The Latest Moon Runners from HYT Display Mind-blowing ‘Liquid Timekeeping’

As the brand itself puts it, “liquid timekeeping” is HYT’s way of capturing time’s flow and context. Ever since it gained prominence in 2012, the timepiece maker has produced some of the most striking and distinctive timepieces that merge art with cutting-edge technology — fluid-system technology, to be precise. The brand has now launched the Moon Runner Ghost and Moon Runner Desert watches, each limited to only 15 pieces.

The collection features a capillary tube containing two liquids that don’t mix; one liquid is coloured while other is clear. These two fluids use a bellows system wherein one liquid expands while the other contracts, thus moving the fluids through the tube. The system relies on sealing the bellows and the capillary, leading to sealing of the fluids. This system maintains just the right fluidic pressure and the boundary position between the two fluids. It takes 12 hours for one of the fluids to complete a full rotation around the dial. At the end of each 12-hour cycle, the bellows reset to their original positions. The coloured fluid works like a retrograde hour display. 

There’s a track on the dial’s inner periphery for reading minutes via the triangular pointer. Two concentric and rotating titanium discs around the moon phase display are engraved to show the date and the month next to the 6 o’clock index. However, the standout feature of the watches has to be  the central 3D moon phase display; there’s an aperture that allows you to view the moon's illuminated portion. Another key feature of both the HYT Moon Runner Ghost Watch and the HYT Moon Runner Desert Watch is the hand-painted hemisphere, representing the moon. The miniature artist meticulously painted the half-sphere in the dark under UV lamps, taking a full day to complete the task. 

The luxury timepiece maker has incorporated a white paint as the base for the two lunar faces to have the right amount of luminescence. For the HYT Moon Runner Desert variant, the artist has used beige pigments to get the granulated structure while the HYT Moon Runner Ghost model, which comes with sleeker aesthetics, reflects a different face.

One of the two 48 mm models is crafted from titanium and carbon (Ref. H02981-A) while the other is made of black, coated, sandblasted, finished titanium with a carbon case (Ref. H02984-A). The minute hand on each watch is subtly integrated beneath the month and date discs so that only the triangular tip is visible. It glows in white Super-LumiNova®. Both the month and day indicator discs are engraved and enhanced with Super-LumiNova® as well. The crown on the titanium and carbon model is coated in black and silver titanium with a silver layout while on the black coated sandblasted model, it comes in black coated titanium with a beige/sand colour layout. 

The Moon Runner Ghost model comes with white numerals for its hour, silver minute markers, a silver satin month disc, and a silver satin date disc with a black liquid inside the borosilicate capillary tube. The silver moon comes with white SLN and micropainting, with all SLN in Super-LumiNova®. On the other hand, the Moon Runner Desert model gets beige/sand luminescent hour markers and a black liquid inside a borosilicate capillary tube. The timepiece gets black matte minute hands with white SLN block, black matte day of the month disc in beige/sand SLN, black matte month disc with beige/sand SLN, and black moon with beige/sand SLN and micropainting, all SLN being in Super-LumiNova®.

The HYT Moon Runner Ghost and HYT Moon Runner Desert watches are powered by an automatic, manual winding Calibre 601-MO with  72 hours of power reserve. The caseback of the Ghost model showcases the engraving of HS 19 while the Moon Runner Desert watch has the engraving of HS 12. The HYT Moon Runner Ghost model is finished on a black rubber strap with a black microfibre embossed decoration and white stitching, sporting a titanium pin buckle clasp. The HYT Moon Runner Desert variant gets a black rubber strap with a beige/sand microfiber embossed decoration and beige/sand stitching, featuring a black coated titanium pin buckle clasp.