Luxury Watchmaker HYT Emerges From Bankruptcy With Improved Quality Controls
It looks like HYT’s time wasn’t up after all. The luxury watch seller — with prices in excess of $70,000 — that boasts it was “born of a question” faced a questionable future when it filed for bankruptcy last year, but it has emerged from the depths with an increased focus on quality control, the Financial Times (FT) reported Thursday (Jan. 27).
Based on the company’s motto — “Time flows and only gains meaning through how we experience it” — HYT’s place in the luxury goods marketplace has gained plenty of meaning since it was forced to admit its approach wasn’t working and the products it was churning out weren’t good enough to justify the lofty price tag, according to the report.
The company has rethought everything about how its watches our built, although the Swiss brand still “use a mechanical movement both to drive a minute hand in the conventional way and to mark the hours by pumping fluorescent fluid through a system of capillary tubes,” the report stated.
HYT CEO Davide Cerrato said, per the report, he is excited for what the future holds for his company, which was founded in 2012.
“Our first decision was to perform a full reset in terms of quality because this was an area where HYT experienced a number of issues in the past, especially in terms of preventing the two fluids that are contained in the system from mixing,” he told FT. “We also want to enhance the luxury and desirability of the brand. I think the previous models were more about the complexities of the technology than the enjoyment of wearing the watch, and later versions were pitched at a price point that was too low for serious collectors but where there were also too many competitors.”
HYT is expected to make “no more than 200 watches” this year to ensure quality, although it will unveil two new models by the end of 2022, according to the report.
Last month, online luxury goods reseller Rebag raised $33 million through a Series E fundraising round, bringing the firm’s total funding to $101 million. It plans to use the fresh capital to build on its technological tools, including its Clair Technology Suite.
Read more: Luxury Reseller Rebag Bags $33M in Series E