The superb H0 Orange by groundbreaking watch brand HYT takes us into the brand’s strange and unique world of watchmaking, where liquids co-exist in harmony with delicate mechanical horology, and time is displayed via a fascinating combination of pressurised hydraulics and analogue subdials. 

The H0 Collection takes all of HYT’s technical know-how, and its defining signature features and reimagines them in a style which, while unmistakably purebred HYT, has a more refined and even toned down appearance compared to any of its siblings.

The HYT H0 Orange is a quite stunning piece, constructed in brushed and satin finished stainless steel with a mass of sapphire crystal and integrated rubber strap. It is a high tech conversation stopper with compelling futuristic visual features and meticulous Haute Horlogerie standards of manufacture and hand finishing throughout.

Beneath the magnificent domed sapphire crystal which encloses three quarters of the watch, spilling down over the edge of the dial and the brushed internal bezel with 24 hour markings, creating a glasshouse effect which reveals even more of the three dimensional display within, vivid bright orange indications contrast spectacularly against the backdrop of a combination of gunmetal and silvery greys.

 Instantly the eye is drawn to the black fluid inside the super fine glass capillary which encircles the dial, emerging and disappearing at the 6. With HYT’s proprietary hydro-mechanical technology, the two bellows visible through the pill shaped windows in the lower half of the dial expand and contract to force two immiscible fluids, one with black dye, one completely clear, around the little tube in a twelve-hour retrograde cycle to display the hours. 

In classic regulateur layout the minutes are displayed on the elevated central dial, and it’s flanked by the small seconds and power reserve indicator on either side.

Around the back, a sapphire caseback reveals the HYT Calibre 101 hand winding movement, and a view of its stripped back plates, the balance and escapement, along with the barrel and gear train which are all compacted into the upper half, to accommodate the pair of rhodium plated bellows. Fully wound, it is good for 65 hours of power reserve. 

At 48.8mm the HYT H0 Orange is a bold and fabulous watch which packs enormous presence on the wrist, yet with the rubber strap slotting inside the case, and the folding clasp making for a close, wrist-hugging fit, it does wear very comfortably for its size.