Something a bit different from the independent Swiss watchmaker, which launched the bold Colorblock collection to commemorate its third anniversary.

The party is on for HYT, which has started the celebrations for its third anniversary. The brand has definitely made its mark on contemporary watchmaking in its short existence, with the use of game changing mechanical fluid technology. Their impact has been so pronounced that I always have the feeling that the brand has been already around for decades.

To commemorate three years in business, they wanted to do something special, as co-founder Vincent Perriard explains:

"To celebrate this anniversary, we wanted to please our fans and play around a bit with what we have created, starting with our first baby - the H1…. The colours are in tune with the spirit of HYT: imposing, fresh, explosive and uncompromising.”

The result is the H1 Colorblock collection, and boy does it catch the eye. Three different versions have been launched – in red, yellow and blue – and each comes in a limited edition of ten pieces. As a result, the price for each is $39,000 – quite an expensive birthday gift!

The new watches remain faithful to their H1 “ancestors”, which were launched in 2012. For example, the black liquid created for the H1 Full Gold and the minute hand developed for the H1 Ghost are borrowed and join forced in this special edition.

The capillary on the H1 Colorblock is partially coated in SuperLumiNova, which glows green in low light to illuminate it from below. This allows the telling of time – which admittedly needs some getting used to – because the opaque black liquid blocks light, while the clear liquid allows it through.

Because there is so much going mechanically on with these watches, we expect a large package overall. And we definitely get that: the cases are nearly 49mm wide and 18mm thick. The cases are also robust thanks to the PVD-coated titanium, balanced nicely with new fabric straps that are allergy and water-resistant.

Running the show is the hi-beat H1 manually wound movement, which boasts a nice power reserve of 65 hours that is also indicated nicely on the dial. It tells the time impressively via the brand’s famous liquid capillaries, which are matched with a more traditional minute hand and seconds dial.

This latest offering by HYT is definitely bold, even flamboyant - as if their watches weren’t eye catching enough! My suspicion is that with this collection the brand is most probably targeting the next generation of consumers. And forwarding thinking is always great, especially for an industry obsessed with its past.

Technical information: H1 Colorblock RED

Case:

• titanium gun metal PVD with brushed, shot-peened and satin-finished surfaces
• diameter: 48.8 mm, thickness: 17.9 mm
• black rubber-clad screw-lock crown
• titanium gun metal PVD crown guard screw-locked added lugs, titanium gun metal PVD dome at 06:00
• cambered sapphire crystal glass with anti-reflective coating on the inside, screw-down sapphire back
• water-resistant to 100 meters

Functions:

• retrograde black fluidic hours; minutes, seconds

Movement:

• mechanical hand-wound, 28,800 vph, 4 Hz, 35 jewels
• bridges hand-chamfered and adorned with côtes de Genève, rhodiumed bellows
• 65-hour power reserve

Dial:

• unstructured, fluidic hours; red hour dial, white indexes and numerals; red minute dial, white indexes and numerals, black minute hand
• hours’ path filled with white Super-LumiNova®; luminescent hand and hour-markers
• regulator at 12:00; small seconds wheel at 09:30; power-reserve indicator at 02:30

Strap:

• red reinforced fabric, water resistant and anti-allergen fibres, sustainably produced
• black topstitching; titanium gun metal PVD pin buckle