Earlier this year, independent watchmaker HYT marked its latest comeback story by unveiling a new watch collection. That collection was the T1 Series, a redesigned flagship watch with more compact proportions while maintaining the brand’s hallmark fluidic time display mechanism. Now for Geneva Watch Days 2024, the series expands with three new HYT T1 Series Millésime watches in chocolate, purple, and green — not limited in production numbers but, like a wine’s vintage, available for a limited time.
Identical to the regular-production T1 Series models, this Millésime trio includes faceted octagonal cases that measure 45mm wide, 46.30mm top to bottom, and 17.20mm thick. While these are undoubtedly prominent proportions, compared to the previous H1 watch flagship, these versions are considerably more restrained. Plus, since there are no lugs, the strap wraps around the wrist effortlessly. According to HYT, the 2 o’clock position of the screw-down crown is for improved ergonomics. The green and purple editions have titanium cases whereas the chocolate model sports an 18k rose gold one. Both versions also include black DLC titanium details on the case sides.
The fluid time display has always been HTY’s unique selling point. Wedged between the hour markers around the periphery and the inner minute’s scale is a glass tube filled with liquids. Where the colored liquid (red for the chocolate and green watches and black for the purple model) stops tells you the hour and there the single center hand points to tell you the minutes. The mechanism is calibrated to 12 hours; after the 12 hours are up, the colored liquid retrogrades to its starting position to begin another 12-hour cycle. This remarkable invention won the Innovation Prize at the Grand Prix d’Horlogerie de Genève in 2012 and is protected by seven patents. On the vertical grain satin-finished dials also sits a power reserve indicator, between 1 and 2 o’clock.
Unfortunately, no caseback photos were provided at the time of publishing; if they were, we’d see an open sapphire crystal caseback with a view of the Caliber 501-CM caliber with 352 parts and the pair of famed bellows that serve to pump the liquid inside the glass capillary tubes. The movement operates at 28,800 beats per hour and supplies 72 hours of power reserve.
Each HYT T1 Series Millésime watch is accompanied by a black rubber strap and an additional rubber strap that matches the dial. The cases benefit from an interchangeability system — which according to the brand took a year of research and development — whereby a simple push of a button releases the strap from the watch. The rose gold T1 Series Millésime watch includes a black DLC titanium pin buckle while the remaining two have a titanium pin buckle.
In French, “millésime” refers to a year when a particular wine was produced. HYT uses a similar approach here by offering this capsule collection as “an exceptional vintage that will be available only from autumn until mid-spring” or from September 2024 to April 2025. It’s hard to tell from the supplied photos if the colors work well here — I think these are the types of watches that deserve judgment only after a hands-on experience. I have a strong feeling they will look significantly more impressive in the metal. The purple and green titanium HYT T1 Series Millésime models are priced at CHF 50,000 whereas the rose gold version will retail for CHF 66,000. For more information, please visit the brand’s website.
