The thinnest watch ever? No surprise coming from Konstantin Chaykin
To those unfamiliar with Konstantin Chaykin, he may have surprised you a few weeks ago at Geneva Watch Days 2024. There, the master watchmaker arrived with something genuinely extraordinary – the thinnest watch ever made. No teaser on Instagram, no foreshadowing in the media, this soft-spoken craftsman rattled the watch industry without making much noise at all.
For those of us in the “know,” we’re not that surprised. Though he is primarily known for the Joker, one of the most fun and lighthearted timepieces in independent watchmaking, Chaykin’s catalog is rife with unusual complications. This is a watchmaker with his own library of horological inventions, enough to easily regard Chaykin as something of a mad scientist in the discipline.
To provide some context on how Chaykin simply “showed up” with the world’s thinnest watch, we’re casting a light on some of the master’s most remarkable creations. As we’ll see, there are very few contemporary watchmakers with as strong a drive to explore the discipline and invent.
Moving time, motion pictures - Chaykin’s Cinema
Released at Baselworld 2013, Konstantin Chaykin introduced the world to the Cinema.
The timepiece features a highly unusual complication – a mechanical animation. An aperture at 6 o’clock showcases a galloping horse, the first ever “motion picture” captured by Eadweard Muybridge in the late 1870’s. Based on a Zoopraxiscope – a precursor to the movie projector – this was one of the earliest inventions in cinema for motion capture. The complication brings the image to life by changing the image every 0.7 seconds on a ring housed inside the movement.
In-house KCM-01-0 movement operates with two separate barrels – one for timekeeping and the other for the animation. Interestingly, both barrels are wound through the single crown, clockwise for one and counterclockwise for the other. The second crown at 9 o’clock is used to start/stop the animation complication.
The eye for thinness is even in the most unusually complicated of Chaykin timepieces. Explaining this timepiece could easily lead someone to believe that this is a large and thick watch. The rather opposite, especially given the popularity of larger timepieces over a decade ago at the time of its release, the Cinema boasts a streamlined 37mm x 47mm rectangular case with 12.2mm thickness.
Independent barrels in the movement drive both the timekeeping and animation.
An exciting concluding note here, covered in our video interview with Chaykin last month, the Cinema is returning – updated, smaller case as well as new lion animation and amber guilloché dial.
Space-age retro-futurism – the Lunokhod
One thing about Chaykin, the catalog (both watches and clocks) showcases significant aesthetic and design range. The Cinema is an ultra-refined, unusual complication in a somewhat dressy rectangular case. The Lunokhod pivots to the celestial realm and occupies a radically different aesthetic. This is a timepiece that feels like it was made with advanced technology from the distant past.
Unusual wootz steel on full display in the Lunokhod
A large part of the retrofuturistic look of the Lunokhod is derived from the case material – wootz steel. One of the oldest techniques in forging metal, originating in India roughly 3500 years ago, this material exhibits a unique banding pattern similar to Damascus steel. It’s rough in how the eye renders it, yet smooth to the touch.
While the case material and linear indication of time draw attention, the star of the show is the moonphase complication. As uncanny as a motion picture complication, Chaykin adds his own touch to one of the most classical astronomical complications. Rather than an aperture in the dial with an underlying, rotating disk with the moon, the central orb is textured like the moon and covered incrementally by a black rhodium-plated silver hood. Here, the phases of the moon are more accurately represented by the movements of the cosmos – a simulation of earth’s shadow on the fixed moon. A playful touch, very in line with the general energy of Chaykin, is that the back of the moon says “dark side of the moon” and is best visible when the hood fully blocks the moon on the dial.
Dark side of the moon shown through the caseback
A timepiece that feels straight out of a Ridley Scott film, the Lunokhod is a striking moonphase timepiece.
Ultra-complicated – the Star Gazer
As we mentioned, the Joker is one of the most playful watches that exists. It usually brings a huge smile, or in rare cases, strikes fear in the souls of those with coulrophobia (fear of clowns). The display of time and moonphase required a significant amount of modification to the ETA-2824 base – 61 additional, in-house components and six jewels were required to make this timepiece tick. As we’ve seen from Chaykin, there is no real limit to the watchmaker’s imagination. There’s also apparently no limit to his technical capabilities, and the Star Gazer is a testament to this reality.
The Star Gazer utilizes the familiar design of the Joker, but elevates the timepiece to the realm of a grand complication. 664 components, 82 jewels, entirely manufactured in-house with indications on both sides of the case, the Star Gazer features a whopping 17 complications. These include four complications that have never been seen previously in a wristwatch. With such a long list, the only reasonable way is to break the complications down by the dial and caseback.
Dial-side complications:
Regulator display of mean solar hours and minutes
Length of day
Length of night
Equation of time
Retrograde day of the week indication
Zodiac sign indication
Celestial map of the Northern Hemisphere
24-hour mean solar time indication
24 hour sidereal time indication
Movement-side complications:
Astronomic precision moonphase & -age with driving & setting differential
4-stage discreet moonphase indicator – (world first)
Solar activity cycle and current cycle duration – (world first)
Sunrise azimuth indicator – (world first)
Sunset azimuth indicator – (world first)
Tourbillon escapement
Beyond the technical specifications and complications, there are two, connected ways to understand this timepiece in the maestro’s catalog. Chaykin is deeply into astronomical complications and this is something of a statement’\ – the coming together of many disparate threads in watchmaking over 20+ years at the bench. It’s certainly a timepiece that would (and should!) qualify as a magnum opus. And here is the flipside of that coin, this is a flex. It’s a flex that comes about one year before the release of the thinnest watch to date. As low profile as anyone in the industry comes, Konstantin Chaykin has had a “hot hand” shooting with back-to-back releases inside of six months with the Star Gazer and the ThinKing.
“Why not me?” – The ThinKing
Geneva Watch Days 2024, the ThinKing arrives … quietly. Maybe, it’s because the other brands engaged in the battle for world’s thinnest watch have more marketing dollars. Maybe, it’s simply Chaykin’s style. One way or the other, this was the dark horse of the event. Measuring a mere 1.65mm in thickness, the ThinKing is the smallest watch in the history of watchmaking … so far.
Thinner than most credit cards, the ThinKing is a marvel
Chaykin’s inventiveness sits front and center, as usual. One of the key differentiators is that the ThinKing places the balance and roller, two components that are normally stacked on one another, on the same level. The balance features teeth that integrates directly into the roller wheel – this reduces the height of movement to give the hundreds of a millimeter required for the “thinnest watch” title. Broadly, this is a very “Chaykin” approach to watchmaking; a complete rethinking of the principles. Currently exists as a prototype, there’s a deep dive on the ThinKing on our YouTube channel here.
Anyone that takes a serious look at Chaykin’s catalog will see that the ThinKing isn’t particularly a huge surprise. The Cinema, Lunokhod, Star Gazer, and now the ThinKing are all indicative of one thing – Chaykin is not afraid of pushing into territory far beyond many of his peers. The entire catalog oozes “why not me, why not this?” – every wild and unusual idea is designed, prototyped, and brought to life. The ThinKing is a continuation of Chaykin’s modus operandi – why can’t he make the thinnest watch in history?