Louis Erard - Le Régulateur Louis Erard x Konstantin Chaykin

Louis Erard and Konstantin Chaykin created a watch that recalls a saw-toothed cyclops, Le Régulateur Louis Erard x Konstantin Chaykin. Price CHF 4,000

Louis Erard and master watchmaker Konstantin Chaykin cooperated to create an original timepiece that recalls a saw-toothed cyclops, Le Régulateur Louis Erard x Konstantin Chaykin.

This is the latest of a series of collaboration of Louis Erard with métiers d’art (guillochage, marquetry, enamel), with creators (seconde/seconde, atelier oï, Label Noir, Massena Lab) and with the great names of independent watchmaking (Alain Silberstein, Vianney Halter).

Konstantin Chaykin is a member of the AHCI (Académie Horlogère des Créateurs Indépendants) with a worldwide reputation and proven inventiveness testified by his 94 patents. The master watchmaker has also earned a reputation in the very special world of watches with faces of monsters. The collection is called Wristmons (wrist monsters) and was launched in 2017 with great success.

For the design of this collaboration timepiece, Louis Erard gave 'carte blanche' to Chaykin with the only constraint represented by the architecture of Louis Erard's signature regulator, with central minute, hour at noon, and seconds at 6 o'clock. 

The result is a one-eyed monster to which the mechanics give life. The hour is a single, large, round eye. This element is clearly inspired by Konstantin Chaykin's first Joker watch - whose eyes were made up of white discs marked with a dot, both pupil and indicator.

For the small second at six o'clock, the watchmaker dressed it in a disc with pointed teeth.

The central minute hand gives the monster not just one arm but two. In fact, Chaykin made it cross the dial thus creating "two hands turning in a circle". And to complete the cartoonish character, the watchmaker has played with "specific finger combinations" - a finger stretched out on one side and a sign of the horns at the other end - which give the whole thing the appearance of an arrow: a point at one end, a plumage at the other.

Le Régulateur Louis Erard x Konstantin Chaykin comes in two versions, each produced in a limited run of 178 pieces: a purple hour circle for the 39 mm piece (ref. 85248AA89) and a green one for the 42 mm (ref. 85237AA88), both at the price of CHF 4,000, excluding local sales taxes.

The two versions can also be purchased as a diptych, proposed in a special box at CHF 7,900 (excluding taxes) limited to only 28 pieces. 

Water-resistant up to a pressure of 5 bars (50 metres / 165 feet), these models are driven by the automatic Sellita SW266-1 calibre that is displayed through a transparent sapphire crystal porthole. Beating at 28,800 vibrations per hour 4 Hz), it offers 38 hours of power reserve. 

The black toad leather with purple or green attachment points is secured to the wrist by a polished stainless steel pin buckle and equipped with a functional catch spring bars enabling the strap to be changed quickly. louiserard.com