Hautlence Unveils New HLq Model

Courtesy of our friends at: TheTimeTV.

Hautlence, one of my favorite independent Swiss firms, has put forth the latest of their fascinating jump hour pieces. The HLq02 'Honeycomb stitch' is the continuation of a line of limited production pieces that have put Hautlence on the map. It's no secret that I am a big fan of any manufacturer that pushes the envelope of traditional watchmaking, and forces us to re-think how we can tell time. I see Hautlence as one of those brands.

Their newest offering expands on the ideas of the HLs and HLq models moving it further into the avante garde with a honeycomb stitch dial pattern, whose theme runs consistent through the piece.

Technical specifications: HLQ02 Honeycomb stitch
-Dedicated Calibre HAUTLENCE HLQ. Jumping date, Jumping hour, retrograde minute and running second
-Manual winding mechanical movement.
-Power reserve 40h
-Oscillation: 21600 BPH
-24 Jewels
-Diameter: 43.8mm / thick: 10.65mm
-Titanium and white gold case
-Honeycomb stitch dial
-Back decoration:
-Fine brushed galvanic treatment black Gold
-Manually angled bridges
-Identification and numbering plate on the back
-Black Varnish in the engraving
-Water resistant to 30 meters (3ATM)
-Sapphire crystal with angled edges, multi layer anti reflect
-Screwed sapphire case back with stamps and the official engraving
-Polished crown with HAUTLENCE logo
-Black Hand sewn genuine Louisiana alligator strap with square scales, adjustable pin bar to fit on the case and horns, ardillon Buckle

I can hardly wait to see what they do next...

Hautlence Press Kit

This is one of my favorite watch related things to come out in the past year. Hautlence a small Swiss firm worked with the French multimedia company i-reel to put out what has to be one of the coolest press kits for a watch in some time.

It's a bit hard to find, but I've seen it on eBay here and there. I was able to get mine by simply asking Hautlence directly last year. I was about 110% sure they wouldn't send me a thing, until it actually arrived. The disc works both as a CD-ROM and a playable DVD. When put in the computer you are greeted with hi-res photos of the HL series of watches, along with specs and company information, as you would find in a physical press kit.

However when popped into a DVD player you have the option to show two computer animated films made for Hautlence by the fine folks at i-reel. These films were meant to be shown on a loop on flat panel TV's in authorized dealers of Hautlence.

Here is the dynamic film made for the HLq line of watches.

I currently use the above film as much as possible to test any audio/video systems I set up at work.

As stated the animation was rendered by i-reel while the music and sound design was created by a french electronica duo named NewOldStockProd. Both of the members of the band are big watch fans themselves. If you enjoy what you see above you'll be happy to learn that these two teams have worked several times together on similar projects for watch firms including [links go directly to the respective brand's films]: Tag Heuer, Zenith, and Urwerk.