The release of the HYT Hastroid Green Nebula watch marked the return of Swiss HYT, but the subsequent release of the HYT Moonrunner is truly the type of innovation you’ll see HYT become known for moving forward. The Moonrunner Supernova Blue (I know the name is dramatic) features the same case construction and basic movement as the Hastroid, but introduces a new dial display with moon phases and annual calendar. Now, let’s take a look at the new 2022 HYT Moonrunner Supernova Blue.
HYT poetically calls the Moonrunner watch “a 3D moon window to space”. The astronomical theme is the brand’s new signature, breaking away from the more traditional “futuristic watchmaker and hydrographer” of the previous generation of HYT companies. The entire Moonrunner dial is impressive in both the way the information is displayed and the deep three-dimensional design that takes full advantage of the space under the top of the highly curved sapphire crystal.
From the outside in, the perimeter of the Moonrunner Supernova Blue dial begins with HYT‘s signature retrograde time display, which is set on a luminous lacquer background using blue liquid. Moving inward is a more traditional minute hand, which moves beneath the moving calendar ring in the form of a white arrow hand. So as you move more toward the center of the dial, you’ll see a month ring first, followed by a date ring. Both are read via hands located at 6 o’clock on the dial. At the very center of the Moonrunner dial is a blue and black three-dimensional sphere that moves beneath a circular window representing the moon phase indicator.
Most of the dials feature a matte finish and plenty of anodized aluminum. It’s true that the crystal has a degree of glare, but the HYT Moonrunner’s barely reflective display is a real benefit to its overall design, making it feel more like a futuristic instrument than another too hard-working of luxury wearables attract attention with shiny surfaces. Viewers tend to love the look of concentric rings, and Moonrunner’s display does just that, perfectly using not only the rings within the rings to create the dial, but also a pyramid effect with a high degree of depth. This is the watch face your eyes really love to explore and investigate.
The “Supernova Blue” part of the Moonrunner’s name may suggest that HYT plans to produce more color variations in the future, possibly using a different case material. This reference H02758-A Moonrunner has a PVD-coated black titanium case with a mostly sandblasted finish. You can see the inner blue structure in the case, made of anodized aluminum. Despite its size – 48mm wide, 21.8mm thick, 52.3mm lug-to-lug distance and 50m water resistance, it’s still very comfortable.
Inside the watch is a HYT movement, which the brand calls Caliber 601-MO. Manual winding, 72 hours power reserve, 4Hz operating frequency. At first glance, it may look like a traditional HYT movement, but it is a substantially upgraded base, developed by the old HYT team but never launched in production. It improves on all sorts of things, and certainly has some novel elements. HYT’s current management simply needs to put some finishing touches on the movement before being able to properly industrialize it, while creating the crescent moon display and annual calendar system modules to suit it.
A useful feature of this movement is the embedded pushers on the left side of the case, which allow quick adjustment of the moon phase and month indicators. Interestingly, you really need to know this watch very well to understand because the moon phase indicator has a different symbol than most moon phase watches, the “M” for the month can easily be mistaken for the “M” for the moon . In any case, the watch functions are easy to adjust and the functional annual calendar combined with the emotional moon phase indicator makes for a fun and original watch wearing experience.
The Moonrunner Supernova Blue case comes with a fitted rubber strap with a blue suede style fabric insert that looks cool and fits the wrist nicely with a simple buckle without unnecessary and Discreet deployant clasp. Despite the larger case size, this is a very fun and stylish luxury watch that doesn’t feel like it’s trying to be overly flashy, but has the space-age instrument vibe I think Davide Cerrato’s HYT aspires to.