Hands-On The HYT H3, With Linear Fluid Time Display

In 2015 HYT introduced what was at the time its largest and most complex watch: the H3. Previous HYT models (and for that matter, all subsequent HYT models as well) implement the fluid time display with a circular tube, and a bellows system feeding colored fluid into one end of the tube, and clear fluid into the other. The meniscus between the two fluids marks the point at which hours are read off. It's a pretty neat trick – the two fluids obviously have to be made of liquids that aren't going to mix and not only that, that will not mix at all even after many cycles of use. The degree to which each bezel expands and contracts has to be exactly matched as well. 

The H3 uses the same basic bellows-and-tube system, but laid out in a straight line; just as in circular HYT models, you read the hour off the meniscus between the two fluids. You can see the two bellows above the tube, far left and far right. Below the tube is a four-sided bar. On the bar, there six rectangles per side and if you do the math, 6 x 4 = 24: this is where you read off the hours. At the end of each six-hour period, two things happen: the bar rotates a quarter turn to bring the numerals for the next six hours into view, and the fluid resets – a sort of liquid retrogade hours complication. 

In keeping with the retrogade theme, there's also a retrograde minutes display under the hours bar – also linear in orientation; so at the top of every sixth hour, you'll see the minutes hand jump back to 00, the hours bar rotate a quarter turn, and the fluid in the tube return to its zero setting, which is quite a trick. Generally speaking, getting three things to jump at once in a watch taxes the mainspring considerably, and draws juice away from the escapement and balance, and in this case must have presented a considerable engineering challenge (HYT's other watches have a conventional center seconds hand). 

Set against all this high tech horology, the balance wheel, with its screwed-balance rim, makes an interesting contrast. This is obviously not a watch you love because it is a classic expression of traditional Swiss watch design, or a vehicle for all the various finishes associated with high-end watch decoration – it is instead an exploration of the art of the possible, and it would have been absolutely impossible using only traditional watch design and manufacturing methods. This is a concept piece in the most explicit sense – of course, pretty much everything that HYT does is a concept watch; there's an argument that the whole brand is a concept brand, in the sense that it's driven by a specific idea. 

But the H3 takes the concept to a particular extreme – one of overt celebration of complexity for its own sake, and difficulty of execution for its own sake; on a certain level it's the same thrill you get from seeing someone juggle eight running chainsaws – beyond which it's hard to imagine going. That may be the reason that in recent months HYT has been much more involved in a reductionist approach to their fluid display – watches like the HYT H0 are a perfect case in point.

De rigueur for a superwatch are super-sized dimensions; the H3, at 62mm x 41mm, is not just far bigger than any conventional watch – it's so big as to be almost unwearable just from a practical standpoint. It's an extraordinary feeling to put it on; you feel as if you've donned a prop from a retro-futuristic scifi movie. This is very rarefied territory – a unique mechanism displayed to potent visual effect in a gigantic case. For most of the history of watchmaking, this sort of approach has existed in one form or another – I think, for instance, of an automaton clock in the British Museum, in the form of a ship, which would roll across the dinner table and then stop and automatically fire its cannons when it was time for dinner; there are innumerable obvious differences but both it, and the H3, have in common that they are extravagant, let's-see-how-far-we-can-take-this exercises in a certain kind of mechanical hubris. It's easy to complain that watches like this are too big, or unreadable, or too expensive (whatever that means) or what have you but this is to miss the point; the H3 is vehemently uninterested in aspiring to be anything like an ordinary watch. To steal a phrase, it has about as much in common with a conventional watch as a rubber duck with a dreadnaught.

A big part of the bang for the buck for this sort of thing is exclusivity – and of course, bleeding edge concept watches are an expensive proposition; the HYT H3 is $290,000 and I'd expect the likely client to have things like Richard Mille, Greubel-Forsey, maybe some of the really high end Cartier complications, and even nuts-o extravagances like the Jacob & Co. Twin Turbo Furious, none of which exactly grow on trees. Still, the H3 will be a rare bird for the foreseeable future – HYT says they always try to have at least one available worldwide at any given time, so I wouldn't worry about seeing one on someone else at your local Redbar Crew (or anywhere else, for that matter). Personally I have a major weakness for this sort of thing – while I admire the more minimalist versions of this complication there is something so appealingly straight-faced gonzo about the H3 that I find it irresistible. 

For more info, visit HYTwatches.com.