Hysek is pursuing its adventure in Fine Watchmaking for women. A year ago, the independent manufacture announced Kalysta, its very first fully in-house ladies’ collection; today, the brand has unveiled an Haute Joaillerie version, featuring an innovative style that’s right in keeping with the Hysek spirit.
It has taken the Hysek manufacture the best part of twenty years to create its first women’s collection, building on all the technical and aesthetic maturity acquired by the firm over that period. The result is the Kalysta collection, which first saw the light of day in 2016. Presented at Baselworld, Kalysta was immediately acclaimed for its intrinsic qualities: a design that’s pure poetry, based on a butterfly and moon theme; a fully in-house movement; and a whole variety of models, offering ladies plenty of choice. Now, Hysek has added one of the most demanding art forms – jewel-setting – to the Kalysta range, with the creation of the collection’s very first fine jewellery version, “Snowflake”.
The inspiration for this new variation arose from the idea of creating a fitting complement to the original models and their springtime feel. The latter feature a majestic butterfly, hovering over a dial adorned with finely-sculpted floral patterns. Hysek has revisited this theme for the new watch face, allowing it to accommodate unique jewel settings.
The textured pattern features both marquise and round cut diamonds, arranged in concentric circles: the largest stones sit at the centre, gradually decreasing in size towards the edges. The overall design represents a snowflake – one that looks as if it has just settled delicately on the polished mother-of-pearl dial. The delicate tracery consists of several hundred recesses, each enclosing a stone – using either a star setting, in which the stone is held in place by a small grain of soldered metal, or a bezel setting, a technique using a metal ring that fastens and supports the stone from below.
Hysek has implemented this technique to perfection by choosing a snow setting for the Kalysta, using a random scattering of stones that makes each timepiece absolutely unique. The design flashes like flame, the light bouncing off each face of every single diamond at a different angle. As a finishing touch, Hysek has added a final row of diamonds on the underside of the case. Snug against the wrist, these jewels give the wearer the impression of a pavé piece, jewelled in its entirety.
Like the other pieces in the collection, the Kalysta “Snowflake” uses the HW61 manufacture caliber – an automatic movement boasting a 39-hour power reserve, adjusted by means of a crown at 3 o’clock. Hysek has designed the crown in the shape of the Moon, clad with a double diamond; the cabochon is made from authentic moon-stone. At 12 o’clock the Kalysta sports a dedicated window to display jumping hours. The minutes, meanwhile, are denoted by means of a marquise stone that travels around the jewelled bezel to mark out the time. On the “Snowflake” Haute Joaillerie version, this sapphire is accompanied by a pair of butterflies, each with openwork, mirror-polished wings. The same finish has also been applied to each of the angles, discreetly asserting that Kalysta is very much a work of fine watchmaking, through and through.
The Kalysta “Snowflake” will be available very shortly in four versions, in titanium or rose gold, with diamond or sapphire-and-diamond settings – just 32 pieces are available in all.
