BaselWorld Doors Open March 8th, 2012 and HYT H1 Hydro Mechanical Watch is on Display

 

Ok! Whose a running to BaselWorld Hall Palace Booth P05 A?  Run through the palace entrance. Race past the huge CASIO exhibits (lots of G-shocks on display - I assume).  Take note of the Urwerk and MB & F on your left ( a definite stop on your way out).  Hurry past the large P03 hall - yes the Haldimann un-watch is keeping its un-time as well as numerous ArtyA creations! Zoom past the Ikepod Hour Glasses and De Bethune on your right! Come to a screaming halt outside your destination at Booth P05 A- the HYT H1 Hydro Mechanical Watch on Display. Bend over! Place your hands on your knees and take a deep breath.  You have arrived to view the most talked about watch on the web - The HYT H1 Hydro Mechanical Watch... and once you have taken a good look at the Watch - please do me a favor and tell me all about it.

I know you have probably heard tons about this watch - Ariel Adams at  a blog to read - describes this watch better than anyone on the net.  Read his article for a full synopsis. 

And if Videos are your preferred source of information - I have provided that for you too.  

What is The Time on My Haldimann Reduction H9?

I must say I wrote this blog with a smile on my face for a watch maker with guts and gall. 
If someone would ask me, "What watch has a movement, but tells no time?"  I would say it would have to be the Haldimann Reduction H9 watch.   Looking at the watch with its opaque scratch resistant sapphire crystal - to protect the "un-dial" perhaps - one may assume there is nothing beyond its blackened void, but bringing the un-watch up to ones ear and hearing the gentle ticking emanating from the case, assures us that there is more than meets the eye. The manually wound movement is actually a really nice functional  hand engraved caliber H.Zen-1 sporting a triple barrel flying tourbillon  The movement is of magnificent craftsmanship with no purpose. 

About 2 years ago I did stick up for the Haldimann H8 praising the lone tourbillon's wondrous sculpture in motion - see here, but the new H9 leaves me wondering of the actual purpose of the platinum encased timepiece. The company uses a kind of philosophical stance to its creation saying "time can thus be imagined, dreamed, or invented."  The quote is wide open to opinion.


 But back to the practicality of the un-timepiece -

"How does one read this watch?"  Well you don't - as I have explained it is an un-watch. So what exactly is its function?  Hmm - It is a conversation piece - which can make you look pretty stupid when you glance at it and say, "Oh No its late - I'd better be going."

For 150,000 francs one purchases a 39mm or 42mm solid platinum case surrounding an exceptional caliber H.Zen-1 with triple barrel flying tourbillon shrouded in a completely opaque sapphire crystal.  

Haldimann Horology H8 Sculptura Defies Gravity and Reason

No this watch does not tell the time, but if it did, it would ensure gravity bears no effect on it.
In the stark blackness of the dial flutters a tourbillon - an hypnotic complication invented in 1795 by French watchmaker Abraham-Louis Breguet, a century after Newton defined gravity. Breguet reasoned that as a result of the constant position of the vertical position of the pocket watch, the balance spring is confounded by the effect of gravity effecting the accuracy of the watch. This error could be compensated with a tourbillion whereby the escapement, balance wheel, and balance spring is placed in a rotating carriage which turns once per minute on its own axis.

However, the H8 Sculptura does not display the time and thus has no need for precision. In addition, a tourbillon was designed for a pocket watch and thus gravity does not effect (if it ever did) the movement of a wrist watch.
Haldimann has introduced the H8 Sculptura for what it is, a mechanical work of art, for which there is no functional timekeeping purpose. A pragmatist would argue, if a tourbillon has no effect on precision then what use is it?
I would say, a tourbillon is a complication only achieved by exceptional watch makers, a right of passage if you will dividing the serious watch collectors from the novices. It has survived for hundreds of years as a complication unto itself, and I think Haldimann is unveiling this watch to display the magic of the tourbillon, and only the tourbillon, in its entirety.