Conical Tourbillon Infinity Sapphires

The ultimate symbiosis between a conical tourbillon and a precious and sparkling animation: HYT CONICAL TOURBILLON INFINITY SAPPHIRES.

Spirited and sensual, thanks to the paired motion of the retrograde fluidic hour indication and the conical tourbillon’s revolution with its dynamic sapphire animations, the HYT Conical Tourbillon Infinite Sapphires carries within a new form of life, symbolized by its central mechanical heart. On the wrist, the lines and finishes of the HYT Conical Tourbillon Infinite Sapphires give it a singular allure. A discerning eye will notice the refined, haute horlogerie finishing of the 701 TC caliber, a hand-wound mechanical movement oscillating at a frequency of 21,600 vph (3Hz).

What makes this caliber even more remarkable is the tourbillon that comes to life at the very heart of this horological ecosystem, with its spiral balance inclined at 30 degrees to the horizontal, its escapement wheel at 15 degrees and an anchor at 23 degrees. An audacious engineering prowess that builds on the work of German watchmaker Walter Prendel and his inclined balance tourbillon initially positioned at 6 o'clock. In his workshops in Groitzsch, in a region of Saxony as famous as Switzerland for the development of advanced horology, Walter Prendel wanted to demonstrate the relevance of his research – based on the theories of master watchmaker Alfred Helwig – on improving the stability and regularity of an oblique tourbillon with a balance-spring assembly inclined at 30° from the horizontal.

In the early 2020s, master watchmaker and Prix Gaïa winner Eric Coudray, who was familiar with Walter Prendel's cutting-edge work, decided to pursue his efforts to improve the tourbillon efforts – and revisited Prendel's inclined tourbillon. Maintaining the momentum of its own advances in contemporary haute horlogerie, HYT naturally gravitated towards such a tourbillon for its new watch.

The conical tourbillon makes a complete clockwise rotation in 30 seconds. Nestled around its periphery, three exceptional faceted sapphires, each 2.5 mm in diameter, magnify the life force emanating from this breathtaking visual spectacle – a perception itself amplified by the almost imperceptible, airy sound of the tourbillon. These distinctly colored gems – fuchsia, blue-gray and yellow – rotate at different speeds. The first, the fuchsia gem, completes 4 revolutions per minute. The second, the blue-gray one, rotates at 5 rpm, and the last, yellow, at 6 rpm. Each of these dazzling spheres is tracked by a counterweight, of a distinctive color and finely finished in miniature paint.

Elevating the tourbillon’s visual impact, six smaller sapphires, each 1.5 mm in diameter, set in the tourbillon’s brackets. The spectacular brilliance of this timepiece is further evinced in the finishes executed according to the purest traditions of haute horlogerie, from the titanium tourbillon cage to the chamfered, straight-grained, polished and satin-finished bridges and polished screw cores. The ‘chaotic’ animation of the three rotating spheres only underscores the conical tourbillon’s technical efficiency and smoothness in operation.

The assembly comprises 533 components; 159 for the tourbillon carriage alone. Add to this 39 parts for the dial and 66 for the case, and the entire HYT Conical Tourbillon Infinite Sapphires totals 750 components, all verified, assembled and re-checked by hand. The black fluidic hour module, the HYT hallmark, naturally finds its place in this exceptional tourbillon movement, entirely housed in a 48 mm case in 5N rose gold and black DLC titanium, topped by a dome-shaped crystal with multiple layers of anti-reflective coating on both sides that makes this watch pop off the wrist.