Skull. Bad. Boy.
Need we say more? The name really says it all. Its
appearance speaks volumes, yet masks a stunning complexity. There's more to the
skull than meets the eye!
Back to Black
One would naturally assume that the starting point for the
Skull Bad Boy was the skull itself, unveiled by HYT in 2015. Not so. The
creative impetus actually came from the new liquid that surrounds it.
This is not a simple aesthetic variation. This opaque black,
so simple to look at, took more than 12 months to develop. Like the four other colors
developed by HYT, the black version has its own chemical properties. These
affect attributes such as viscosity, expansion coefficient and UV resistance.
Its creation meant going back to scratch. The goal? to
create a fluid able to adapt to the constraints of an HYT movement, which does
not adhere to the wall of the capillary, can hold a meniscus and does not
interact on a molecular level with the elements it comes into contact with. The
result was achieved in autumn 2015 before undergoing several weeks of testing
to confirm its chemical stability.
Black...Out
Chemistry was one concern, but aesthetics was another.
Creating a black fluid is not without its problems: whilst the other colors
created by HYT are able to reflect all or some of the light they receive, black
absorbs everything. The inevitable result is that it is impossible to read the
time on the Skull Bad Boy in the dark.
"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."
Neuchâtel – Damascus
To go with this new black liquid, HYT wanted to create a
skull with the distinctive appearance of Damascus steel, used for knives and
Samurai swords. The dial comprises two half-moons decorated with the Clous de
Paris stud pattern. Its indexes are created in a Gothic font, complementing the
Skull Bad Boy's hard rock look. Its matte black 51 mm case, made from fully
microblasted DLC titanium, is attached to a brand new buffed alligator strap
with hints of slate grey. It has a Velcro clasp so that it can be adjusted to
fit on a leather biker jacket", says Vincent Perriard with a smile.
The Skull is coated with a new composite material, created
to resemble Damascus steel. A foundry in the Neuchâtel region created the raw
material: multiple layers of steel and carbon are folded in on themselves a
total of 256 times! This material is cast in batches of five skulls, no two of
which will ever be identical.
The result is an ever-changing interplay of its two
component materials. The steel is an eye-catching grey, whilst the black color
of the carbon is revealed by a chemical abrasion process. In its unfinished
state, the Skull has countless tiny crevasses, evidence of the intense
exertions it has undergone in the foundry. HYT levels the surface then covers
it with a translucent layer of varnish.
All the functionalities of the original Skull have been
preserved. The power reserve indicator sits in the right eye socket, which gets
darker as the piece reaches the end of its 65-hour power reserve. The left eye
socket houses the seconds disc, permanently, imperceptibly, turning.
The Skull Bad Boy is available as a limited edition of 50
pieces.
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