Unveiling The All New H4 RC44

The spirit of competition is a powerful motivator. And often for those who are at the top of their game, this spirit compels them to pursue new grounds of competition every time they find themselves to have conquered the preceding one.

For one, Sir Russell Coutts this spirit of competition was so strong within him – that as a world class competitive sailor, once he had smashed all of his competition in every possible sailing title, including winning the America’s Cup five times, the only competition left for him was to create his own racing class.

With that urge in mind, Coutts joined forces with Slovenian designer, Andrej Justin, in 2006, to create a new boat with all of his competition know-how. The boat, which they called the RC44 – turned out to be an ultra-modern light displacement, high performance, one-design racing yacht with amateur helmsmen in mind, for fleet racing sailing events.

Shortly after the boat had been introduced by Coutts and Justin, the RC44 became recognised by the International Sailing Federation. But, most impressively, just a year on after its introduction, the RC44 Class already had sailing teams participating in its own championship tour as 2007: the RC44 Championship Tour.

Now, while the RC44 has been out and about doing what it does best, for ten years already – the mavericks at HYT have been the official timekeeper of the RC44 Championship Tour since just 2015. But within that short time, Coutts and the Hydromechanical Horologists have found grounds for a partnership that goes far beyond the functional timekeeping. Coutts is obviously an individual who always chased the next big win in his field of competition – to the point that he ended up creating his own championship tour. For HYT, the spirit of competition is within them too as they’ve set themselves apart in the horological realm by creating an entirely new hydromechanical mechanism with which to tell time.

So on the occasion of the RC44’s 10th anniversary, HYT has created the all new  H4 RC44 in recognition of the winning spirit that is shared between the two. This is, of course the H4 that we are all familiar with – but there are a few specifics laid into the watch that draw inspiration from the RC44 Championship Tour, making for a rather special timepiece.

Other than the colors used on the H4 RC44, which are the colors of the race, the first notable on the watch is its ultralight carbon case that is meant to emulate the qualities of the RC44’s hull. Next is the seconds wheel that takes after the golden bar that the monohull raises when it is winning.

Otherwise the H4 RC44 is fitted with one of HYT’s sketonized movements with a  transparent sapphire disc used for the minutes display with a power reserve indicator at 2 o’clock. And, not forgetting, the blue fluid filled capillary that uses HYT’s ingenious retrograde fluid mechanical technology to read the hours.

As this is a timepiece created to celebrate a special occasion and a shared camaraderie that has only begun to bloom, HYT will be creating the H4 RC44 in a very limited run of just 10 pieces. So if you are looking to get yourself an HYT timepiece that is particularly dressed in the spirit of nautical racing, best not waste anytime to get your hands one of these.

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