Review: HYT Skull AXL Rose

HYT cobrands its SKULL with a famous singer. The headline reads with resounding applause. Axl R0se, a founding member of Guns N’ Roses and probably one of the most respected rock artists of the last 30 years, is a famous friend of the brand. And now, the contemporary watch brand consummates their love for each other with a blue dial SKULL on a cut through bund strap.

Axl Rose, a founding member of Guns N’ Roses and HYT have launched a limited edition also known as the HYT Skull AXL Rose.

The watch is cased in DLC titanium with microblasted finishes. It measures 51 mm in diameter and 17.9 mm in height.

The Case

The watch is cased in DLC titanium with microblasted finishes. It measures 51 mm in diameter and 17.9 mm in height. As part of his design input, Axl chose to affix two side plates to the piece (at 9 o’clock and 3 o’clock), decorated with the Clous de Paris pattern and also finished in blue PVD. The piece has a resolutely rock’n’roll feel, with a bold strap featuring blue topstitching. Fit with an open case back for the movement to be on display, HYT does something similar to Hublot Big Bang limited editions and incorporates a Guns N’ Roses logo to pay tribute to the rock icon. The watch comes complete with the singer’s signature on the metallised sapphire case-back.

The dial is unstructured but adorned with a rhodium-plated Clous de Paris stud pattern. The matt blue PVD indexes mark the hours and the time is indicated by fluid housed in a transparent tube.

The dial

The blue skull is made from Damascus steel with a blue PVD treatment. Damascus steel is a piece of the past. It hails from Syria, recognizable for the wavy water like effect on the steel. This is said to be caused by carbon sediments added to the steel mixture. At the periphery, sits a black hour dial with grey indexes; strangely attractive for its calligraphic hand painted look.

At the centre of the dial, lies the crux of the “matter”. The grey matter in the skull seeps through its eyes, and not without reason. The left eye hides a barely visible seconds dial which rotates continuously. In the right eye, lies a power reserve indicator. In both cases, a subtle honeycomb pattern provides the background and adds depth to the eyes.

HYT’s calibre 101, a manual winding mechanical movement with a fluid twist. It beats at 28,800 Vph and has a 65-hour power reserve . The 35 jewels movement has its bridges hand-bevelled and adorned with Côtes de Genève.

The movement

Proudly conceived as the first modern mechanical watch which uses liquids to tell the time, HYT achieves all of this with its mastery of the use of a capillary, which carries a fluid to act as the hour marker. The 35 jewels movement beats at 28,800 vib/h, 4 Hz and its bridges are hand-chamfered and adorned with Côtes de Genève. The bellows are rhodium plated and the movement runs with a 65-hour power reserve. A well finished Hydro mechanical movement, it features cotes de geneve finishing and polished angling. The movement and finishing was completed under the supervision of Jean-François Mojon.

51 mm on the wrist.

The HYT SKULL AXL ROSE is limited to 25 pieces. Undoubtedly, the watch is iconic and interesting in concept. But one thing is for sure, it’ll truly only appeal to those who are fans of Guns n Roses, or Axl Rose himself.