The best description of the HYT Skull has been given by the brand's CEO Vincent Perriard: “Simply giving a vague skull shape to an existing movement, and presenting it as an entirely new piece is not really our style.” That is especially true as HYT has interpreted the skull's theme quite differently from anyone else; a theme that has been widely adopted, even over-marketed since, if I'm not mistaken, it was first introduced by Jean-Claude Biver for the design of a Hublot timepiece worn by Laurent Picciotto.
The HYT Skull is a further step in the development of the HYT H1 and the HYT H2 (please find them HERE), the first timepieces ever to visualize time via a fluid. The interpretation of the theme is quite original: I have never loved the skull’s theme in haute horlogerie, I've often thought of it as being out of context when associated to traditional watchmaking complications, but the outcome is completely different when adopted by an avant-garde brand such as HYT. In the HYT Skull the capillary is no longer circular, but it defines the skull's profile. Minutes are no longer shown. For this reason one needs to get used to just sense them, or to read them approximately, simply by checking the position of the fluid on the hour ring, as well as its position in respect to the hour indexes.
The skull's eyes come to life as in a ‘70s James Bond movie: the left one, when looking at the dial, shows the running seconds, while the right one is the (65 hours) Power Reserve indicator of the 4Hz caliber, that is not visible through the dial as it is the case with the H1 or the H2. The HYT Skull's sapphire glass is strongly cambered, with the effect of having a futuristic timepiece wrapped around your wrist, probably the intermediate step between a H1 or H2 and the eagerly awaited H3, the first that doesn’t adopt a circular case, to be unveiled at the upcoming Baselworld 2015.
An original take, a haute horlogerie toy-watch with a bold design and a big appeal, in my opinion superior from this point of view to a H1 or H2, in which the most part of the movement is visible; on this one, on the other hand, just the two unmistakable reservoirs that operate the fluid (clockwise first, followed by counter-clockwise, as hours are retrograde) are visible. It comes in two versions, one in black DLC-treated titanium with a green fluid and a green sapphire back glass, the other in DLC titanium and gold, each made in just 50 pieces, priced at 90.000CHF and 100.000CHF respectively. The price you pay for technical and esthetical exclusivity, in every sense.
(Photo credit: Horbiter®'s proprietary photo-shooting)
Gaetano C. @Horbiter®
@Gaetano Cimmino
