“Joker Selfie Only Watch-2019 Unique Piece”

The first self-portrait watch in the world

Konstantin Chaykin, acting in his own individual way, made an unpredictable move by endowing the dial of the “Joker” watch with his own facial features, that is, conceiving the watch as his own self-portrait – an idea inspired by a visit to an exhibition of the Russian painter Arkhip Kuindzhi. In fact, Konstantin Chaykin invented the world’s first mechanical watch with a self-portrait dial, or selfie dial. This is precisely why the watch was given the name “Joker Selfie”.

The high renown of the event and the noble aims it declares did not leave Konstantin Chaykin indifferent, so he decided to take the opportunity to support the charity and at the same time demonstrate creativity and an extraordinary approach to the development of a unique watch especially for Only Watch.

Joker Selfie
— Only Watch-2019 Piece Unique

The reason Konstantin Chaykin created the “Joker Selfie Only Watch-2019 Unique Piece” watch was to participate in the Only Watch 2019 charity auction. For this event, which has been held every two years since 2005, the world’s leading watch brands create a collection of unique masterpieces of watchmaking art, the proceeds of the sales of which go towards financing research into Duchenne’s myopathy OR Duchenne muscular dystrophy, and the search for ways to treat this dangerous condition.

The first self-portrait watch in the world For the “Joker Selfie Only Watch-2019 Unique Piece”, Konstantin Chaykin created a unique dial design in the image of his own face, of course stylised, and the author’s green-yellow eyes are reflected in the iris of the “Joker”. Further strengthening the image of the joker-watchmaker, he placed a stylised watchmaker’s loupe over the hour-indicator eye, complete with real magnifying sapphire crystal.

Remembering the early years of the development of his brand, when, in developing his unique movements, Soviet watch factory calibres were used as the basis, Konstantin Chaykin decided to again return to the theme of the great Soviet heritage in the history of watchmaking. Especially for the “Joker Selfie Only Watch-2019 Unique Piece”, he decided to create a new movement based on the famous precision calibre 2809 of the Chistopol Watch Factory. The solid technical foundation of the calibre 2809 is complemented by the high-quality performance befitting of a collectible model of the “haute horlogerie” category.

Another nod to the history of the brand is the case made of real bulat steel, a material which is unusually hard and difficult to work with, used by Konstantin Chaykin in his famous “Lunokhod” watch. For many centuries, bulat steel has been known to weapons-makers, using it to make the best quality blades which no modern alloy can surpass. Craftsmen wished to keep the exact recipe for making bulat steel a secret, which is why it has been lost and rediscovered numerous times. In his watch, Konstantin Chaykin uses a special stainless bulat steel alloy, from which the buckle is also made.

There is a secret contained within the “Joker Selfie Only Watch-2019 Unique Piece”. You can discover it by turning the case to the horizontal position. Upon doing so, a shutter closes the hour indication eye of the “Joker”, under the watchmaker’s loupe, and a special aperture in the “12 o’clock” position (the “third eye” of the watch) reveals a unique day of the week indicator, in which each day is indicated by an emoji drawn by Chaykin and based on his “Joker” and other models of the “Wristmons” collection. When the case is not horizontal, the branded emoji day-of-the-week indicator is closed and the Joker Selfie’s eye with hour indicator is open, and the watch looks as though it has no secrets within. In order to guarantee the perfect operation of the shutter which closes the hour indicator, Konstantin had to minimize the weight of this part and was therefore faced with the need to make it from an ultra-light high-tech aluminium-magnesium alloy.

The “Joker Selfie Only Watch-2019 Unique Piece” watch was sold on 9th November 2019 at the Only Watch 2019 charity auction, held in Geneva, for 70,000 Swiss Francs, which significantly exceeded the estimate of 18-24,000 Francs.

Specification

Caliber K.21-0, hand-winding, developed on the base of Soviet precision Caliber 2809 of Tschistopolsky factory; highly modified by Konstantin Chaykin according to haute horlogerie standards and equipped with Joker indication module.

MEHANIZM