In general, Konstantin Chaykin never focused on the idea of making gender-specific watches.
He’s guided, on all occasions, perhaps unconsciously, by his own drive for creative work. That means in his own words, the focus is almost exclusively on “new watches, unusual watches, unprecedented watches, watches that embody artistic, design, philosophical or technical ideas.”
Mr Chaykin explained how the formula of Konstantin Chaykin’s watches usually starts with an idea, an invention. Notably, many of his invention are patented: as of right now, in early March 2023, he has 94 patents.
He commented: “I believe it’s the largest number of patents for an independent watchmaker in the world, and a significant achievement even if we take corporations into account.”
The brand goes on to take us through Mr Chaykin’s work over the last decade.
“He first addressed the idea of women’s watch exactly ten years ago, in 2013.
The number is significant, especially given that this year Konstantin Chaykin’s manufacture celebrates its twentieth anniversary.
The spring collection of 2013, prepared for an exhibition in Basel featured two items intended for women: non-limited Levitas Mother of Pearl and the Levitas Art Collection with dial decorated with a Florentine mosaic, making each piece unique.
The basis of both models was a 33mm KMR 03-1 caliber (contemporary designation K.03-0) with mystery time indication, the transparent part of the dial made of sapphire disks.
The movement was designed three years prior, in 2010, and it features an impressive transparent area to gull dial area ratio of around 1/2.
While working on women’s Levitas models Chaykin’s primary motivations were both using the “mystery” movement of his own design in a women’s watch and to familiarize himself with new finishing techniques, including mother-of-pearl dial in Levitas Mother of Pearl and the Florentine mosaic dials of the Levitas Art Collection.
While mother-of-pearl dials are widespread on the market, the Florentine mosaic remains remarkable to this day.
When working with decorative stones, many watchmakers or their suppliers limit themselves to so-called stone dials, without getting into a very complex and sophisticated technique which produces exceptional results.
Florentine mosaic is carefully assembled from decorative stones finely cut to shape, creating an image. Florentine mosaic is somewhat like marquetery, but the master making it must work not with relatively soft and fibrous wood, but with fragile and capricious decorative stone.
To be fair, the pearl dials of the Levitas Mother of Pearl models are not easy to make by any means: they are mosaic as well and feature an additional diamond incrustation.
After that, Konstantin Chaykin has left the subject of women’s watches alone for almost a decade, at least as far as the publicly available information is concerned. Only last year he decided to release a female wristmon Harley Quinn, licensing the extravagant image of the Joker’s girlfriend from DC Comics.
The release commemorated the 5th anniversary of the Wristmons Collection by Chaykin. The 40mm model (most wristmons come in 42mm case) featured a black heart-shaped tattoo on its “face”, the detail introduced to the supervillains image in the movie “Suicide Squad”. I’m just crazy about it.
Of course, the real number of women’s watches created by the master is only known to himself. The popularity of the Wristmons Collection, many of its models completely sold out by launch, generates many private requests, among which there were definitely numerous unique pieces for women.
In particular, I know for a fact that the Unique Pig 2019, the first Chinese new year-themed wristmon was exactly such a case. Besides that, I can easily imagine a delicate female wrist adorned with a joyful yellow dial of Chaykin’s Minions watch.
A woman who collects exquisite watches can definitely be enticed by Chaykin’s new project, the transforming “White Rabbit” watch, announced by the watchmaker in late January – you can read about this project HERE.
Yes, you are correct, Chaykin means exactly the white rabbit you’re thinking about, the one with the pocket watch, the one Alice followed down the rabbit hole. Chaykin doesn’t give any indication of potential clients, but a modern Alice with a Chaykin watch… why not?”
