Konstantin Chaykin has released a new version of his classic Joker watch for 2024, a model he’s appropriately calling the “Joker Classic”. This new, slightly smaller version of the watch that boosted his brand to horological stardom comes seven years after the original Joker was released in 2017. His Wristmon watches, the collection of his that’s a portmanteau of the words “wrist” and “monster”, tend to sell out almost instantly due to popularity and I doubt this newest Wristmon release will be any different. Konstantin had the following to say about his newest release:
“Remember the quote from Alice in Wonderland? We must run as fast as we can just to stay in place. And if you wish to go anywhere you must run twice as fast as that. This watch reminded me of the timeless wisdom of those words. It’s now [been] seven years. For the new watch to have the same emotional impact as my first Joker, I had to change it completely. Naturally, we started with the movement, which reached a completely different level. But the dial also needed attention: the Wristmons had become a cultural icon, and the wavy white guilloché had become a hallmark of the collection. Therefore, I adopted new techniques to refresh the dial’s appeal, reflecting the novelty felt back in 2017.”
-Konstantin Chaykin
Let’s take a look at the watch. Chaykin is going with his typical Joker look for the case, just a little sized down from the usual 42mm to instead 40mm. The bezel still features heart, diamond, club, and spade symbols in addition to the joker one at 12 o’clock. In between each symbol are small pyramid-shaped cutouts. The watch features two crowns, one at 3 o’clock and one at 9 o’clock, one adjusts the time while the other adjust the moon phase only. Since the watch is supposed to look like a face, the dual crowns are the perfect way to give the watch a set of ears.
The dial is classic Joker, although due to this new 40mm version’s slightly smaller dial and the eyes being the same size as previous versions, the eyes appear a little larger in relation to the rest of the dial compared to the 42mm versions. For the new version, Chaykin has moved away from the classic wavy guilloché finish that his Joker watches tend to have towards the bottom of the face and has instead elected for a new type of guilloché that winds up looking more triangular and diamond shaped. Chaykin is offering two different versions of the dial. One is green with white and red accents, the classic Joker watch look. The second option is light grey with burgundy and red accents, which reminds me a lot of the Mouse King Wristmon watch he introduced back in 2020. Like most of Chaykin’s Wristmon watches, the left eye displays the hours, the right eye displays the minutes, and the mouth functions as an upside-down moon phase indicator.
For the movement, Konstantin Chaykin is using his Cal. K.18-18, a modified version of a La Joux-Perret G-200 (made by Swiss movement manufacturer La Joux-Perret, which was acquired by Citizen in 2012). The automatic movement beats at 28,800 v/h and has a power reserve of 68 hours. The movement is visible through the case back, and so is its rotor that features a cutout of Chaykin’s logo. Some say his logo is two connected dauphine hands, others say it’s more likely that it’s a seagull as the last name Chaykin is very similar to the Russian word for seagull, I like to think it could be either as both interpretations work. Engraved around the case back are the brand’s name, the material type, “Joker”, and “Made in Russia”, which is something you definitely don’t really ever see on most modern high-end watches. Then again, Konstantin Chaykin’s watches are unlike pretty much anything else out there, so it fits.
The watch comes on a black alligator strap with green contrast stitching and a purple calfskin lining, all attached to a stainless steel Konstantin Chaykin buckle. The purple and green interior, stamped with the Konstantin Chaykin name and logo, is another nod to the classic Joker look from the Batman comics. The only change I’d hope for is that eventually there would be a really neat deployant clasp that would come on his Wristmons watches. The clasp could be decorated to tie in to the theme of the watch somehow, but it would definitely help to have the watch be more secure when putting on and taking off the watch.
Konstantin Chaykin is one of today’s greatest watchmakers when it comes to outside-the-box thinking. From both an aesthetics standpoint (the Wristmon collection) and a horological engineering standpoint (his Mars Conqueror Mk 3 which displays both the time on Earth and Mars), Chaykin pushes the boundaries of what a watchmaker is capable of creating. We featured him last year on WMWB in an article on Jewish watchmaking, due to his many beautifully crafted watches and clocks with Jewish themes. It seems that no matter what he tackles, he does it well. While his homeland may not be the first place you think of when it comes to high-end watchmaking, Konstantin Chaykin is without a doubt one of the most innovative high-end watchmakers in the industry. I’m happy to see we’re getting another version of the Joker and hopefully we’ll be getting many more Wristmon pieces in the near future.
The Konstantin Chaykin Joker Classic will be made in limited batches, up to 100 pieces each year, and is priced at 16,900 USD.