The Other Guys

Swiss watchmaking may be the gold standard, but looking further afield could turn up some exceptional finds.

- Celine Yap

KONSTANTIN CHAYKIN, RUSSIA

He is the only watchmaker from Russia admitted to the Independent Watchmakers Academy and he’s been making watches for 15 years. Table clocks, three-dimensional moon phases, luxury wristwatches and artistic complications, you name it; he’s the number one in Russia.

But the world knows Konstantin Chaykin best as the creator of the hilariously absurd yet horologically very sound Joker, a watch that tells the time with a dopey grin and two googly eyes. While many have described luxury mechanical watches as emotional products, none have expressed this idea quite as literally as Chaykin.

Tongue-in-cheek and pop art-inspired, the Joker launched the company onto the international watch scene and inspired Chaykin to create several other spin-offs such as the Clown, Dracula, Mouse King and more. Obviously these are not intended for those who have just started collecting watches—or those with a fear of clowns—but they do offer a very unique Russian twist on classical horology.

Despite the playful themes, Chaykin is completely serious when it comes to quality and craftsmanship. He uses 100 percent Russian-produced components. For a guy who made his first flying tourbillon table clock with nothing more than a few watch books and his brain, you could say he’s more of an inventor than a watchmaker. With more than 70 patents to his name, Chaykin’s achievements don’t trail very far behind big companies with huge R&D teams.

Watchmaking is an art. And if art is meant to provoke, then Chaykin’s work with the Joker and Clown series definitely made us think more deeply about the role of mechanical timepieces today, and how not everything needs to conform to a tedious set of rules. Well, at least not in Russia.

STEPAN SARPANEVA, FINLAND