Once upon a time on a cold winter's night, far, far away, in Lapland... This is how we might begin to tell the story of Santa Claus. But this is a story about a different Santa — the Santa watch by Konstantin Chaykin!

 

Chaykin, a mischievous young watch wizz, has borrowed his boldness from the Joker to create the Santa 2021 Special Edition watch. It was thanks to his Joker watches that the Russian watchmaker earned major international recognition, even though the master was already a member of the Academy of Independent Creators in Watchmaking (AHCI).

 

The brand's portfolio did in fact already include highly complicated interior clocks, such as the Computus Easter Clock in the shape of St. Isaac's Cathedral with an indicator to display the moving date of Eastern Orthodox Easter, and the Shabbat clock which displays the date, weekday and month according to the Jewish calendar.

 

Chaykin had also already made interesting wristwatches such as the Cinema watch with an animation movement and the Levitas with "levitating" hands. The Joker was submitted to the jury of the Grand Prix d’Horlogerie de Genève (GPHG) for them to deliberate over when it debuted in 2017, but it didn't receive a prize the first time round.

 

However, Chaykin's Clown model based on the same Joker model won the "Audacity" prize a year later in 2018, and the prize was accepted in Russian for the first time in the prestigious ceremony’s history. The Joker has already been reincarnated several times in the Wristmons collection, which has not only taken the shape of a clown.

 

There's also a Dracula watch and a Mouse KING watch, with characters ranging from the most fearsome Halloween monster to a football-crazy fanatic. And now as we approach 2021, the Joker has been reincarnated anew as Santa Claus. Chaykin has envisaged Santa wearing glasses. Of course, these are magical glasses: you can see snowflakes twinkle in the reflection of Santa’s lenses.

 

The watch's caseback also depicts a scene with snow falling and a reindeer-drawn sleigh dashing to deliver gifts. Santa is dressed in his red and white suit. He has generally been depicted in this red coat trimmed with white fur since the 1930s when it was made famous by Coca Cola Christmas ads, which is the image Western children are familiar with. 

 

Elements of Santa's suit and his beard have been incorporated into the strap, which complements the 42 mm steel case. Chaykin had to rework the movement in order to integrate Santa's glasses, as the watchmaker didn't want the case to expand. The resulting automatic K.07-2 movement used in the watch is a modified version of the Caliber K.07-0. The hour and minute indicator discs were installed above the moon-phase indicator disc in the original design, but they're now all located in one line.

 

The packaging which the Santa 2021 Special Edition comes in also helps the new watch owner get in the festive mood. The model is packed in a red lacquer box and has been limited to 3 copies, which have of course already found their owners.