Konstantin Chaykin (Watchmaker)

Moscow-born independent best known for the Joker (an emoticon-style face watch with rotating-disk eyes and mouth) and the Wristmons line. The first Russian watchmaker admitted to the AHCI.

Konstantin Chaykin (b. 1975, Naberezhnye Chelny) is the Moscow-based watchmaker who became the first Russian admitted to the AHCI independents' academy in 2010. His brand, founded 2003, is best known for the Joker (2017, GPHG-winning), a deliberately playful watch whose two rotating disks form a stylised emoticon face: the disks indicate hours and minutes while reading as 'eyes' and the moonphase indicator at the bottom reads as a 'mouth'. The Wristmons line extended the same face-as-display concept across multiple character watches (Mouse, Clown, Dracula).

Born1975, Russia

Brand founded2003

LocatedMoscow

AHCI member2010 (first Russian)

WristBuzz Articles118

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Photo: Monochrome · May 27, 2026

1975Born

2003Brand

MoscowHQ

JokerDefining

118WristBuzz Articles

The Konstantin Chaykin (Watchmaker) Story

Konstantin Chaykin founded his Moscow workshop in 2003 and was admitted to the AHCI in 2010, the first Russian watchmaker to be elected to the independents' academy. Early Chaykin pieces included a series of Russian-Orthodox-calendar wristwatches (showing the moveable feasts and church year) and the Lunokhod, an oversized desk-piece moonphase. The brand has consistently focused on unusual mechanical complications expressed through unfamiliar visual languages.

The Joker launched in 2017 and won the GPHG Audacity Prize the same year. Two large rotating disks at 9 and 3 o'clock indicate hours and minutes; positioned in the watch face they read as a smiling pair of eyes, with a moonphase indicator at 6 o'clock reading as a smiling mouth. The watch became one of the most-photographed pieces of 2017 and triggered the Wristmons line: Mouse, Clown, Dracula, Joker Halloween, Joker Christmas. The line is a study in how complications can be reframed as character design.