LEADERSHIP QUOTE OF THE DAY (23 May 2012): You gain STRENGTH| COURAGE AND CONFIDENCE by every experience in which you really stop to look fear in the face. You must do the thing you think you cannot do. - Eleanor Roosevelt
WATCHES
The HYT H1
H1 is a proprietary Swiss movement with a 65 hour power reserve and manual winding - driving a unique high-tech fluidic module.
HYT CEO Vincent Perriard called the first "new" Concord watch the C1 when he was the CEO there a few years ago.
The watch uses a liquid filled chamber to display the hours using luminescent green goo in a circular tube. Two bellows are used to push and pull the liquid to show the time on the scale. These bellows are operated by the movement. The minutes are displayed in the center of the face with a dedicated dial, and there is a water turbine style subsidiary seconds hand to the left of it. On the right is a power reserve indicator for the mechanical movement.
Pistons in the movement move the bellows. As one expands the other one compresses which moves the liquid. The green colors comes from "fluorescein" which I am going to venture to say is not safe to drink. According to HYT the watch is designed with as much shock protection as possible to ensure the systems are kept safe and that you can wear the watch as normal.
In three case styles the H1 will be available in titanium, DLC black coated titanium, and 18k red gold. The case will be 48.8mm wide and a pretty massive 17.9mm thick.
The movement has a power reserve of 65 hours and is visible through the rear of the watch. I think it looks very nice and the functions are acceptable given the complexity of the liquid system as well as the price of the watch. This is going to be a cool watch to get some hands-on time with at Baselworld 2012. Price was surprisingly not uber-crazy. The HYT H1 in titanium will be priced at US$45,000. No word yet on the price in 18k red gold.