Original Joker watch in the wild at Baselworld 2018 on @SwissWatchGang's wirst
When Russian master watchmaker Konstantin Chaykin released his Joker watch last year, I (like many others) immediately felt it would be a hit. Besides being relatively affordable at under $10,000 USD, the watch's fun and whimsical appearance was sure to afford the owner a unique object on the wrist and a constant smile to the face at every glance. How do you put a price on happiness, however, small...
The original Joker watch quickly sold out of its initial run. So how does one follow up on a hit? Well in the watchmaking industry, you create variations on the winner. And for a watch representing a clown, the sky's the limit. At the AHCI (Académie Horlogère des Créateurs Indépendants) I was able to see and try on these variations. Most of them also already pretty much sold out as well, though you can certainly contact Konstantin Chaykin for a special commission.
While many of the variations on the Joker have remained relatively affordable using stainless steel, titanium, and one unique bronze, for this year the obvious step up is to create one in a noble metal. To that aim a collaboration with Svend Andersen is the ticket. Presenting the Joker “clown” Automaton watch in rosé gold limited to two pieces.
Keeping the familiar, maybe this time a bit more mischievous clown face, the magic is with the beautifully crafted gold case, is in the caseback. Playing on the genevois brand’s interpretation of Cassius Marcellus Coolidge classic "dogs playing pocker" theme but with a twist. I'll let you figure it out from the many photographs I was able to capture.
Life is short, have some fun!
One of the winners in the 2019 GPHG awards in the first week of November was a two year old upstart watch brand from Kuala Lumpur named MING Watches. The young brand won best watch in the Challenge category at the Geneva show to the delight of its founder and watch aficionados who have regularly helped sell out the brand’s 11 prior releases since its debut of the 17.01 watch.
MING watches are not limited per we but are produced in small batches of a few hundreds, which in effect make them limited. A quick perusal to their web site shows that all models, except for the two new 2019 models have sold out. Interestingly the new models are also priced much higher than the previous ones. However, before getting ahead of ourselves, how does one go about seeing or trying on a MING watch?