HYT Technologies Part 1: Project Creation and Launch
The hydro-mechanical watchmaker demonstrated the incredible: the use of liquids in mechanical watches to tell the time. This is a huge challenge in both design and production.
Let’s go back to humans, watchmaking and scientific adventures. HYT cheap was the buzzword at BaselWorld 2012. The promised anti-conformity achievement fascinated all attendees. So the story could easily begin with the famous “I have a dream…”. Come to think of it, when Lucien Vuillamoz had the idea to design a water meter in 2002, his idea was far from feasible and fictional rather than real. Therefore, its actual design and production was a real challenge.
From Intent to Design
It is the site of the Swiss National Exposition – in the Three Lakes region; namely Neuchâtel, Bian and Morat – which inspired its creators to come up with the water watch. Here, we experience a historical flashback to the time of water clocks, as well as watchmakers’ extreme distrust of the aquatic element, which remains the number one enemy of rust-prone mechanical timepieces.
The concept seemed difficult to implement and was just an intention for a long time. Years have passed, but Lucien Vuillamoz has never forgotten this vision. His way of thinking about the project has continued to evolve, so the concept that HYT luxury now presents – showing the passage of time in a liquid – has slowly taken shape.
This new method soon adopted the functional principle of the fluid HYT indicator. Two flexible metal bellows are very thinly connected by capillaries. Each flexible chamber is filled with two immiscible liquids, one of which is colored. When one of the two chambers is compressed, the interface between the two fluids shows time.
Between Oppenheimer and Professor Tournesor, everyone was impressed by Lucien Vuillamoz’s free thought, as if it were floating above a quantum vacuum. One can summarize his method as illustrating Socrates’ analytic thinking motto: “What I know is what I know nothing”
Vuillamoz specializes in thermodynamics at the prestigious Department of Nuclear and Particle Physics at the University of Geneva. As an obsessive-compulsive inventor, his academic background taught him that he had a remarkable concept at hand, but he knew that mastering the physical limitations of its development would require great skill.
From concept to first prototype
When one has a revolutionary idea, the first thing to do is to protect it. Lacking the necessary knowledge in the field, Vuillamoz turned to his friend Patrick Berdoz, who has extensive experience in the field of intellectual property. After the usual preliminary research, it appears that these technologies can actually be protected. With logistical and financial help from Patrick Berdoz, who believed there was a future for this daring project, he conducted a novelty search and prepaid deposits. “There are currently eight patent families,” Vuillamoz explained. “The protection of intellectual property is at the heart of the strategy of HYT and its sister company Preciflex. The latter is a technology platform in the field of indications, whose purpose is to control the movement of very small quantities of fluids for a variety of applications”. replica hyt skull
HYT Fluid Module
Once the critical first steps were taken, the HYT company was formed and a fundraising campaign was launched to begin production of the first functional prototypes. The second part of this article will reveal the number of constraints that must be dealt with in order for this unique project to be successful.
The challenges of creating reliable, viable and marketable products are multi-faceted, and there is no doubt that a team with both the necessary skills and enough guts is required to be ready to explore what has never been explored before. In 2010, Vuillamoz met a godsend who managed Yitong and passed on his communication skills to brand building and promotion. That man was Vincent Perillard. His talent and genuine taste for innovation have been praised in his previous watchmaking work. This excellent team was quickly completed with the arrival of Bruno Moutarlier, former industrial director of Audemars Piguet, who hired Jean François Mojon and his team Chronode to produce the HYT H1 movement.
multi-angle
The story behind it is well known: First, HYT had all attendees focused on their stand, presenting the new dimension of the H1 time display at Baselworld 2012. Then, most watchmaking commentators began to cheer the achievement of infusing liquids within the mechanism. Watch. In the end, the challenges of producing the H1 were particularly complex and incompatible with watchmaking culture. As a result, only a few watch experts can immediately understand the exact function of the fluid module. fashion watch cheap
