In recent years, independent watchmaker brands have emerged in the watch industry, and there are even individual watches that stand out among many models.
Among the “individuals” is the “Joker watch” made by Russian watchmaker Konstantin Chaykin. It completely gets rid of the usual charm of traditional watches and adopts a very alternative design, making it one of the most popular watches.
Russian watchmaker – Konstantin Chaykin
Konstantin Chaykin is a well-known design engineer and watchmaker from St. Petersburg, Russia. He is also a member of the Academie Horlogere Des Createurs Independants (AHCI for short). He has a number of patented movements and has developed a number of new watches Complex functions, etc.
When Chaykin first established his own small studio, he had not officially started accepting any formal watchmaking work, but he had an engineer degree, and he constantly consulted historical data about clocks and watches, and studied the basic types of movements and the principles of time, So have own insights on watchmaking, and gradually master the skills of watchmaking.
In 2003, he began to devote himself to designing and manufacturing clocks and watches with complex astronomical functions, and made his first watch.
In 2004, Chaykin added a tourbillon function to the “table clock”, making Russia’s first and only “Grande Complication” table clock.
In 2006, he developed a clock with a “Muslim calendar function” (and applied for a patent), and made Russia’s first chronograph with a “power reserve indicator function”.
In 2010, Chaykin applied to join the prestigious Academie Horlogere Des Createurs Independants (AHCI) and became the first Russian to join AHCI
In 2017, the Joker watch officially came out…
Art with a strong “emotion” — Joker watch
In 2017, Chaykin showed the world his latest work “Joker Watch”, which has attracted widespread attention in the watch industry with his vivid “expression installation”.
The birth of the joker watch comes from Chaykin’s unique insights on watchmaking: to make the watch “anthropomorphic”. He believes that the watch is not only a tool for use, but also a representative of modern art, so “it” should be a work of art that can arouse strong emotions.
One of the sources of inspiration that contributed to the production of the joker watch was the Decalogue watch that was launched by the brand in the early years as a tribute to the “ten commandments”.
The dial of the watch uses an off-center dial design, the time scale is displayed in rare Hebrew letters, and the 6 o’clock position uses an inverted moon phase function, like a smiling face.
It is also because of this similar smiley face that gave Chaykin the idea of making a complete smiley face and eyes on the dial.
1. Vivid details of the mouth, nose and ears
The face design on the joker dial: two “eyes” respectively represent the hour (left and 10 o’clock direction) and the minute display (right and 2 o’clock direction), the indication method uses the eyeball to represent the pointer.
The slightly opened mouth has white “incisors” and a crimson tongue. The design of these three details allows the moon phases to complete the entire process of perfection; the nose part is made of ruthenium-plated machine engraving process , The carved “nail-like” pattern occupies the upper and middle positions of the dial in a “T” shape, which forms a strong contrast with the white surface, making the dial more three-dimensional.
The ears are the crowns distributed at 3 o’clock and 9 o’clock: the crown at 3 o’clock is used for winding and setting the time, while the crown at 9 o’clock is actually fixed, but with There is an embedded button for adjusting the moon phase function.
Public price of the first generation of joker watches: 6,990 euros, limited to 99 pieces
The time display design of the entire smiley face, as time changes, the “eyes” will also have different changes, and the moon changes in different time periods, forming a dial with various emotions, which is very interesting .
According to statistics, due to changes in time, there are approximately 20,000 different “facial expressions” on the joker watch dial.
2. Interesting elements of playing cards
In addition to the vivid “facial expressions”, the “♠Spades”, “❤ Hearts”, “♣Plums” and “◇Cubes” on the outer ring of the case, as well as the 12 o’clock direction and the “J” letter design on the back cover, It is also a major design highlight of the joker watch.
The letter “J” stands for Joker, which originated from a part of playing cards, namely the two cards known as the king and the king. In the 14th century, the French invented playing cards with spades, hearts, clubs, and diamonds as their suits. At first, only 52 cards were used for entertainment.
Around 1850, some manufacturers began to add the 53rd card to the original number of cards as a replacement card and advertisement. At that time, it was called: “Extra card”, which was used for extra cards, trump cards, etc. It was later changed to the nickname “Joker”
3. A different modified automatic movement
The movement inside the Joker watch is a re-engineered K07-0 movement based on the ETA 2824-2 self-winding movement.
Chaykin adjusted the diameter, thickness and jewel bearing of the basic movement ETA 2824-2. The original movement with a diameter of 25.6mm, a thickness of 4.6mm, and 25 jewel bearings was transformed into a new movement with a diameter of 31.5mm and a thickness of 7.6mm with 33 jewel bearings. The power reserve of the modified movement is reduced from 42 hours to 38 hours, but it still runs at 28800vph vibration frequency/hour.
4. The joker watch with multiple identities
Since its debut in 2017, Konstantin Chaykin’s Joker watch series has also been redesigned in a variety of different limited edition editions.
For example, the second-generation “Demon” joker watch inspired by Stephen King’s horror movie “It” is functionally the same as the first-generation joker watch, but the detailed design and color tone on the dial are more novel. The poker pattern elements in the circle and the “J” have been changed to the word “CLOWN”.
The official price of the “Devil” joker watch: US$9,990, limited to 27 pieces.
There is also a “vampire” joker watch for Halloween, which uses black, white and red tones.
The most special thing is the “mouth” that represents the phases of the moon. At 10 o’clock in the evening, two white fangs will begin to appear in the oral cavity above the mouth. Until midnight, the two fangs representing the vampire were fully revealed.
Then, the fangs began to retract from 6 in the morning, and they were not completely hidden until 8 o’clock, which represents dawn.
Vampire joker watch public price: 18970 euros, limited to 13 pieces
The joker watch can be said to be one of the most subtle watches among many watches. It expresses different emotions with rich “facial expressions”. This design gives the watch a special emotional appeal, plus different themes. The fun given by the joker watch, who would not be attracted by it?
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