7/29/2019 A Russian Gains Prominence Among Fine Watchmakers

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MONDAY,JANUARY21, 2013 | S3THE GLOBAL EDITION OF THE NEW YORK TIMES

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watches

Russian inventorgoes against grainfor his showpieces

PARIS

BY ARTHUR TOUCHOT

Soviet-era Russiawas nota particularlyfriendly environment for aspiring fine

watchmakers. For Konstantin Chaykin,who was born in St. Petersburg in 1975,there was no school where he couldlearn the craft that he dreamed of pur-suing. Sohe taughthimself.

I started out selling watches in asmall store that I owned, Mr. Chaykinsaid in an interview during the BellesMontres watch show in Paris lastmonth.I began tofix watchesmyself.Iwould readup onwatchrepairfromanyand all sources I could find. Once I star-ted reading and repairing watches, Inever stopped.

In2003,he sawanexhibitionof histor-ic Breguet watches at the HermitageMuseum in St. Petersburg. Inspired, hedecided on the spot to create his ownwatches.

He started, with a confidence basedon blissful ignorance, with a tourbillon the complication invented by the18th-century master Abraham-LouisBreguet that remains to this day one ofthesupreme tests ofwatchmaking skill.

I learned that no one had created atourbillon in Russia since 1917, Mr.Chaykin said. So I downloaded someblueprints, dug up some manuals andsetout tobuilda tourbillonusingmyba-sic watch-repairtools.

Most watchmakers take years to de-velop a piece from its first conception.Mr. Chaykin, having fun, finished hisinside 12 months, presenting the firstRussian-made grand complication

clock in 2004. I enjoyed building thetourbillon so much that I started think-ingof creatingotherwatches,he said.

His first pieces lost him money butgained him the attention he needed tobuild a full-time business, makingwatchesto order.

Mr. Chaykin credits some of his suc-cess to his unorthodox horological edu-cation. In my opinion an academicbackground teachesstudentsto think incertain ways and limits them to certainrules, he said.

Inmycase,I learnedeverythingas Iwent, ona need-to-knowbasis,he said.Ithinkthatmylackofformalschoolingleftme withan openmind.

Mr. Chaykin makes it sound simple.And perhaps, to him, it really is. Since2004, he has created a multitude ofcalibers manufactured in-house, andtaken out30 patents.

I just dont have the time to developallof myideas,he said.

In 2012 alone he filed 12 patent appli-cations for watch movements. Thebrand,not yet10 yearsold,nowmarketsfivewatchcollections andfiveclock col-lections.

His most recent watch, the Quartime,perhaps best epitomizes his Russianidentity. While most of the Westernworld dividesthe dayinto twohalvesa.m. and p.m. Russians tend to thinkintermsof fourquarters:morning, day,eveningand night.

Typical ways to describe time inRussianincludephrasessuchasI woke

up at 7 in the morning or I will stop byat 2 in the afternoon or Someone wasmakinga lotof noise at11 atnight, Mr.Chaykinsaid.

Usingrevolvingindicators, theQuart-ime presents these four time sections,eachalloweda six-hourwindow.

Mr. Chaykin had already shared hisnational pride in 2010, when he presen-

ted his Lunokhod model, a timekeepinghomageto theRussianmoonroverpro-gram of the early 1970s. At the watchsdial center, a black rhodium-plated sil-ver mask covered a 12-millimeter, or al-most half an inch, Wootz-steel orb, ac-curately portraying the earths shadowcastonthe surfaceof themoon.

WhenI begancreating astronomicalcomplications for clocks and watches Ibegan to study astronomy. I immedi-ately noticedthatmostwatches presentthe phases of the moon with symbols,which do not represent what is happen-inginthe skyvisually,he said.SoI de-cided to create a watch which wouldpresenta realistic pictureof howwe, onearth,see themoon.

The Quartime and the Lunokhod areunmistakably Russian. Our slogan,Its Russian Time, is all-inclusive made in Russia, by Russian watch-makers, to capture the Russian soul,Mr.Chaykin said.

But they also contain subtle cuespointingto hislovefor othercultures.Mr.Chaykin, who grew up listening to Brit-ish rock n roll, inscribed The DarkSide of the Moon over the Lunokhodsmoon-phaseindicatora tributetoPinkFloyd,his favorite boyhood band.

His multicultural interests and in-genuity are more visible in his Deca-logue andHijrawatches.

In the Decalogue, named after the 10Commandments, the hands turn coun-terclockwise to tell the time, a reference

to the way Hebrew is read. The usual 12numerals are replaced by letters fromthe Jewish alphabet, from which a nu-merical value can be extrapolated ac-cordingto Kabbalisticteaching.

