Le Régulateur Time Eater – Louis Erard x Konstantin Chaykin

Availability: See it at 430 Park Avenue

• Limited Edition: 178 timepieces
• Case: Satin-brushed and polished Stainless Steel
• Size: 42 mm x 12.25 mm
• Movement: Automatic regulator, Sellita caliber SW266-1
• Function: Hours hand in a counter at 12 o'clock, central minutes hand, seconds hand in a counter at 6 o'clock
• Power Reserve: Approximately 38 hrs
• Water Resistance: 50 m
• Dial: Shiny blue minutes ring, gray lower plate with sunburst wave pattern. Anthracite circular satin-finished hours flange Shiny red seconds flange, white transfers.
• Caseback: transparent case back, engraved with the inscription “Limited Edition 1 of 178”
• Hands: Shiny white hours disk with black transfer, matt black star-shaped seconds disk, matt black minutes hand featuring two monster-hand tips
• Strap/Bracelet: Black toad leather with blue stitching, blue rabbit leather lining, polished stainless steel pin buckle, quick-release spring bars for easy strap change.

Louis Erard delivers his regulator as a sacrifice to a very strange creature: a grotesque saw-mouthed cyclops. A mythological figure reinterpreted by the master watchmaker Konstantin Chaykin. 

Konstantin Chaykin is a member of the AHCI (Académie Horlogère des Créateurs Indépendants) with a worldwide reputation and proven inventiveness (94 patents) and a reputation in the very special world of watches with faces of monsters. The collection is called Wristmons (wrist monsters), was launched in 2017 and has been expanding every year since.

The meeting between Louis Erard and Konstantin Chaykin gave birth to a strange creature. A one-eyed monster. This Cyclops is the evil eye of Slavic tales, he is called Likho. Konstantin Chaykin explains: “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.”

Respecting the architecture of Louis Erard’s signature regulator, with central minute, hour at noon and second at six o’clock. All that was left for Konstantin Chaykin to do was to build the face with one eye. He made it the Likho’s eye as a kind of protective amulet against evil spirits.

For the small second at six o’clock, the watchmaker dressed it in a disc with pointed teeth, turning like the devouring mouth of an ogre. Cross inspiration, as Konstantin Chaykin explains: “I remembered Francisco Goya and his Saturn devouring one of his sons. I thought of a Stephen King short story, The Langoliers, time eaters”.  The central minute hand is the monster’s arm. 

The creature is completed with a black toad strap and in two versions. A purple hour circle for the 39 mm piece and a green one for the 42 mm. In limited editions (twice 178 pieces) and in a diptych (box set limited to 28 pieces).