By Laura Starczewski
What’s one of most people’s favorite features on their smartphones? It’s the slide technology that lets them browse emails, their library of apps and photos, videos and more.
Now, one luxury watchmaker is capitalizing on that technology with its new SLYDE timepiece. Celebrated Swiss designer Jorg Hysek has combined the latest design trends with cutting-edge electronic technology, revolutionizing how we look at time.
“A designer is only satisfied if he is ahead of his time,” Hysek, who is known for successfully making complex timepieces, such as the now collectible Black Pearl, which his close associate Fabrice Gonet designed, has been quoted as saying, and his latest HD3 brand creation pays homage to that sentiment.
High-end watch enthusiasts are excited about the SLYDE technology. After an initial unveiling to the press in Geneva, Switzerland, massive buzz ensued on specialty watch sites and blogs. Since the initial chatter, the watch has successfully launched in Europe, the United States, Russia, Japan, Singapore, Latino America and the Middle East.
With a tourbillon and customized movement, the SLYDE is simultaneously classic, sporty and chic. It is a luxurious and sophisticated watch that dons avant-garde technology, combining multimedia and home automation into a unique and cutting edge timepiece, which features a square case and a screen that modulates according to the time and the user’s needs and wishes.
How SLYDE Works
Borrowing from the underlying smartphone principle—the ability to change applications with the slide of the finger over the tactile screen—the SLYDE is the perfect 21 century watch: It’s modern with a visibly pleasing aesthetic quality, plus is provides instantaneous time-reading.
Its “refined, no-frills square case has a tactile screen that moves vertically and horizontally. This revolutionary display means that, by simply sliding across the watch screen, the user can generate an unlimited variety of timepieces on the wrist – corresponding to any event, desire, or particular moment. Creating a range of ‘different’ watches within a single timepiece is made possible thanks to a range of top-quality virtual modules,” HD3 explains.
“SLYDE is intended for demanding individuals who are passionate about [t]ime and its attendant technologies,” the watchmaker adds.
SLYDE: Past, Present & Future Covered
HD3 explains that SLYDE has all forms of time covered:
The Past—“by inserting modules like the automatic count-down from private events, and the chance to personalize the watch by inserting photographs”;
The Present—“with the immediate creation of watch interfaces providing aesthetic, made-to-measure time-reading”; and
The Future—“with an automatic countdown to future events as per the user’s requirements.”
The SLYDE is available with cases in black, grey titanium or pink gold. Straps come in printed alligator leather or rubber. It features sapphire glass and is water-resistant to a depth of 30m.
If you’re in the market for a luxury, Swiss-made watch, the SLYDE, with its internationally patented technological savoir-faire, deserves some face time. According to HD3’s website, several luxury watch retailers carry the SLYDE, including New York’s Tourneau Time Machine, at 12 East 57st Street, and Watch Central at 550 Fifth Avenue, Suite 215. According to Unique Watch Guide, the SLYDE is expected to retail for around $5,000.
imagery courtesy of HD3