I enjoy researching and immersingmyself into the history and traditions ofvariousreligions,Mr. Chaykinsaid.

The same spirit informs the Hijra,which follows Islams unique lunar cal-endar. Mechanically, this meant creat-ing a watch in which each month lastsfrom the appearance of one new moonto the next. Aesthetically, it allowed forthe introduction of several traditionalIslamicdecorative elements.The shapeof the hour hand refers to the dome of amosque while the minute hand re-semblesa minaret.The hand ofthe dateindicator, based on the Muslim calen-dar, is tipped with a crescent, the sym-bol of Islam. All the hands are made ofsteel andpolishedby hand.

For both watches, Mr. Chaykin de-signed and manufactured his caliberEVA01manually woundmovement.

His most celebrated watch is, in asense, culturally detached. TheLevitas,withhandsthatseemto float unsuppor-ted inside its large transparent dial,wowed watch fans around the worldwhenit wasintroducedin 2001.

They suspected that I was using aquartz movement, Mr. Chaykin said.People are still astonished at the sizeof the transparent area in the Levitascollection. They simply do not under-standhow it works.

It looked like sorcery, some said. In-deed, the watch drew inspiration fromJean-EugneRobert-Houdin,the Frenchmagicianand watchmakerwho inventedthefirst mysteryclockin 1839.

Mr. Chaykin enjoys the magiciansshowmanship. There is no better feel-ingthansurprisingpeople,he said.

But unlike most magicians, he is will-ing to reveal his secrets in this case,the trick is seen through a crystal case-back that shows the hands rotating ontransparent discs, driven by a covert

systemof miniaturegears.A new mystery watch will be presen-tedat Baselworld2013,with a tourbillondisplayedin thecase-back window.

The five watches come together tocreate a weird family. All have strongbut wildly different personalities, andeach presented its creator with a newchallenge. But to Mr. Chaykin, none of

themstand outabovethe rest.I love all of my watches. They all

carry my name and I dont play favor-ites, he said.

While his watches offer visible proofof his exceptional craftsmanship anddesign originality, they offer no hint ofperhaps his most remarkable accom-plishment: his ability to create them inRussia.

No one near us produces any watchpartsorwatch-makingtools:I ended upmaking my parts and tools, he said. Iam Russian. I was born here and I lovemy country. But it is difficult to makewatcheshere.

Mr. Chaykin remains the only Rus-sian-based producer of high-endwatches and, not surprisingly, the onlyRussian member of the prestigiousSwiss-based club of independent craftwatchmakers, the Acadmie Horlogredes Crateurs Indpendants, to whichhewas electedin 2010.

While the Asian and Eastern Euro-pean markets, including Russia, haveshown steady growth for luxuryproducts, Mr. Chaykin says he does notbenefit from home-field advantageagainstSwiss rivals.

My potential customers all believethat all quality goods come from the

West, he said. So even in Russia I amcompeting with watchmakers fromaroundthe world.

If that ever changes, it will be largelybecause of him. Knowing firsthand thelack of opportunity for apprenticeshipsin Russia, he has surrounded himselfwith home-grown talent, working to-gether athis Moscowworkshop.

I think teaching the skills is just thestart I try to pass on the passion andanunderstandingof theart ofhorology,hesaid.I wouldloveto opena schoolinthe future. I am certain that interest inRussianwatcheswillgrowmoreas Rus-sia startsproducing finewatches.

Lacking tools or training,watchmaker taughthimself high-end skills

PHOTOGRAPHS COURTESY OF KONSTANTIN CHAYKIN

Mr.Chaykin, who

grewup listening to

Britishrockn roll

and whose favorite

boyhoodbandwas

PinkFloyd,in-

scribedTheDark

Sideof theMoon

underthemoon-

phaseindicator of

the Lunokhod.

KONSTANIN CHAYKIN

Konstantin

Chaykin,left,in

Paris forthe Belles

Montresexhibition,

peeringthrough

the transparent

dialof hisLevitas

watch.From left,

the Lunokhod,

twoversionsof the

Levitas,and the

Decalogue,with

hands thatturn

counterclockwise

andlettersfrom

theJewishalpha-

betinstead ofnum-

bers. Ienjoy

researchingand

immersingmyself

intothehistoryand

traditions of vari-

ous religions,

hesaid.

www.zenith-watches.com

EL PRIMEROCHRONOMASTER 1969

Life is in the movement