Hands On The Limited Edition HYT H1 Cigar, The Holy Smoke Watch Of Baselworld

There’s no smoke without fire. HYT lit up Baselworld 2015 with another strong collection including the HYT H3, and the H4 Gotham collection, and the brand celebrated the good life with the HYT H1 Cigar, the brand’s first fully customized watch. “All our creations are unique. And now they will be even more so,” says Vincent Perriard, CEO of this young independent Biel-based brand. Since it’s launch in 2012, HYT has been a game-changer in the niche watch industry, being the only watchmaker which uses fluids to display the time.

For Cigar lovers who are also HYT connoisseurs, the H1 Cigar’s case can be decorated with the most beautiful Rodolfo Vitola cigar leaves from their own personal collection. “The real challenge was to develop an alloy whose chemical structure we could alter by adding solid, foreign elements to its basic formula, without affecting either its reliability or technical properties, such as hardness, density or brilliance,” explains Perriard.

Developed in association with Singapore’s La Casa Cubana cigar bar, the white colour minutes subdial is surrounded a gold circular ring and displays the logo of the bar and the flags of Cuba and Singapore. The hour ring, with white indexes and roman numerals, on the skeletonised dial is a warm brown colour, highlighting the sub-seconds dial and well in theme with the Rodolfo Vitola’s finest tobacco leaves in the case. Luminescent minute hand and hour-markers make the time more readable when lighting is an issue, a must for those who want to enjoy a smoke of their favourite brand in the evening.

Providing an almost obstruction-free look inside the movement, the small seconds wheel is cleverly located at 9:30, whereas the power reserve is indicated at 2:30, with the Regulator at 12 o’clock. With a case of 48.8 mm in diameter and 17.9 mm in thickness, the HYT H1 looks ‘solid’ on the wrist, but due to the case being made in titanium mainly, the watch feels relatively light. With 65 hours of power reserve, the HYT H1 timepiece is a real looker!

The mechanical hand-wound, exclusive HYT calibre activates the hydro system. Masterminded by Jean-François Mojon and his Chronode SA team, the movement is located in the upper part of the timepiece, and propels a cam, pushing the piston and activating the bellows.

To go with the brown colour of the cigar leaves, a brown alligator leather strap is chosen by HYT’s creative team, and a titanium bronze PVD pin buckle adds the final finishing touch of éclat. The HYT H1 Cigar is limited to only 8 pieces worldwide.

Photo Credit: Haute Time. For more information, please visit the official HYT website. Follow Haute Time on Instagram to catch all of the new releases as they happen.