Avant-garde design with technical flair

HAUTLENCE says the first two editions of its HL2 line are sold out. The new HL2.6 (S$329,000) reinterprets the earlier models in a new red gold base. But the things that define the collection stay - the half-trailing jumping hours on a chain, retrograde minutes, power-reserve indicator and mechanism.

Perhaps more important, the HL2.6 remains true to its dynamic way of displaying time. Powered by a groundbreaking movement that's taken four years to develop, and protected by three patents, the HL2.6 displays the retrograde minutes on a 180 degree sector of the dial and the hours through a 12-link chain that advances every 60 minutes to indicate the hour. Right before the change of the hour, the retrograde minute hand returns to zero, activating the hour chain, with the entire mechanism rotating 60 degrees to change the position of the regulating organ.

The chronograph is unmistakably a Hautlence creation - the avant-grade design, the dial built on several levels to give a three-dimensional effect.

The Invictus 04 (S$33,800), its name meaning unbeatable and invincible, is in fact the second chronograph produced by the Swiss brand. The same skeletonised movement that drove the first chronograph launched in 2014 now drives the second chronograph, which has a titanium case in an eye-catching red and black colour scheme.