HYT Reinvents Itself with the T1 Collection

It’s hard to relaunch a brand. We’ve seen it over and over in the watch industry: brands, in an attempt to reinvigorate themselves, gain more traction in the market, and adapt to changing times, will sometimes make a decision to completely rethink their philosophy, aesthetic, and core models. Sometimes it works, sometimes it doesn’t, and there are varying levels of intensity in how fully relaunched a brand will actually go. Sometimes the shift is drastic, with new logos, new ideas, new price points, and completely new watches. And sometimes it’s more subtle, representing a small but noticeable and important tweak that fundamentally changes something about the presentation. HYT, a high end Swiss brand that has been through its fair share of tumult recently, debuted a new collection recently that we got a chance to look at during Watches & Wonders week, and it struck me as one of the smartest recalibrations we’ve seen from a brand in a long time. 

If you know HYT at all, you know them for their unique time telling system that involves moving liquid around the dial through a pair of bellows that expand and contract throughout the day. There is quite literally nothing else like it on the market, and the watches have always had a half futuristic, half steam-punk vibe to them. There is real horological ingenuity at the heart of HYT, but the watches, in the past, have often been dominated by literally showing you the mechanism in a way that was, to put it bluntly, a bit in your face. These were big sports watches, often in bright colors, and always with skeleton dials. If you were interested in the liquid display mechanism but were after something more reserved, you were, unfortunately, out of luck. 

But now HYT offers an alternative in the T1 collection. I’ll be honest: I made the HYT appointment in Geneva during Watches & Wonders week on a whim, and to fill time that wouldn’t otherwise be occupied. I actually had no idea what they’d be showing us, and assumed we’d be seeing watches that were similar to every other HYT the company has made. The watches are so rare and unusual that I would have been more than happy to see them if that had been the case. But HYT’s actual plans were considerably more interesting. The T1 signals a potential new path for the brand that gives rise to all kinds of interesting possibilities going forward. 

The T1 watches are made in titanium and precious metal cases measuring about 45mm in diameter and a little over 46mm from lug to lug. The diameter measurement might seem imposing, but because of the case shape it’s actually quite compact and wearable on the wrist. The thickness of 17.2mm is a little harder to hide, but if you’re going for a big sports watch energy, it’s not terribly offensive. And the proportions work much better than the even bigger watches from previous HYT collections, which they had on hand for the sake of comparison. 

Besides the friendlier dimensions, the big story here is the dials. No longer are HYT’s watches dominated by the bellows from the dial side. These non-skeletonized dials are downright traditional in their execution, with blue, silver, salmon, and slate dials with a pronounced sunburst pattern. The thin tube of liquid that advances around the dial and gives you a reading of the hours is still there, but the bellows can now only be seen through the caseback (and they are still just as impressive and unusual as they’ve always been). It’s a much cleaner look that sacrifices only a bit of HYT’s traditional strangeness. The brand has indicated that this T1 platform will be a stage for new horological complications in the future. 

I was very impressed with these watches in the metal and on the wrist, much more than I expected to be. The fluid display, while serving no real practical purpose beyond being cool, is, in fact, very cool. And sometimes that’s all a watch needs to be. Advancing the time manually and watching the fluid fill that tube and slowly retract is one of the stranger pleasures you’re likely to experience with a high end watch. 

If you’ve followed HYT for any length of time, It’s kind of tough to think of the T1 in context with previous releases as it really is so much more subdued and far less aggressive, but it works on these newest releases in my opinion, splitting the difference between pure novelty and contemporary luxury sports watch. 

It was heartening to learn in our meeting with HYT that in rethinking the aesthetic of their core models with the T1, they sought input from HYT collectors and clients. This, I think, is often the missing ingredient when a brand relaunches or tries to shift themselves in a crowded market. Seeking the feedback of the people who are actually buying your products seems like a slam dunk, and a simple to execute idea that should be obvious, but is probably a step that gets missed when various bean counters get involved with a focus exclusively on the bottom line. 

The titanium cased examples of the T1 start at CHF 48,000. HYT