HYT skull krome

FLUID TIME

HYT was born of a question. Time flows and only gains meaning through content. So why limit its measurement to indicating the now in splendid isolation, with needle-sharp hands or fleeting digital displays?  Determined that its rebellion should make statements and waves, a multi-disciplinary think-tank set out to create timepieces that visibly connect the past, present and future. The HYT answer is a watch that overcomes the force of gravity to indicate the passage of time with liquids. Highly advanced technology took its cue from philosophy to mirror time’s intrinsic fluidity. 

The rest is history. To be precise, it’s history that began 3,400 years ago with the Clepsydras, or water clocks, of the Pharaohs. These so-called “water thieves” transported H₂O from one container to another to measure elapsed or “stolen” time. This meaningful visualization of the transition of time seemingly disappeared until 2012, when HYT broke new scientific ground, inventing a wristwatch integrating a patented fluidic module. A colored liquid documents the recent past; a transparent fluid indicates the foreseeable future. Their meeting point is a meniscus, aka the now.

Today HYT is an ecosystem that unites science, hi-technology, philosophy, art and design. Based in Neuchâtel, at the heart of the traditional Swiss watchmaking region, a dedicated team of 43 individuals makes liquid time real time. Their radical wristwatches harmoniously incorporate a mechanical watch movement as the trigger to the fluid propulsion. They make total sense of time – time and time again. 

MAKING SENSE OF TIME

For HYT, technology is the stuff that dreams are made of. Dreaming of visibly linking the past, present and future and of defying gravity set the bar high. Today’s reality is a watch that breaks new scientific ground, measuring time’s passage with a patented fluidic module that took 15 years of inspiration to develop. HYT timepieces are portable hubs of technical firsts and fascinations, dedicated to making sense of time in the twenty-first century. Radical is the new relevant.

Liquid timekeeping is the HYT answer to capturing time’s flow and context as opposed to an isolated current moment. Two bellows, with walls four times finer than a human hair, form the engine of the fluid module. As each one compresses or expands, it releases or receives one of two immiscible liquids, one colored and one transparent. These correspond to elapsed or imminent time respectively. Advanced chemistry was the mentor for the in-house development of a liquid dye with the required visibility, esthetics, durability and UV resistance. The meeting of the liquids, i.e. the now, is termed a "marriage". This can only take place between two fluids that complement each other while maintaining their intrinsic individuality. Assuring the long-term reliability of this innovative timekeeping method is proprietary testing equipment with the ability to accelerate time, reducing a year to a month. Twice a day the fluid module issues an open invitation for reflection as the colored liquid that has plotted the course of the last 12 hours flows back to its original position. Back to the future in horological form.

Liquid time obtains its rhythm from a specially created haute horlogerie mechanical movement that interfaces with the two bellows. Front of stage, the visible proof of accuracy is the domain of a curved 0.8 mm thin glass capillary. The capillaries’ coating, eliminating any obstacle to flow, ranks as one of the watch’s most expensive elements. Full transparency is a further must in the quest to visualize time. Technicians spend a full year perfecting the technique of filling the capillary. Even the smallest of air bubbles could threaten accuracy, especially at altitude. The technology portfolio in every HYT watch shows that the whole is much more than the sum of its parts - and that time standing still is never an option.

GRÉGORY DOURDE - HYT CEO

Grégory Dourde, an engineering graduate from the Ecole National des Ponts & Chaussées (Paris), obtained an MBA from the Collège des Ingénieurs in 1997. He has worked for major brands, including Cartier, in Retail / Marketing strategy and in the reorganisation of jewellery activity, followed by the Swatch Group and Calvin Klein Watches, and also the Management board of manufacturing companies under Nicolas Hayek Senior. He then founded his own consulting company, working on performance enhancement and development projects for companies operating in the medical, watchmaking and high-tech sectors, among others. His interest in and passion for fields as diverse as the physical sciences, biology, philosophy, plastic arts and music, reveal a desire to nurture and enrich ideas through an interdisciplinary approach, using this cross-pollination as the basis for research into innovative and original solutions.