Watches come in all shapes and forms, but sometimes it feels just like Nietzsche described: you look at the watch, and it looks back at you! And it evokes a living emotion in response – interest, a smile, or even laughter – not just a desire to understand the mechanics of the original complication. What kind of watch are we talking about? This refers to the "Wristmons" collection by Konstantin Chaykin – models with an anthropomorphic dial.
In 2013, Chaykin, by then already a renowned watchmaker and inventor, founder of his own manufacture, and a member of the Académie Horlogère des Créateurs Indépendants (AHCI), once again astonished watch enthusiasts. He brought to the BaselWorld exhibition a model designed to amaze: the "Cinema," featuring a built-in mechanical movie projector.
These watches "showed a movie" – they played back the movement of a horse in the series of images "Sallie Gardner at a Gallop," photographed in the 19th century by Eadweard Muybridge. These photographs were taken to determine if a galloping horse ever lifts all four hooves off the ground or always has at least one hoof touching it. This study laid the foundation for film shooting. The "Cinema" watches generated immense interest and elicited a strong emotional response from viewers.
This reaction inspired the master. "I realized that people want more from watches than just perfect mechanics; they want magic, wonder, joyful amazement, and the anticipation of surprise. People want joy, they want emotions – and watches can evoke emotions. I understood this and decided to create just such a model," he recalled. While working on the "Decalogue" table clock, Chaykin once inverted the classic semicircular moon phase indicator and noticed that it resembled a smile. As the old children's song goes, "Friendship begins with a smile," and for Konstantin Chaykin, a smile marked the beginning of a highly successful story of watches with anthropomorphic dials – the "Wristmons" collection.
The ability of human facial expressions to provoke emotional reactions is embedded in the nature of Homo sapiens: it forms the basis of emotional communication, nonverbal interaction. According to a 2020 study by Emory University (USA), four-day-old infants can already distinguish faces from other objects. The subconscious mind automatically reads the tiniest details of faces – both real and drawn or photographed. The specifics of someone else's facial expressions involuntarily evoke a response, not always subject to rationalization.
Dr. Vyacheslav Dubynin, Doctor of Biological Sciences, explains that mirror neurons allow us to determine emotions – pain, aggression, tenderness – from another person's face in fractions of a second. A bad mood can be improved by smiling at your reflection in the mirror. The contraction of facial muscles in a smile triggers the release of dopamine – the "happiness hormone." Hence the culture of smiley faces: a drawn smile provokes a similar response in the viewer. It's no surprise that the working title of Chaykin's anthropomorphic watch project was "Smile."
But the concept evolved. In addition to the expressive face, the new watches gained a "biography" and a "character." As the work on the Wristmon (from "wrist monster") progressed, its image took shape – a fun, mischievous, and adventurous trickster character, the Joker. This is a recurring figure that spans multiple cultural layers: from Commedia dell'arte to card games, folklore to comics and blockbusters, making it instantly recognizable.
Chaykin brought the "Joker" to BaselWorld in 2017, and the Wristmon was a hit with everyone, from industry professionals to casual visitors. The "Joker" became the first in a series of bright and recognizable characters with distinct personalities.
When designing the "face" of the Wristmon, the watchmaker meticulously works on every detail – both technical and visual – anticipating the viewer's reaction. Everything matters: the placement of the "facial features," their size, shape, proportions, colors, as well as the logic of the movement of animated elements. Moving parts first appeared on the "Dracula" Wristmon, released for Halloween 2018. But this wasn’t just "entertainment" mechanics: Chaykin invented and implemented a unique complication – the "Dracula Time" indicator. From midnight until early morning, vampire fangs would appear and then disappear from the character's mouth.
When working on anthropomorphic dials, the watchmaker drew inspiration from the history of visual arts and technology. For him, dials are bas-reliefs, flat sculptural representations. The fact that they are colored fits within tradition: ancient marble sculptures were once painted, as were medieval church wooden sculptures.
Another source of inspiration is old mechanical figurines, so-called automata, which were popular during the technological revolution of the modern era. "My goal is to tell a captivating story, a narrative. Using mechanics to create a moving character-sculpture. And, of course, as a watchmaker, I strive to add interesting complications," explains the master. High mechanics become another artistic tool.
As the "Wristmons" collection evolved, the anthropomorphic dials changed. At some point, zoomorphic characters appeared, such as the "Minotaur," the hero of the myth of the man with a bull's head. He has no "mouth" moon-phase indicator, but instead features wide, angrily flared "nostrils" covered with sapphire lenses. This is a two-disc day-of-the-week indicator, invented by Chaykin. The "Joker 5," released for the fifth anniversary of the "Wristmons" collection, has a very wide, slightly sly smile: it’s a retrograde sector day-of-the-week indicator.
"Cosmic" characters also made their appearance: the "Martian" and the "Stargazer" Wristmons. These are extremely complex watches, created as unique pieces. The "Stargazer," presented at the end of 2023, is the most complicated wristwatch in the history of Russian horology. And these are still watches with anthropomorphic dials and modified Joker indication modules.
The "Martian's" mouth is a Martian calendar, implemented by Chaykin based on Thomas Gangale's system. The "Stargazer" even has two faces – its Dark and Light sides. Konstantin Chaykin achieved a true breakthrough in watch mechanics by creating a watch with 17 complications, 11 of which are astronomical. And all of them are "disguised" as features of the "Stargazer's" two faces. On the Dark side, the "nose" serves as the equation of time, the "eyebrows" are an indicator of day and night duration, and the "third eye" is a planisphere. On the Light side, the "eyes" are a continuous moon-phase indicator and a solar activity indicator. And the "mouth" is slightly open in amazement: this is the round aperture of the tourbillon.
Until recently, all anthropomorphic and even zoomorphic characters of the "Wristmons" collection shared at least one common feature: they all had two eyes (usually serving as hour and minute indicators). But the moment came when even this familiar visual framework became too limiting for Chaykin. He created a… one-eyed Wristmon – the Time-Eater (Le Régulateur Louis Erard x Konstantin Chaykin) in collaboration with the Swiss brand Louis Erard.
The challenge was to construct a character in the concept of the popular Louis Erard regulator watches, with minute indication by a central hand, a small hour dial at the "12 o'clock" position, and a second indicator at the "6 o'clock" position. This meant that the Wristmon could only have one eye, right in the middle of the "forehead," like the mythical Greek Titans or Cyclops from "The Odyssey." Chaykin also recalled Licho the One-Eyed, the main antagonist of a Russian folk tale.
The mouth was also intended to be round, and here came more cultural references: the time-devouring god Chronos from Goya’s painting and the Langoliers – "time eaters" from Stephen King's book. So the Louis Erard second indicator became a toothy, voracious "mouth" with sharp "teeth." They move as if chewing through moments, just as the name Time-Eater suggests.
Konstantin Chaykin's "Wristmons" collection continues to grow. The master is thinking of new characters, which will surely include the most unexpected "faces": mythological, fairy-tale, and fantastical. What they will look like is anyone's guess, but one thing is clear: they will all be extraordinary and provoke a vivid emotional reaction.