User:Cloe Biessy/sandbox
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| Industry | Haute Horlogerie |
|---|---|
| Founded | 2012 |
| Founders | Lucien Vuillamoz (Inventor), Patrick Berdoz (Chairman) |
| Products | H1, H2 |
| Website | www.hytwatches.com |
HYT is the only watchmaking company to display time with fluids[1]. Based in Biel, Switzerland, HYT was launched in 2012 by introducing its first hybrid timepiece, the H1, during Baselworld. These mad scientists won 3 awards the same year :
- Best Innovative Watch 2012 [2] - Grand Prix de l’Horlogerie de Genève;
- Best concept watch of the year – SIAR in Mexico;
- Best concept watch of the year – Watch World Award [3] in India.
Extreme alchemists, HYT’s Hydro-Mechanical Horologists have turned utopia into reality – mixing mechanics and liquid within a wristwatch. While truly addicted to non-conformism, they have drawn upon the strictest codes in Fine Watchmaking – and felt entirely free to shatter them!
By achieving the incredible challenge of indicating the time with water, they have not so much propelled a new UFO into the watchmaking stratosphere, as they have in fact pulverized all certainties by uniting two worlds that are supposedly diametrically opposed. Never since the water clocks of the pharaohs, have the laws of gravity been overcome to transpose this energy in a portable watch. HYT has done it.
THE PRINCIPLE
[edit]With this horological oxymoron, the hours of the watch are indicated by a fluorescent aqueous liquid released from a flexible reservoir compressed by a piston. The first coloured liquid travels through the capillary pushing the transparent viscous liquid back into its own reservoir and then returning to its original position at 6:00 in what is referred to as a retrograde manner.
The Leitmotiv ?
[edit]Fluid mechanics, or the ultimate in hybrid technology.
The Formula ?
[edit]Avantgarde watchmaking developments, engineering pushed to its heights, high-tech materials, and a design that generates genuine emotions.
HYT'S HYBRID TIMEPIECES
[edit]HYT's first performance
[edit]The H1. A piece of Fine Watchmaking developed in collaboration with Chronode - Jean François Mojon - that single-handedly epitomises the brand’s identity: an obsession with innovation, uncompromising execution and an intransigent approach to quality. The product is quite clearly the consistent core concern for HYT. A “time object” that provides intuitive readings, well off the beaten track. High-flying mechanics that bear testimony to a completely new approach. Bold architecture, leaving nothing to chance. Each element is wisely thought-through, and patiently built. Inspired and rebellious, the design imposes its codes, emphasising the exceptional temperament and creativity of the overall result. A Mechanical hand-wound with 65-hour power reserve.
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H1 DLC
HYT's second performance
[edit]The H2 is born of a vision shared by HYT and the APRP Team (Audemars Piguet Renaud et Papi) overseen by Giulio Papi. This timepiece is even more technically complex and aesthetically accomplished, while keeping the same unbelievable DNA : hydro-mechanical horology. This hybrid interpretation of the concept has been given an architectural stage-setting better serving the purpose of the mechanical nature of the H2. A double barrel visible on the back delivers an 8-day power reserve to this patented fluidic mechanism that is more clearly highlighted in this new configuration, such as with the balance spring displayed at noon on its bridge. Another H2 feature is the 9 o’clock hand serving as a thermometer indicating if the watch is in its optimal temperature segment Opposite the latter, the crown-position hand (H-N-R) indicates if you are either setting the time (H), winding-up the power-reserve (R), or central (N) when the crown is in its original position. The H2 last complication is the large structured minute hand with a « dephaseur angulaire» meaning that it jumps across the inner end of the bellows.
UNIQUE COMPONENTS
[edit]HYT watches combine :
- A world's first fluid technology, also called "fluidic module" and developed by its sister company - Preciflex -
- A watchmaking movement realized in collaboration with master watchmakers like Jean-François Mojon (the H1) and Giulio Papi (the H2).
The fluidic module is composed of different parts :
- A bespoke glass capillary of 0.8mm of diameter and about 11 cm of length;
- Two bellows - flexible chambers; in each there is a reservoir with a size of 1/5 a hair that contains liquid.
- Two non-miscible liquids, one green water-based and the other one is an oily transparent one;
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H1's fluid module
History of the fluid technology
[edit]The Swiss national exhibition in 2002 is taking place around the Lakes of Neuchâtel, Biel and Murten. Lucien Vouillamoz is raving to his friends about the idea of designing a water watch, in the region of the three lakes and Watch Valley. The problem lies in how to replace the gravitational energy used in clepsydras or water clocks within a wearable, water-resistant wristwatch. The utopic idea was swiftly put on hold in the absence of a technical solution.
Several years have gone by. The concept is still bothering Lucien Vouillamoz. He reconsiders it from a different angle – namely to create a fluid indicator of time, that is small and transportable and can be used in different ways, rather than a simple “water wristwatch”. This thought process leads him to a completely new idea – involving using two flexible reservoirs attached to each end of the same capillary. This closed system is to comprise different coloured, non-miscible liquids in each reservoir. By compressing the first, its fluid is pushed into the capillary and indicates the time, while the other liquid expands in the second reservoir. The separation between the two liquids is ensured by the positive and negative polarity of the molecules in both, which would make them repel each other’s edges like two magnets. No need for a piston in the tube. The questions of energy and congestion are solved in one go. The idea behind the future H1 is born.
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Bellows
