Mouse King
THE FIRST WRISTWATCH TO RECEIVE THE GOLD CROWN
Every fine watch should have its history. The “Mouse King 2020” watch, part of Konstantin Chaykin’s “Wristmons” collection, is no exception. The tale of this watch began during the Christmas holidays, when Konstantin Chaykin decided to read a bedtime story to his daughter. There could only be one choice – Ernst Goffman’s timeless “The Nutcracker and the Mouse King”, without which the New Year period isn’t complete.
Since this is the first time in the history of watchmaking that a watch is crowned with a real royal “crown,” Konstantin Chaykin decided that the crown should be made of 18-karat gold and set with a real ruby. The imposing character of the “Mouse King” watch is emphasized by another extraordinary detail – a high-quality leather strap with an “ermine mantle”. According to the traditional Chinese 12-year zodiac cycle, 2020 will be the year of the metal mouse (rat), this is the first year of the cycle, so polished titanium, a metal whose color and texture resembles mouse fur, was a natural choice for the watch case.
A year earlier, Konstantin Chaykin had already released a special watch in honor of the Chinese New Year - a unique piece of “Unique Pig”, which was his first experience in this genre, which is very popular in modern haute horlogerie. The Mouse King watch continues this series, establishing a new tradition in the collection of Konstantin Chaykin.
PRODUCTION
Because this is the first time in the history of watchmaking that a watch has been crowned with a real royal “crown”, Konstantin Chaykin decided that the crown should be made of 18-carat gold and adorned with a genuine ruby. The extravagant character of the “Mouse King” watch is further emphasized with another extraordinary detail, which Konstantin Chaykin designed especially for this watch – a high quality leather strap with “ermine royal mantle”.
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MOVEMENT
Especially for the “Joker” and other models of the “Wristmons” collection Konstantin Chaykin developed a double-disc display for the hour and minute indications, as well as a moonphase indicator. In the construction and design of the movement, he was guided by the principles of haute horlogerie, despite the fact that the movement is hidden under an opaque dial. Konstantin Chaykin meticulously finished every part of the movement using classic techniques: perlage pearl textured grinding; fine longitudinal and circular grinding; abrasive blasting to a matte finish; a smooth handcrafted chamfer; engraving; polished screw holes, pins and jewels; spherical polishing of the axel tips; and galvanized rhodium plating. In total the module includes 8 jewels, designed to reduce friction, while the moonphase indicator is driven by a wheel with 59 teeth.
Caliber: K18-10 automatic winding by Konstantin Chaykin manufacture
Power: reserve 50 hours when fully wound
Accuracy: +/-15 seconds per day
HISTORY OF WATCH
This story is of course very close to the heart any master of horology thanks to the character of Drosselmeier, senior court advisor, wizard, and watchmaker, who started to “stick sharp things into the clock’s inside, so that little Mary felt quite sorry for it; but this did the clock no harm, which, on the contrary, got to life again and at once began to tick, strike, and chime, to the delight of all the family”. But this time, Konstantin Chaykin was more intrigued by another of Goffman’s characters – the Mouse King. The reason was clear – the forthcoming Chinese New Year, with the traditional oriental 12-year cycle bringing, in 2020, the year of the white metallic mouse and seeing Konstantin Chaykin considering different variations of mouse-inspired watches. That year the exact date of the Chinese New Year, 25th January, coincided with his daughter’s birthday, as well as his mother Tatiana’s name day.
POLISHED TITANIUM
Polished titanium was a natural choice – a metal with the colour and texture of a mouse’s fur. A year earlier Konstantin Chaykin had already released a special watch in honour of the Chinese New Year, the unique piece “Unique Pig”, which was his first experience of working in this genre, one which is popular in haute horlogerie. The “Mouse King” watch continues this series, establishing a new tradition in the collection of Konstantin Chaykin.COINCIDENCES ARE NOT ACCIDENTAL
Coincidences are not accidental thought Konstantin Chaykin, which is why he decided to combine two characters – the first, the enterprising, inventive mouse of Chinese myths, the first animal which came to the reception of the Jade Emperor Yu Di, who wanted to get to know all of the earth’s inhabitants, and the second, the creation of Ernst Theodor Amadeus Goffman, the angry but extravagant Mouse King with seven heads and seven crowns. Of course, Chaykin couldn’t just present an angry mouse, given his creation of the “Wristmons” collection’s smiling moonphase indicator.
CROWN
Perhaps there was another watchmaker-oriented reason for Konstantin Chaykin to focus particularly on this character. The watch term “crown”, (in French ‘couronne’ and in German ‘Krone’), had given him a long-term desire to create a watch with a crown in the 12-o’clock position. This acts as a reminder of the earlier period of the development of wristwatches, in which some watches positioned a Lepinovsky-type mechanism as the crown at the top of the dial. It can be said that Konstantin Chaykin had simply been waiting for the right moment, a moment which became the “Mouse King” watch.PHOTO GALLERY
