A brand named for the founder himself, Konstantin Chaykin is a company founded in St. Petersburg - with its first piece created and presented in 2004. Russian born Chaykin was a young inventor who learned watchmaking not at the feet of a teacher, but was self-taught, with the aid of manuals. Driven by his passion for watch movements, he taught himself the process, one skill and one step at a time, with amazing results. He then began restoring and repairing timepieces, learning the intricacies of their movements, and soon started implementing his own ideas into those movements. Since that time, he has created several new, patented movements; along with unique watches and general mechanic inventions. He takes great pride in creating "exceptional timepieces, for exceptional people" in his home of Russia. He now runs his own manufacture in Moscow and has a wealth of amazing achievements - especially for someone who is so young and has come into the business in such an unusual way.
Many of the timepieces created by this company have a very artistic, creative inspiration and feel, such as the Cinema and the Carpe Diem; the former of which features a sublime hand-made and hand-decorated mechanical movement - the manual winding caliber K01-4. This 38.6 mm wide, 9 mm high lever escapement movement with a mechanism that enables an hourglass minutes indicator, includes steel and gold components, along with 33 jewels. As a manual winding watch, it must be wound by the wearer - before putting it on, in order to function. It is powered with the crown is wound, which winds up the mainspring. With this type of watch, it is important not to overwind it, in order to avoid breaking the spring. Many watch lovers prefer the traditional hand-wound timepieces and enjoy the tradition of winding them.
The Konstantin Chaykin Carpe Diem is as much a piece of art, as it is a timepiece. "Carpe Diem" is Latin for "seize the day", which this esoteric timepiece does well. This elegant, poetic, and incredibly creative watch is a very limited edition of only five pieces. This men's piece has a 45 mm round case of 18-carat pink gold - the same precious metal as the buckle on its' alligator strap and its' handmade dial - and has a power reserve of 46 hours. However, what makes this timepiece really unique is the amazing art that is the face of the dial: a dark blue backdrop with 11 diamonds creates a starry night sky, in which sits Chronos - the Greek God of time - with an hourglass in his hand (at the 9 o'clock position), which indicates the passing of minutes; six small dots in the hourglass indicate each ten-minute segment in an hour. Under the hourglass is a skull, set beside the bottom dial (at the 6 o'clock position), which displays the hours with Roman numerals and a blue hand. It also has a zodiac sign positioned at the 3 o'clock position, to indicate the current day of the week. While this highly original timepiece won't show you the time to the second, there is a very good chance that it will most likely be one of the most unique timepieces that you will ever see.