The Joker watch and the Wristmons collection by Konstantin Chaykin celebrate their fifth anniversary this year.
That’s not actually a long time by the standards of watchmaking art which often operates in terms of centuries, but even in this short time some traditions have emerged in the collection, one being the Halloween watch which began in 2017.
A skull would be an obvious choice for continuing with the theme, especially given one of the historical inspirations for the Joker and other Wristmons, Fritz Oswald’s Rolling Eye clocks, first patented in 1926, which were frequently skull-shaped. But Konstantin Chaykin did not rush to implement that obvious idea.
The reason is simple: Mr Chaykin only begins working on a new model when struck by an interesting idea, a philosophical, artistic or historical one.
The entire history of the Konstantin Chaykin Manufacture testifies to that.
The idea that drove the creation of the Calavera watch was an existential one.
And the point of origin of this idea for Konstantin were the calaveras, sugar skulls traditionally made in Mexico for the Day of the Dead, El Día de Muertos.
They are an important part of the country’s cultural heritage, a collection of remarkably emotional artistic images based on a long tradition: it’s believed that making calaveras goes back to the XVII century, roughly three hundred years ago.
Mr Chaykin said: “Calavera is a story about folk imagination and the ability to create convincing, emotionally charged images, which for the last three hundred years have been realized in a very fragile medium of cane sugar.
“I can barely begin to imagine the innumerable variations of the image that are gone forever. Like pictures in the sand, which only last for a few moments before the next wave washes them away. It’s hard to stay indifferent thinking about this. Aren’t my own creations just as fleeting?”
Calavera is the first watch by Konstantin Chaykin dedicated to Mexico and its amazing cultural heritage.
The joker-indication module he invented was a perfect fit for the new “sugar skull” Wristmon. The anthropomorphic dial was given a highly recognizable look, not scary at all, but rather cute and funny.
Usually, Konstantin Chaykin strives to keep the design as simple as possible, using the least possible amount of purely decorative elements.
The traditional calaveras are richly and colorfully ornamented, of course, but still, the master decided, while creating his interpretation of the sugar skull decoration, the quintessence of the El Día de Muertos style, to use a minimalist approach.
The ornaments are only hinted at, and the color pallet is limited to four main shades: red, blue, deep blue and black, and of course the essential silvery-white, “sugary” background.
Deep black eyes serve as time indicators, the signature moon-shaped smile of the Wristmons shows the moon phase through the black web that traditionally signifies the teeth of the sugar skull.
The caseback features a sapphire crystal which showcases the self-winding rotor, blacked and decorated with circular brushing.
The same rotor design was used previously in the Dracula and the Grimaldi the Clown watches. For the Calavera, the master created a variation of this design with additional decorative plates with the name of the model and the manufacture logo.
The Calavera watch is produced as a limited edition on 20 pieces which will be presented by the master himself at the SIAR (Salón Internacional Alta Relojería) exhibition which will take place on October 18-20 in Mexico City.
