Every fine watch should have its history. The “Mouse King” watch, the latest addition to Konstantin Chaykin’s Wristmon 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. 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 “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 metallic mouse and seeing Konstantin Chaykin considering different variations of mouse-inspired watches.

This year the exact date of the Chinese New Year, 25th January, coincides with his daughter’s birthday, as well as his mother Tatiana’s name day. 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 tianxia world inhabitants, and the second being 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 Wristmon collection’s smiling moonphase indicator. 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 Lépine-type movement 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. 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 demonstrated with another extraordinary detail, which Konstantin Chaykin designed especially for this watch – a high quality, leather strap with ermine “royal mantle”. According to the traditional 12-year cycle of the Chinese zodiac, 2020 is the year of the metallic mouse (rat), which is the first year of the cycle, therefore, for the watch case, polished titanium was a natural choice – metal, which in colour and texture resembles mouse fur.

A year earlier Konstantin Chaykin released the unique piece “Unique Pig” in honour of the Chinese New Year, which was his first experience working in this genre, already quite popular in the art of high-class watchmaking. The “Mouse King” watch continues this series, cementing a new tradition in the collection of Konstantin Chaykin. The extravagant character of the “Mouse King” watch is further demonstrated with another extraordinary detail, which Konstantin Chaykin designed especially for this watch – a high quality, leather strap with ermine “royal mantle”.

According to the traditional 12-year cycle of the Chinese zodiac, 2020 is the year of the metallic mouse (rat), which is the first year of the cycle, therefore, for the watch case, polished titanium was a natural choice – metal, which in colour and texture resembles mouse fur. A year earlier Konstantin Chaykin released the unique piece “Unique Pig” in honour of the Chinese New Year, which was his first experience working in this genre, already quite popular in the art of high-class watchmaking. The “Mouse King” watch continues this series, cementing a new tradition in the collection of Konstantin Chaykin. 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 Lépine-type movement 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. 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 demonstrated with another extraordinary detail, which Konstantin Chaykin designed especially for this watch – a high quality, leather strap with ermine “royal mantle”. According to the traditional 12-year cycle of the Chinese zodiac, 2020 is the year of the metallic mouse (rat), which is the first year of the cycle, therefore, for the watch case, polished titanium was a natural choice – metal, which in colour and texture resembles mouse fur. A year earlier Konstantin Chaykin released the unique piece “Unique Pig” in honour of the Chinese New Year, which was his first experience working in this genre, already quite popular in the art of high-class watchmaking. The “Mouse King” watch continues this series, cementing a new tradition in the collection of Konstantin Chaykin.

Konstantin Chaykin has his own original tradition – every year he creates a new wrist monster for Halloween. Meet the extravagant version of the Pumpkin Head – the ‘Green Halloween 2019’ watch (‘Make Halloween Green Again 2019’), which for sure has earned its place among the other spooky and scary monsters by Konstantin Chaykin.

The First Collaboration between ANDERSEN Genève & Konstantin CHAYKIN – the watch “Automaton Joker”!

Unique time and moon phase indications on the dial are developed and assembled by Konstantin CHAYKIN.
“Automaton Joker” construction on the back of the timepiece is completely created by ANDERSEN Genève: the famous Dog from ANDERSEN Genève is playing Poker with Konstantin CHAYKIN’s Joker & special guests.

By the push of a button on the case at 8 o’clock, the Joker’s eyes, the dog, the man and the lady are being in motion.
The scene gets “lively” for around 2 minutes: the winning Joker is moving his eyes next to ANDERSEN Genève’s famous Dog playing Poker. At the same time one can see the 4th card disclosed by the man losing the game while a charming lady is stealing chips!

Watch with a classical dial is truly impressive just for few times a day. Every watch with hands in dial modestly laughs at 10:10 and 13:50, and expresses moderate sadness at 15:40 and 20:20. New ‘Joker’ watch, presented by Konstantin Chaykin in BaselWorld-2017, is fitted with disk hours and minutes indicators as well as moonphase display. New ‘Joker’ obviously has non-poker face because it is highly emotional and unpredictable – every minute.

We counted that human eye will easily recognize more than twenty thousands of various grimaces, from hopelessly moody at full-moon 15:42 to flamy tongue-in-cheek at first quarter of the moon 15:48. Isn’t it amazing that Joker’s mood is manipulated by our nearest space neighbor more than any other creature? Nevertheless, most of the time Joker exhibits devil-may-care feeling, so you just want to say him “Gimme Five!”, as ‘Five of a Kind’ highest poker hand is engraved on the bezel of the watch case.

Konstantin Chaykin, the Russian watchmaker and inventor believes that it is not enough for classical mechanical clock to have just chronometric accuracy and high quality performance today. They also must bring out certain emotions and have a clearly articulated artistic message. That’s why the author of the extraordinary Joker, being a big admirer of the creativity of the internationally recognised “King of Horrors” Stephen King, timed to the release of the film adaptation of the novel “It” a new version of watches.

