Give a child a piece of paper and a pencil and have him draw a watch and he will draw a circular case with two thin lines for hands. Davide Cerrato is presumably the exception to the so-called confirmation rule, since with a HYT Hastroid in his hand, it’s hard to believe he drew round watches as a child. As an adult, he did, setting the first Tudors and Montblancs over the years, but when HYT gave him a blank sheet of paper and a pencil, this kid who grew up on bread, Star Wars and superheroes created something almost alien.

The HYT brand may not sound new to watch lovers, but the company and new management are taking a completely different route than in the past, and so are its products. The first model, due out in early 2022, is called the Hastroid Green Nebula, and it already hints that the inspiration isn’t entirely from our planet; a first glance only confirms that conjecture. The watch’s case shape is hard to pin down: the angular, layered and machined titanium and carbon look is reminiscent of a space shuttle, and it smoothly integrates a rubber or Alcantara strap, despite its 48mm diameter , which guarantees the unexpected new wear resistance of HYT cheap watches.

The Hastroid isn’t exactly slim, barely 18mm thick, but it’s certainly wearable, especially considering what it’s packed into. The mechanism itself consists of two modules: the first is a “classic” 4Hz mechanical module that guarantees a power reserve of 72 hours, and the second is a fluid module that represents the HYT brand and the true soul of this watch: impossible not to notice, at least On the Skull dial, so to speak, is a tiny tube filled with an alien green liquid. HYT’s patented way and “signature” to indicate the time. In fact, the watch has a central minute hand, more imposing and striking than in the past, flanked by a second hand and a power reserve indicator; the rest of the stage is at six o’clock. Occupied by two cylindrical “artifacts”, they are connected to microtubes that run around the entire circumference of the mechanism.

HYT HASTROD Green Nebula: A Masterpiece of Chemistry and Precision
This is not the place to discuss chemistry and fluid dynamics (the author doesn’t know about the subject either), but imagine two miniature tanks, one containing a very dense green liquid and the other a clear liquid. Connect them with a tube the thickness of a human hair, put the whole thing in a vacuum, and attach it to the mechanical module so that the split wheel precisely compresses the barrel containing the green liquid into the tube ( push transparent) to precisely indicate the passage of time. complete? Well, now all you have to do is set up a return system that allows – at the 6 o’clock stroke – the two barrels to reverse the flow so that the green liquid returns to its original position, resetting the hour. Ah, this time it must have happened suddenly, not gradually like before.

Completed? Almost, because one of the biggest enemies of fluids – hence our superhero watches – is temperature change: cold makes it cool down, heat makes it liquefy further. These can cause problems for a cheap watch with only a few drops of lube on the pinion and ruby, imagine what happens to the Hastroid, which is a tanker by comparison: HYT solves the problem, we can be concise Briefly referred to as a micro-condenser, it is placed inside a micro-tank and is able to expand or compress at the slightest temperature change, thus guaranteeing a constant pressure inside the micro-tube and the watch always working precisely. The easiest but also the most complicated part is that it can be adjusted simply by turning the crown at 2 o’clock.