a mechanical power reserve subdial, it won't be long before you're left with a headache. Just the basics of keeping fluids and mechanics separate while integrating them are enough.
Dig into the details and you'll need an IV shot of espresso to keep up. To move fluid in a capillary for one minute, the bellows only needs to move 1.5 microns. By comparison, a piece of A4 paper is about 100 microns thick. This margin of error keeps brain surgeons awake at night. This is also a margin that requires a precise and constant rate of power displacement – hence the choice of the more controllable power provided by a hand-wound movement.
Then you have to get the power from the movement to the bellows. The conversion of mechanical motion into fluid motion is thanks to the "Coudray Cam". This cam allows an oversized lever ("sensor") to convert the rotational power of the motion into linear motion of the bellows and capillary fluid. replica Ulysse Nardin Perpetual Calendars
This all allows the movement to power the bellows (and the fluid within the capillaries they control) to flow smoothly for twelve hours. Once reaching the six o'clock position on the dial, both fluids flow back to where they started, providing a retrograde reading for the next six hours. This is another fluid mechanical feat; the fluidic system is completely self-regulating, and as they move retrograde, the capillaries are completely disconnected from the power of the mechanism.
As clever as the horology is, the movement can be ugly, but you'll forgive it. but it is not the truth. Designed by Coudray, TEC Group and Prix Gaïa winner Paul Clementi are also involved. Many of the 352 pieces are finished in black satin, laser or sandblasted. Details such as countersunk edges on the gear train and cutouts on the bridge plates. Even the screws are blackened so they don't mar the look of the watch.
This new movement is housed in a 48mm case, which will wear less than recommended due to its tapered sides and offset crown. You don't need to do any weight training, though, as it's made from the same black-coated and satin-polished titanium as the crown. Everything sits beneath a domed, coated sapphire crystal.
The watchmaking industry, quite reasonably, often takes a new idea, refines it, polishes it a bit, adds some Côtes de Genève stripes, and then moves it forward a few inches. HYT does much more than that, and it does it all without the help of a fox, a crow, or even a piece of cheese. replica Richard Mille Rafael Nadal
