The HYT Conical Tourbillon Panda is a collaboration between HYT and Prix Gaïa winner and Tourbillon Maestro Eric Coudray, who took inspiration from German watchmaker Walter Prendel’s oblique tourbillon of 1928, which featured a spring-balance inclined at 30° to horizontal, in order to improve timekeeping stability and regularity. Revised and reinterpreted by Eric Coudray, the invention has been brought up to date for the modern age, and is showcased on the dial of HYT’s latest unveiling.

Located at the centre of the dial, the conical tourbillon is elevated, with its balance wheel set at 30 degrees, its escapement at 15 degrees and the anchor at 23 degrees as it completes its clockwise revolution over 30 seconds. Here, three white agate spheres rotate at differing speeds; the first completes four turns per minute; the second, five turns per minute, and the third six per minute, with the unconnected rapid rotations of the trio purposefully demonstrating the stability of the rate of the conical tourbillon. Notably each sphere measures only 2.5mm diameter, with each complemented by a tiny white counterweight, and the contrasting effect of the immaculate white spheres against the deep black components is stunning.

The watch carries a complex casing of titanium with a white ceramic coating, sized at 48mm, with a height of 25.15mm. While the central tourbillon dominates on the dial side, HYT have revealed a new aesthetic for this 8 piece edition, and the addition of a white agate chapter ring complemented by 3D black indices coated with pristine white luminescence give added drama to the façade. The minutes are via a black matte hand, and finally, the endlessly fascinating motion of the retrograde liquid time display is showcased with black liquid within an elevated capillary glass tube. On the underside, a sapphire caseback reveals the proprietary manual wound Calibre 701-TC movement where one can see the workings of the bellows which enable the immiscible liquids to be pushed through the fine glass capillary tube on the dial side. An outstanding example of contemporary Haute Horlogerie, the movement displays fine finishing, while black coated components give it a modernistic character. Complex in the extreme, it comprises of 533 components, and fully wound it has a power reserve of 40 hours.