The first Russian watchmaker in the world to receive the WIPO gold medal as an outstanding inventor

Moscow, 29th April. At the plenary session of the XIII International Forum “Intellectual Property – XXI Century”, held by the Chamber of Commerce and Industry of the Russian Federation, the ceremony awarding Russian inventor Konstantin Chaykin with the WIPO gold medal took place. The WIPO Medal for Inventors was first established in 1979, with the aim of inspiring invention and innovation around the world and recognising the contribution of inventors to national welfare and development. Presented to outstanding inventors, around 2000 people have been awarded this honour. Watchmakers rarely receive awards; such is the way of this quiet and peaceful profession. Therefore, it is particularly pleasing to note that Konstantin Chaykin became the first* watchmaker-inventor in the industry to receive this award, and the second in watchmaking in general after Nicolas G. Hayek – the late head of the Swatch Group, one of the largest patent holders in the world – who received a WIPO Medal for Invention in 2000. To date the latest of Konstantin Chaykin’s registered inventions – the eighty-sixth – is patent EA201900522, “Timepiece with a date perpetual calendar for one season”, received by the inventor on 8th February this year. It describes a unique perpetual calendar system for a wristwatch which does not require manual correction for months with fewer than 31 days. It is implemented in the form of four watches – one for each season. The combination of extraordinary creative thinking and the refusal to follow the beaten path is typical of the inventive style of Konstantin Chaykin, characteristics shared with many of his watches.

All timepieces created by Konstantin Chaykin are based on his own inventions. Already in the Easter of Christ Computus Clock – just the third clock created by the then-novice master, the work on which was completed in October 2005 – the Orthodox Easter date indicator which he had invented was realised. And so, he had set out on the path of invention, having filed his first application for a patent in July 2005 He received patent RU2306618, “Calendar device for determining the date of Orthodox Easter and related Orthodox feasts (embodiments)” in January 2007 The patent was the first in a whole host of inventions and utility models, currently numbering 86 invention patents and 63 utility model patents. This clearly makes Konstantin Chaykin one of the most productive inventors among modern watchmakers, and he would probably even top this list if the World Intellectual Property Organization compiled such statistics.