In the new interpretation of Konstantin Chaykin, the Joker’s face expression is still changing every minute thanks to the work of the original dual-disk current time display module (hours and minutes are pupils with a yellow iris), and the moon phase indicator is a smile (which can be set with the help of symmetrically made correction button on the left side of 42-mm steel case).

However, all the new details, from the bright-colored pupils to the red elements of the dial-“face” which harmonize with the watсhband, made of the alligator’s natural leather, remind the main mystical hero from the film of Andres Mousquetti, released in the world film distribution.

Some changes have been made to the decoration of the famous dial of the new model. The Joker Titanium dial is decorated with a relief design “guilloche” with a step, once successfully used by the great Russian jeweler Carl Faberge, the “nose” of the Joker is decorated with a unique guilloche pattern, which was designed for these watches by Konstantin Chaykin.

The night will come: the mechanics of a symphony of horror “Dracula” is not simply new design of Joker watch. Working hard to be ready for this year Halloween Konstantin Chaykin decided to develop new Caliber К.18-7 Dracula, equipped with more complicated version of the original indication module of Caliber K07-0, used in all models of Joker family. New movement is based on tested and proved Caliber Eta 2824-2, approved to be immaculate workhorse for Joker watches. If we regard Dracula movement as watch experts we note Dracula’s fangs – the main chord of the symphony of horror – are in fact day/night indicator, modified by Konstantin Chaykin specially for this watch.

Vampire’s fangs according to scenario start growing at night – at 22:00 – to acquire an awesome length by midnight, and hiding from 6:00 to 8:00 to be covert … until the next night will come. Indication module of Dracula watch is more complex compare to previous Joker version, it uses 16 additional parts. The dial of new Dracula watch is twice as complex as of Joker. All “mechanical monsters” models of Wristmons line are produced by Konstantin Chaykin according to strict Haute Horlogerie rules and traditions.

It means every Dracula watch demands much more attention, time and hand work even compare to Joker watches… Evidently Dracula watches will become
a nightmare for their creator. That’s why the production of Dracula Special Limited Edition Halloween-2018 will be extremely limited – Konstantin Chaykin plans to produce only 13 pieces, each in a PVD-blackened stainless steel case. Watch goes with high quality alligator strap in special execution or by order the watch may be proposed on exclusive “Dracula strap” with an elegant white bow
tie (invention of Konstantin Chaykin).

In daily life we may only imagine the dragon that gave the nickname “Dracula” to 15th-century Wallachian Prince Vlad the Impaler or the dragon on the reverse of extremely rare Hungarian royal coins minted by Prince Vlad’s father… Konstantin Chaykin gives the future owners of Dracula watch the opportunity to touch and feel the dragon engraved in relief around sapphire window on the case back… Happy Halloween!

Meet the new Joker Titanium! Konstantin Chaykin decided to release a new limited edition Joker Titanium watch with a body made of high-tech, lightweight and durable titanium. The color of titanium parts is darker than the steel, and therefore they are perceived as more technical, brutal.

For the production of titanium parts of the Joker Titanium watch case, a special technology was developed, which allow to maintain the high standards of decorating of the Joker steel model. “Five of a Kind”, the strongest poker hand is traditionally displayed on the bezel of the case as a symbol of incredible luck.

The center of the back cover of the Joker Titanium case is engraved with the letter “J”, and the serial number of the watch in a limited series of 88 copies is engraved on the rim of the back cover.

A few changes have been made to the decoration of the famous clock face of the new model. The Joker Titanium face is decorated with a relief design “guilloche” with a step, once successfully used by the great Russian jeweler Carl Faberge, the “nose” of the Joker is decorated with a unique guilloche pattern, which was designed for these watches by Konstantin Chaykin.

Football today is more than just a game, and mechanical watches are more than just indicators of time. The Russian inventor and watchmaker Konstantin Chaykin united these two worlds with the sarcastic but quite cheerful smile of the Joker and created a collection of watches inspired by the upcoming football World Cup 2018 in Russia. Joker Soccer is a real fan. In his round, moving eyes-indicators, a soccer ball is reflected; it also replaces the moon in the moon phase indicator.

A strong player in football is called the Joker. This is usually an attacker, who is sitting on the bench for a time and takes the field in the last 20-30 minutes of the game. He is full of energy, experienced and sees the game with a fresh look. The joker can change the course of the game, emerging like his card double from the sleeve of the coach. Konstantin Chaykin believes, that it makes sense to obtain your own watch forward!

The Joker Soccer is released in 11 copies only, according to the number of football players in the team. Together with the Joker, Halloween and the Clown, the Joker-Soccer is included in the collection of Konstantin Chaykin’s Wristmons.

Movement

For the ‘Joker-Soccer’ watch Konstantin Chaykin had developed module with double-disk time indication (hours and minutes as Joker eyes) and moon-phase display (Joker’s recognizable smile).

Module has 8 jewels for friction reduction, it is mounted on tried and tested ‘workhorse’ automatic winding Caliber ETA 2824-2.

Additional fixed crown set in 9-o’clock position is fitted with recessed corrector provided for correcting the moon-phase display.