Since it’s widely agreed that mechanical watches are mostly frivolous objects, one way to justify the passion for collecting them is to realize that they bring joy to the owner. Of course, mechanical watches bring other benefits to watch wearers as well, however, the idea of the watch as a fun and joyful object is hard to disagree with. And no one today in the watch industry understands this better than the Russian master watchmaker: Konstantin Chaykin.
Konstantin Chaykin (right) with collaborator and master watchmaker Svend Andersen at Baselworld 2019
After introducing its now famous Joker watch at Baselworld 2017 Konstantin Chaykin has released a series of one off productions since. Last year I took at look at the Joker collaboration with Andersen Genève and also catalogued a few pièce unique models he had created for collectors. This year, Chaykin did not disappoint and showed me yet another unique limited release Joker that is worthy of brief discussion by itself. The Joker Dracula watch.
Features
The general feature of all the Joker watch is Konstantin Chaykin’s genius rendering of the watch dial as a “human face”. He does this by modifying and adding a module to the ETA 2824-2 movement such that the minutes and hours hands are separated (as in a regulator watch) and powers the left and right eye of the Joker. Besides the resulting readability (once you understand what you are looking for) the result is lifelike and certainly gives an eerie human look to the whole watch.
Besides the eyes, the mouth of the Joker watch has a moving disc that represents the Joker’s tongue and proxies as a moon phase indicator; it also gives the whole watch the complete human face as you would expect. And because the moon phase indicator moves slowly over the entire month, the resulting look is never misplaced nor asking the user to interpret yet another indicator. Completing the human face are the two crowns serving as the watch’s winding and adjusting knobs but also representing the ears of the Joker.
Dracula
It’s very hard to see any of the Joker watches and not immediately have a smile on your own face. And for 2019 Konstantin Chaykin released an even more interesting Joker watch. This one has a definite Halloween vibe, similar to the piece unique bronze pumpkin Joker. It is colored and has the representation of perhaps the most famous monster ever discussed in human literature and culture: Dracula.
Besides the red and white and black color scheme, the Dracula has one more trick up its sleeves. If you look at the mouth of the Joker, depending on the time of the day, it will show Dracula’s vampire teeth. Appropriately, these teeth show during nighttime and retract during the day. It’s a brilliant day/night indicator that is functional and require 16 more parts to the overall watch.
Completing the theme is the red eyes and the white dial along with a beautiful shiny black alligator strap that includes red stitchings. The dimensions, 42 mm wide and 14 mm high, and remaining functionality of the watch match the rest of the Joker line. But perhaps this one includes an extra cool touch that you have come to expect from Chaykin.
It’s hard to overstate the unique and fun attributes of this watch. Of course, it is also not an everyday watch. Even the original Joker watch is mainly a conversation piece that would likely be worn for special occasions and certainly during Halloween. The Dracula fits this bill and time of the year even more.
At €18,970 it is relatively affordable for a unique and limited mechanical watch but again so specialized that, unless you are in the entertainment business or a seasoned passionate collector, or a super fan of the Joker character, it might be hard to justify. But since only 13 of the Dracula watch will be made, it’s not a concern most of us will ever have.
Joker “Dracula” modeled by Mark from Regarding Luxury
As an emotional and fun object, I can think of few watches that do so much to channel our inner child and need for joy than any of the Joker watches. And this Dracula model just make it that much more special. konstantin-chaykin.com
One of the winners in the 2019 GPHG awards in the first week of November was a two year old upstart watch brand from Kuala Lumpur named MING Watches. The young brand won best watch in the Challenge category at the Geneva show to the delight of its founder and watch aficionados who have regularly helped sell out the brand’s 11 prior releases since its debut of the 17.01 watch.
MING watches are not limited per we but are produced in small batches of a few hundreds, which in effect make them limited. A quick perusal to their web site shows that all models, except for the two new 2019 models have sold out. Interestingly the new models are also priced much higher than the previous ones. However, before getting ahead of ourselves, how does one go about seeing or trying on a MING watch?