Perhaps one of the most unexpected collaborative successes of recent times in watches has been the series that Louis Erard and CEO Manuel Emch with a diverse range of watch brands and watch makers, including Vianney Halter and Alain Silberstein.

Now, it is the turn of Konstantin Chaykin, with the launch of a new limited of 178 pieces including a Diptych Box Set with a limitation of 28 pieces.

The links with this new piece with Chaykin’s own brand is that of his ‘Wristmons’ (wrist monsters) collection which was launched in 2017 and which has been the successful vehicle through which he has reached more wrists compared to his more traditional (even if still border-pushing) timepieces.

In this instance, the ‘Wristmon’ is a cyclops, after a fashion, with the hour indicator also acting as an eye. It is also a nod to the incredibly popular original Joker watch, again whose popularity has seen it develop into its own ‘family’.

The inspiration for the ‘Time Eater’ name and ‘image’, as it were, is linked to Chaykin’s Halloween exploits. As he puts it – “Every Halloween I created a new type of monster, i.e. wristwatches with a Halloween theme, such as the pumpkin head watch and the Dracula watch, for example. Looking for ideas for this story, I turned to the one-eyed Likho character from fairy tales.”

Likho (aka ‘liho’) refers to the ‘evil eye’ and misfortune in mythology covering Russia, Polish, Ukraine and Belarus. The single eye is evil and Likho as a concept can be either female or male in form – said form being in fairy tales.

The functions on the watch are displayed as follows – an hour disc at 12 o’clock, centre minutes hand, and seconds sub dial in a disc form at 6 o’clock.

For the seconds display, Chaykin has given the disc some teeth, and therein lies the ‘Time Eater’ time – a reference to Stephen King’s ‘The Langoliers’.

One eye. One arm – the elongated minute hand which has two ‘hands’ of its on at either end. On one end a sign of the horns and the other …

The case is stainless steel and comes in either a 42mm x 49.6mm x 12.2mm, or on a 39mm x 45.9mm x 12.8mm size. Water resistance is 50m.

The case back is engraved with “Limited Edition 1 of 178” and through the sapphire crystal you can see the automatic Sellita SW266-1 which beats at 28,800VPH and has a power reserve of 38 hours. The partially open worked rotor features the Louis Erard logo in black lacquer.

Two size, two colour schemes.

The 42mm model has a shiny green hour-circle, silver lower plate with sunray wave pattern, anthracite circular satin-finished hour flange, shiny red seconds flange, white transfers, and circular satin-finished cartouches with logos transferred in black (Louis Erard at 6 o’clock and Konstantin Chaykin at 12 o’clock). The sub dials feature a shiny white hour disc with black transfer, and matte black star-shaped seconds disc with a matte black hand-shaped minute hand.

The 39mm variant has a shiny purple hour-circle with logos transferred in white (Louis Erard at 6 o’clock and Konstantin Chaykin at 12 o’clock), silver lower plate with sunray wave pattern, anthracite circular satin-finished hour flange with white transfers, and shiny red seconds flange. For its sub dials, there is a shiny white hour disc with black transfer, and a matte black star-shaped seconds disc with matte black hand-shaped minute hand.

The watches come on ‘talking point’ straps – a black toad leather strap with green or purple stitching and green or purple rabbit leather lining. The RRP is CHF 4,000 for a single watch or CHF 7,000 for the set of two.

Interestingly, if you look up ‘likho’, लिखो means ‘write’ (write down) in Hindi.

[Photo credit: Louis Erard/ Konstantin Chaykin]

Categories: Konstantin Chaykin, Limited Editions, Louis Erard, Watch Profile, watches, Women's watches