Swiss watchmaker Hautlence made one of the boldest watches at Watches and Wonders 2026. The Retrovision ’64 doesn’t try to look modern. It doesn’t try to look timeless either. It looks like a prop from a 1960s sci-fi show, except it’s built around a real mechanical movement. And it works. Most of the show this year played it safe, which made Hautlence’s big swing feel like a small rebellion.
Price:CHF 129,700 (About $165,000)
Where to Buy: Hautlence
Only three of these watches will ever be made. That means almost nobody reading this will see one in person. That’s the whole idea.
The Retrovision ’64 is the third watch in Hautlence’s Concepts line. It follows the 1940s radio-inspired Retrovision ’47 (2024) and the robot-themed Retrovision ’85 (2025). Each piece takes an old pop-culture object and turns it into a working timepiece, and the ’64 is the loudest yet.
A Case Shaped Like a Communicator, Not a Watch
The case measures 61.2 x 41.8 x 15.6 mm and is made from Grade 5 titanium. Hautlence sandblasted it and finished it in brown PVD, with red gold PVD trim on top. The crown sits at the 12 o’clock position instead of the usual 3 o’clock and carries an engraved Hautlence logo.
The headline feature is a hinged flip-top cover. It’s coated in red gold PVD and punched through with a grid of tiny holes that mimic an old communicator’s speaker grille. You flip it up, and the dial appears underneath. That’s the Star Trek moment. It’s a clear nod to the flip-open communicators from 1960s TV shows.
Under the cover there are two separate crystals. A round sapphire at the top shows the minutes. A rectangular sapphire at the bottom shows the hours on a straight-line track. Both crystals have anti-reflective coating.
The Dial Is as Loud as the Case
Hautlence didn’t hold back on color. The linear hours track is integrated into the lower half of the case, on an oxidized surface with orange-lacquered numerals and a matching orange arrow. At the end of each cycle, the arrow snaps back to the start. That snap-back motion is called a retrograde jump, and Hautlence uses it here for the hours.
Above it, the minutes dial is finished in loud green, orange, and white lacquer. The numerals are made from Globolight, a ceramic-based luminous material, and a single skeletonized orange hand sweeps the track.
The middle of the dial is cut away. Through the opening you can see parts of the movement working in real time, including a one-minute flying tourbillon with a rare double hairspring sitting right at the center of the dial. That tourbillon is the technical showstopper. It’s exposed on purpose so you can watch it spin.
The Calibre D50 Does the Heavy Lifting
Inside is the Calibre D50, an automatic movement with 239 parts and 39 jewels. It runs at 21,600 beats per hour (3 Hz) and has a 72-hour power reserve. The same movement drives the retrograde jumping hours, the minutes, and the flying tourbillon all at once.
Those numbers matter. Retrograde hands are hard to build because they snap back to zero at the end of each path, and they lose energy every time. Pairing that with a flying tourbillon in a Hautlence titanium watch this thin takes real engineering. You’re not paying for a novelty watch with a shrug of a movement inside. You’re paying for a movement that actually makes the novelty dial work.
The watch comes on a black rubber strap with a titanium pin buckle.
Why It Matters
For the past ten years, luxury watchmaking has gone in two directions. Either super clean and simple, or packed with visible complications. The Retrovision ’64 picks a third path. It uses a pop-culture reference as the whole design, backed by a linear retrograde jumping-hour mechanism Hautlence built with Agenhor for its Linear line in 2022, which itself traces back to the linkage-driven calibre HL the brand debuted in 2004. Hautlence has been doing this kind of thing for years, but the Star Trek vibe gives this release a hook that will stick around longer than most novelty watches.
At three pieces and roughly $165,000 each, this isn’t really a product. It’s a statement. Hautlence is saying that watches can still be fun and weird. If you wanted proof that 2026’s watch lineup is more playful than the last few years, here it is.
Price:CHF 129,700 (About $165,000)
Where to Buy: Hautlence
It also hints at where Hautlence is going. After its 2022 reset, which brought a new structure, a Schaffhausen-area base under the same roof as H. Moser & Cie., and tighter distribution, the brand has sharpened its focus on small, bold, limited releases. Three pieces is a careful choice. It’s enough to pay for all the work that went into it, small enough to stay exclusive, and special enough that each buyer is basically helping fund the brand’s next chapter.
The Numbers
- Case: Grade 5 titanium, sandblasted, with brown PVD and red gold PVD hinged cover
- Dimensions: 61.2 x 41.8 x 15.6 mm
- Crown: at 12 o’clock, with an engraved Hautlence logo
- Crystals: round sapphire for minutes, rectangular sapphire for hours, both with AR coating
- Caseback: sapphire crystal
- Base dial: nickel silver
- Movement: Calibre D50, self-winding automatic
- Complications: linear retrograde jumping hours, minutes, 1-minute flying tourbillon with double hairspring
- Parts: 239
- Jewels: 39
- Frequency: 21,600 vph (3 Hz)
- Power reserve: 72 hours
- Strap: black rubber with titanium pin buckle
- Reference: ED50-TI00
- Price: CHF 129,700 before tax (roughly $165,000 USD)
- Production: 3 pieces only
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(as of April 18, 2026 18:34 GMT -05:00 - More infoProduct prices and availability are accurate as of the date/time indicated and are subject to change. Any price and availability information displayed on [relevant Amazon Site(s), as applicable] at the time of purchase will apply to the purchase of this product.)
