KONSTANTIN CHAYKIN QUARTIME

From Russia’s most famous independent watchmaker, the Quartime watch by Konstantin is a remarkable piece which reinterprets the daily twenty-four hour cycle and dissects it into the four constituent elements we know as morning, day, evening and night, in a masterpiece which is at the same time technical in its engineering, and simplistic in the manner of how it displays the time.

Renowned for his extraordinary talents as an inventor and innovator, Konstantin Chaykin is a self-taught master watchmaker whose curiosity and endeavour has led to the creation of many ingenious novelties, which in the world of watchmaking have had no precedent, and with its wonderful reprofiling of the day the Quartime extends that list.

Dividing the day into four equal six-hour partitions, the Quartime uses a rotating disc, which moves forward and back again to display two sets of numerals which are shown through six windows around the dial. With only six numerals visible at any one time, the spacing between each one is double that of a conventional twelve-hour configuration, and so positioned at the 2, 4, 6, 8, 10 and 12 o’clock positions, the hour hand goes around the dial in double time, once every six hours, as opposed to twelve.

Chaykin’s elegant invention means that at the end of each six-hour period, the disc with the numerals moves forward or backwards by one step, with the numbers 12-5 or 6-11 displayed in sequence, while a second, smaller disc, which has a window beneath the hands, displays the words morning (from 6-11), day (12-5), evening (6-11), and night (12-5).

To facilitate the Quartime’s unique technical characteristics, Chaykin designed and created an entirely new manual winding calibre. With each and every component manufactured in-house to the uncompromising standards of independent haute horlogerie, the novelty features a complex mechanism, in addition to the unusual hour hand gearing, which controls the discs. A sapphire caseback reveals the immaculate finishing of this beautiful example of watchmaking innovation.

A piece which has a distinguished and sophisticated presence on the wrist, the Quartime has a classical aesthetic. It is presented in a compact round 40mm case of polished rose gold, with beautifully sculpted soldered lugs and smooth contours which flow up and onto the gently domed sapphire crystal. The dial is available in silver or black, and is finished with a deeply engraved clous de Paris guilloché decoration, and features small, off-centre seconds at the nine, and gold windows through which the numerals and time of day are displayed on correspondingly coloured discs. The silver dial has heat blued skeletonised hands with luminous tips, while the black option is fitted with gold hands.

A truly exceptional watch from one of the greatest horologic creators of our time, the Konstantin Chaykin Quartime is a masterpiece with a unique character which offers an alternative imagining of the daily cycle, presenting the time in the way we ourselves think of the phases of the day. Hand crafted with meticulous attention to detail throughout, it is a collector’s watch which is exclusive and individual

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