A Moody Wrist Piece
Lurking in the shadows of the night, the dark and moody HYT skull bad boy emerges
Article by John Galt
Carrying on with this month’s personal highlights from Basel 2016 is one of my favorite brands out there and I really do mean they are out there in terms of design and execution of their time pieces. HYT burst onto the watch scene only a few years ago and straight away threw the age old rule book of watch making that had existed for centuries well and truly out the window with liquid infused pieces showing the hours via a filled tube instead of the usual hands.
This new version is based on the HYT skull that was first introduced last year. It has not been as simple as just turning everything black, for instance the liquid which shows the hours is not just simply dyed black, it took HYT 12 months of research to get the correct molecule structure so the black and clear liquid do not mix. Like the other four colours already developed by HYT this new black liquid has its own chemical properties; these properties are particularly important to create a liquid that will behave reliably in the way they want – namely going up and down a tube in a fixed pattern without sticking to the walls.
To go with this new black and moody look, HYT created a skull with a distinctive appearance of Damascus steel, which is usually used for making knives and Samurai swords. A foundry created the raw materials where multiple layers of steel and carbon are folded in on themselves a total of 256 times. After which the material is cast in batches of only five skulls, no two skulls will ever be identical given the process of folding the steel.
I’m sure some of you will have noticed that there is no minute hand and you are correct, the HYT skull only shows the hours nothing else, a bold move and makes telling the exact time impossible but hey… do we really care when you have the looks.
As cool as the black liquid looks though there is one obvious drawback – it’s impossible to read in the dark however the choice to make it non legible in the dark was apparently intentional. “It was a deliberate decision“, explains Vincent Perriard, CEO of HYT. “There were other solutions which would have made the piece visible at night. But if we wanted to play with the darkness inherent to the Skull Bad Boy, we had to go all the way. Night is part of the world of shadows and darkness. Perfectly in tune with the spirit of the skull.”
The HYT Skull Bad Boy is a big watch at 51mm but I’m sure that’s the point, as who wants to wear a bold piece like this that doesn’t make a statement while it’s worn?
The large case is matte black and made from DLC titanium which is microblasted. As earlier mentioned the Skull Bad Boy doesn’t show the minutes at all but does show the power reserve and the seconds. “Where?”, I hear you ask; well as only HYT can it’s very ingenious. The power reserve indicator is housed in the right eye socket, which gets darker as the piece reaches the end of its 65-hour power reserve, whilst the left eye socket houses the second’s disc very cleverly and keeps the dark and moody theme running. Completing the piece is a buffed alligator strap with spattering’s of slate grey and, rather unusually for even HYT not a normal titanium or metal clasp but a Velcro clasp. Apparently this is so you can fasten it over a motorcycle jacket. 
Enquiries: www.hytwatches.com/collection-skull/watch/skull-badboy/