Never before has an HYT creation been so exclusive, and yet here we are with the chilling HYT Skull Vida watch. This timepiece has gone so far in playing with the codes of life and death to celebrate the passing of time and to seize the day. It is a watch of different proportions, and used with very unique materials.
Only five Skull Vida pieces have been released in HYT’s most restricted limited edition to date. In fact, rather than a limited edition, the innovative Swiss watchmakers prefer to call them five unique pieces; each one is different as they call on living material in a real watchmaking first: mammoth ivory from many millennia ago.
“Our first Skull collections fell within the tradition of Memento Mori, reflecting in particular the Mexican culture of Dia de los Meurtos, where death is celebrated in the same way as life, in a celebratory communion of the passing of time,” recalls Grégory Dourde, CEO of HYT. “However, we felt that we could go even further still by literally combining life and the unique flow of time with our fluid technology and a dial made from an authentic material, a true living sculpture. The Skull Vida was born from this all-encompassing, holistic vision.”
The Skull Vida comes in a 51mm black DLC titanium case with polished, micro-blasted and satin-finished finishes. The exclusive timepiece is powered by HYT’s incredible mechanical hand-wound movement which provides a 65-hour power reserve.
Its extraordinary dial is shaped like a skull and is crafted from Siberian mammoth ivory. This living material had to undergo a stabilisation process over the course of several months. It was sculpted and embedded in the Skull Vida thanks to a series of delicate tasked carried out by specially trained artisans and technicians. Each dial is completely unique and offers different textures, variations and designs. HYT’s Skull was entirely redesigned to highlight the fantastic properties of the mammoth ivory as much as possible.
The seconds are displayed in the left eye of the skull, with the power reserve displayed in the right. The entire artwork is surrounded by an HYT capillary specially folded into the skull shape, in which the separation point of two immiscible liquids indicates the hours. The bezel indicates the result on a black background, with Arabic numerals in a font specially created for the Skull Vida. It is also the first time that HYT has developed a fabric-based strap, which features beautiful fine embroidery in an floral pattern – a true symbol of life!
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