HYT Watches, known for its disruptive liquid and mechanical timekeeping technology, is embarking on yet another comeback under the guidance of executive chairman Vincent Perriard. After a tumultuous decade marked by initial success, quality issues, and a bankruptcy in 2021, Perriard has returned to steer the brand towards stability and innovation. This new chapter begins with the launch of the T1 collection featuring a more streamlined 45mm case and a dial design that moves HYT's hallmark hydromechanical technology to the caseback. The T1 collection, with its four models, aims to address past criticisms about size and wearability. By shifting the hydromechanical elements to the back, the design embraces the trend for quiet luxury and aims to attract a new audience; also marking the genesis of a three-year reconstruction journey for HYT, which plans to introduce a sport model and a chronograph by 2026, along with further innovations in hydromechanical technology. Perriard's focus remains on innovation and rebuilding trust with customers, offering free service and refurbishment to its best clients as part of this effort. 

A core part of the HYT revival project involves Vahe Vartzbed, recently appointed General Manager of HYT Watches. Born and raised in Geneva with Armenian roots, Vahe studied ancient Greek and Latin before earning his Bachelor of Science in Business Administration and Master of Science in International Management from HEC Genève. His career spans roles at Adidas, Roger Dubuis, Girard-Perregaux, and Greubel Forsey—now based in Switzerland with his family, Vahe brings a wealth of experience and a deep passion for watchmaking to HYT. We caught up with Vartzbed during his recent visit to Mumbai, where he took us through the brand's new launches, exciting future plans, and design-based breakthroughs that HYT's streamlined, hyperspecialised team aims to address. Excerpts: 

To start off, let's take things a bit back. You've worked in significant roles across the globe in very diverse workplaces. How did that come in handy when you wanted to set up shop at HYT? 

My personal background, I started in the watch industry 15 years ago and had the chance to work with different brands, some from groups, some independent. Every time I started a new role, it was a challenge. HYT was also a challenge in the beginning. In the last nine months, the idea was to re-establish all the brand corporate guidelines, everything at the company. We wanted to develop a new chapter after 12 years with the launch of the T1. We aimed to bring something new, something unexpected. We have always done bulky, daring timepieces. 

This time you're coming with a very elegant and traditional timepiece, a streamlined design? Can you tell me a bit more about the market trends that influenced these design choices? 

Exactly. We wanted to challenge everything and explore territories where we've never been before. That's why we had the idea to come with the T1 series. For the first time ever, we have a closed dial. We have reduced the case size to 45 millimeters and reworked the wearability of the piece with the straps that fall straight on the wrist to improve not only the wearability but the comfort. And what we've done also is to improve the readability. Thanks to the dial, you can see the fluid standing out. I think watches are scaling down. People are more conscious about comfort than showing off. We wanted to improve the comfort and the wearability, which was interesting for us to also bring more watchmaking content. That's why we decided to have a dial, but not a simple dial. It's a dial with a sunburst decoration. Our motivation was to propose the most wearable and traditional timepiece ever. Now with the T1 series, you can consider wearing HYT on a daily basis, for both formal celebrations and casual days. 

You usually work with larger case diameters. Did you face any challenges in scaling things down? 

The challenge was to make a case that can encapsulate not only one but two movements. We have the mechanical movement on the upper part and the 3D module on the bottom part. The challenge was always to have these two movements working together in terms of the volume we needed to make sure we have the smallest case possible. We've been able to achieve it thanks to the design. You can see that we have no bones and it's very impactful. We have started our project development strategy for the next four to five years. On one side, we'll continue with the watchmaking content we want to create. To have like small complications. And on the other side, since we are always looking for new innovations, we are also working on a new, innovative way to display time or functions with the fleets. That direction will help us also to reduce the case size, maybe to 39 or 40 millimeters. It won't happen before the next two or three years, but this is a long development process. 

Of course, with the rather unique construction like this, it must be difficult to find the right people for your team. How do you approach that? How do you build a team that works on an extremely unique project? 

We are a small team of 12 people. We have four watchmakers, and two of them have been with us since the beginning. The others joined the adventure a few years ago. It's true that it's complicated, and that's why all our timepieces are only crafted and serviced in Switzerland in our workshop. You do the complexity of pairing both movements together, the mechanical movement and the module. They are very skilled watchmakers, and we are very happy to have our team of four watchmakers. 

Welcome to India, by the way! Is this the first time you've been here? Can you tell me a bit about your penetration into other markets in Asia, as a Swiss representative? 

No, I've been coming to India for the last 15 years. I have the chance to know Viraal Rajan of Time Avenue due to my previous experience with other brands. I'm very happy to come back to Mumbai. We want to have a small exclusive distribution and usually pick only one partner per market. So we have exclusively decided to work with Time Avenue in India. Since our production capacity is small, we also want to make sure we have the right partner everywhere. We have partners in South Sudan, in Japan, in Americas, and in Europe. 

Now that we've put out the T1, can you tell me a bit about the previous ranges and how they sort of informed the buying decision for somebody who wants to enter now? 

Thanks to the T1, we believe that we have a very good representation of a collection. We have the T1 series, which is the first step into HYT. Then we have the collection called Hasteroid, which is a bit more daring with a skeleton movement that you can see. Then we have the Moon Runner collection, which was introduced in 2022. The Moon Runner was the first with a small complication, so it shows moon phases, dates, and month. That was also a very important milestone. And the fourth collection is the most impressive timepiece we can propose. It's the conical tourbillon. After 11 years we launched the first Conical Tourbillon, the first tourbillon ever produced by the brand. So we believe these four collections have a good representation in a broad array of proposals and offers. I must add here that for our association with Time Avenue our exclusive partner in India we have unveiled Hasteroid Rose Gold Unique Piece.  This is one unique piece for Time Avenue and is priced at approx. INR 1.10 crores. 

Congratulations on 12 years of HYT. I think this is one of the most eye-catching products. It's one of the few watches where you look directly inside the movement and you instantly realize who it's from. What's something that you would tell an entrepreneur trying to create a product that really is, I would say, unique in its own space? 

I think we've been lucky with the founders that we have because they've explored a very unique display of time. And we can see that there are some brands trying to disrupt the time indication. I believe that what you have to do is to be consistent in the long term. And this is why we have our signature for the last 12 years. As you said, we can always see the uniqueness of our timepiece. So my only advice is once you find your signature, your red line, just follow it, and you just have to let the time to your product to live and sometimes to die.