Swiss-based watchmaker Louis Erard introduced its latest collaboration piece, with master watchmaker Konstantin Chaykin, earlier this week.
Louis Erard does not make its own movements, and in this case, the movement is an outsourced Sellita SW266-1, which has an automatic regulator configuration. Master watchmaker, Konstantin Chaykin on the other hand does make unique calibers and has 94 patents, though this collaboration is more about Chaykin’s dial creations.
Ckaykin creates watches with dials that look like monsters (Wristmons) or villains such as the Joker, the Minotaur, or Harley Quinn. His signature aesthetic is as distinctive as Alain Silberstein, who’s also collaborated with Louis Erard here and here. And that’s what he has brought to this collaboration.
Available in two versions 39 mm x 12.82 mm, 45.9 mm (lug-to-lug) with 20mm lug width, and 42 mm x 12.25 mm. 49.6 mm (lug-to-lug) with lug width 22 mm, there are 178 pieces of each variation. Both retail for approximately $4,000 apiece. There’s also a box set with both watches included for $7,900 and limited to 28 pieces.
For the first Louis Erard x Konstantin Chaykin timepiece, a one-eyed monster watch was created, where the hour dial has a single large round eye that rotates and indicates the current hour.
“This cyclopean gaze takes up the original elements of the Wristmons and more particularly of Konstantin Chaykin’s first Joker watch – whose eyes were made up of white discs marked with a dot, both pupil and indicator,” according to Louis Erard.
The mouth is represented by the constantly running small seconds disc at 6 o’clock, which has a saw-mouth and is surrounded by red, again, similar to Chaykin’s Joker timepiece. Finish off the dial is a special central minutes hand, made to look like the arm of the monster. A white
Both watches have white guilloche wave dials, with a purple hour circle for the 39 mm piece and a green one for the 42 mm. A black toad strap completes the look and for a fraction of the price of a Chaykin timepiece, you can own his signature aesthetic.
Photo by Louis Erard.
