Vincent Perriard Discusses the HYT H1 AZO – Liquid Time

Already firmly into its full second year in business, HYT continues to introduce unusual liquid-time-display watches. The newest cutting-edge piece is the H1-AZO.

“The idea was to bring some lightness to the watch,” says Perriard, president and concepteur of the brand. “It is a 48.8mm watch that is big and thick, so decided to use a lighter weight material and to offer a bold, futuristic look.”

As such, the brand’s newest H1 AZO features an ultra-light resin alloy that the brand’s alchemists developed specially for this watch. It features a tinted fluorescent yellow (the brands’ DNA color) for bold color.  The Polyepoxde resin is seven times lighter than stainless steel and four times lighter than titanium. Still, it is 3 times as resistant to abrasion. The watch mechanics remains the same, with its bellows (like car pistons) that filled with liquid that extends into the veins to indicate the time on demand.

“We believe our future is to develop special materials,” says Perriard. “We are in the early stages of brand development, and so we have to be creative with materials that match our DNA.”  According to Perriard, the bold fluorescent yellow color was fist done simply as an exercise to see how it would look. Everyone liked it and so it was implemented into the watch.

“This lighter weight and bright color also makes the watch more fashionable for women,” says Perriard. “The name AZO is a combining form of the names of chemical compounds containing nitrogen and any of a class of artificial dyes that contain the azo group.  They

are usually red, brown or yellow. We call it the AZO Project because of its special yellow/green flashy color.”

The watch offers retrograde fluid hours and is water resistant to 100 meters.  The mechanical hand-wound exclusive HYT caliber offers 65 hours of power reserve. It is being built in a limited edition of 25 pieces – each retailing for $65,000.