Swiss independent company HYT marks its return in typically bombastic style with the unveiling of its all-new Hastroid Green Nebula wristwatch, a spectacular limited edition of twenty-seven pieces which continues to push the parameters of watch design and time display, with the brand’s distinctively high tech aesthetics and its groundbreaking Meca-Fluide movement technology.

A dramatic piece of contemporary avant garde watchmaking, with its vivid neo green detailing standing out against a backdrop of matte black, and featuring the defining HYT signature of a fluid hour indication, elevated like a glass monorail above a three dimensional dial, the Hastroid Green Nebula is an extraordinary watch with an utterly imposing presence on the wrist.

Measuring 48mm across, 52.3mm end to end with a height of 17.2mm, the case is manufactured in Grade 5 titanium, which has been sandblasted to a fine satin finish and then coated with black DLC. Around its waist, a perforated mesh of carbon allows the green inner coat to show through, and elsewhere sculpted hollows and recesses add to the futuristic feel of the watch.

Beneath the sapphire crystal, the dial too is an elaborate affair, consisting of an outer band of black honeycomb mesh, onto which the luminous green arabic numerals are applied, with a sapphire central panel revealing the remarkable mechanism within. The green central minute hand is skeletonised and tipped with Super-LumiNova, and hovers just over the minutes index ring at the end of its reach. The power reserve is indicated near the two o’clock position, while the seconds are displayed via a tri-armed pointer at the ten.

The hours are displayed using HYT’s patented Meca-Fluide system. An elevated glass tube encircles the centre of the dial, where the meeting point of the two immiscible fluids within; one a lurid green, the other completely invisible, creates a clearly defined leading edge which indicates the hour. Their individual properties mean that it is impossible for one fluid to contaminate the other as they push against each other, as they are forced through the fine glass capillary by the pair of hydraulic bellows which dominate the lower section of  the dial, expanding and contracting as they force the fluids around and above the display, before retracting to start again as the time strikes six o’clock.

On the underside, a sapphire caseback reveals the manual wound Calibre 501 movement. Finished to haute horlogerie standards, it is the product of a collaboration with innovations specialist TEC Ebauches. Fully wound, the single barrel has a 65 hour power reserve, and the balance pulsates at 28’800 vib/h.

Manufactured in a limited edition of only twenty-seven pieces, the Hastroid Green Nebula by HYT is a watch with enormous character, and one which is impossible to wear discretely. It is presented on a black rubber strap with a bright green alcantara inlay and is secured with a black titanium folding clasp.