Call me a hopeless romantic, when you like, however I’ll ask this anyway: When was the final time you mirrored on how a watch made you’re feeling? The Konstantin Chaykin Joker did simply that with me, exactly as a result of it had made me really feel one thing new and totally different when in comparison with different watches. That is my evaluation of my Joker, half evaluate and half emotional reflection on how watches work — not simply mechanically, but in addition emotionally. Consequently, there are two methods of trying on the Joker: as an bizarre watch with wearability, refinement, and utilitarian points; and as a captivating idea that goes the place so few watches earlier than or after it can dare to go.
Most all different luxurious watches are about ticking or lacking containers — like high trumps or the choices checklist for vehicles. For watches, it’s at all times about how exact they’re, how refined their particulars are, how valuable their supplies are, how uncommon, unique, and cutting-edge they’re. That’s all enjoyable, after all, however the Joker is all, and but none, of these issues on the identical time. And that’s the reason I adore it so very a lot. The way in which the Joker has made me really feel allowed me to appreciate that I haven’t liked every other piece of watchmaking earlier than it — solely appreciated, maybe lusted after, or simply deeply appreciated.
It’s a practically unimaginable problem to clarify it, however I’ll attempt. The vibe this watch radiates, the way it appears to be like and operates, has eliminated it totally from that aforementioned arms race outlined by anglage and guillochage and karat counts and claimed (!) chronometrical efficiency. It’s a proud, but unusually discreet, center finger proper within the face of every thing and everybody who would disapprove it. The Joker is taking no hostages. You both adore it, otherwise you hate it, and both is okay as a result of each are a real response, one thing so few watches at the moment are able to evoking.
And whereas there are awe-inspiring, dare I say poetic, watches by the likes of Van Cleef & Arpels, Jaquet Droz, Hermès, and others, they’re all stupendously costly, means into the five-, however principally quite six-figure vary. In contrast, the Joker used to price (again when it was accessible) €6,990 or simply beneath $eight,000, with out lacking one little bit of character and undoubtedly and not using a painful lack of refinement when in comparison with these a lot, rather more costly “alternate options.” Thoughts you, on the time of writing, Konstantin Chaykin Joker watches are listed from $14,000 to $19,600 on Chrono24. You inform me when was the final time you noticed an appreciation like this on this phase from any model, small or giant, apart from the standard suspects like Rolex and a choose few Omegas.
Technical Particulars As Wonderful Because the Idea Itself
This story on visiting the Konstantin Chaykin Manufacture tells you every thing it is advisable to find out about not solely the place this watch is made, but in addition about probably the most inventive watchmakers to have ever lived: Konstantin Chaykin. Sound like excessive reward? It’s effectively deserved.
The Joker, on my wrist and absorbing the solar for the very first time simply exterior the Konstantin Chaykin manufacture.
The Konstantin Chaykin Joker is made virtually totally in home. The one sourced components are the ETA base caliber (extra on that quickly), the jewels, the sapphire crystals, and the leather-based strap. The whole lot else is produced within the Konstantin Chaykin Manufacture within the Nagatinsky Zaton District of Moscow. “The whole lot else” contains, however just isn’t restricted to: the case, the bezel, the crown, the laser etched logos, the dial, the mouth, the plates for and portray of the moon section and eye discs, the nostril meeting, and the Joker module and all its components. That’s a pleasant checklist, for certain, however this efficiency turns into really considerable solely when you spend some qualitative time admiring any one in every of these intimately.
Take the dial, for instance. CNC-milled from a single plate of brass, it’s an beautiful piece of expertise, means past what the Swiss corner-cutting answer of high-pressure stamping may produce, and intensely near being on par with the crispness of guillochage. Pictured above is the dial clean for the Clown watch, however that and the Joker are shut sufficient for you to have the ability to choose the standard of execution.
