You know a watch named “The Time Eater” is not going to be your stereotypical day-to-day dress watch. But even then, you’re probably not expecting a watch with a giant eyeball, sharp teeth and one long, squiggly hand that spans the entire dial. Enter the Louis Erard X Konstantin Chaykin The Time Eater II…
Louis Erard X Konstantin Chaykin The Time Eater II - Credit Louis Erard
I remember being introduced to Louis Erard for the first time in 2016, and while offering undeniably beautiful, classic-looking timepieces, I remember thinking that the brand presented very little that allowed them to stand out against the vast amount of competition. Well, boy was I wrong. The year 2021 arrived and it was clear Louis Erard was done standing at the sidelines. Instead, they began creating rare métiers d’art dials at accessible prices. They also revealed several exciting collaborations with designers like seconde/seconde/, Alain Silberstein, Vianney Halter and Eric Giroud. Ever since, Louis Erard has quite simply taken the luxury watch industry by storm.
Earlier this year, Louis Erard partnered up with indie watchmaker Konstantin Chaykin to launch the first Time Eater. To say this watch was a success is an understatement. In just a matter of hours the watch sold out and it was recently auctioned during Geneva Watch Days for almost five times the original price. It is also nominated in the “Petite Aiguille” category of the upcoming GPHG 2023 awards.
Louis Erard X Konstantin Chaykin The Time Eater II - Credit Louis Erard
Its design is nothing short of extraordinary, perfectly embodying Konstantin Chaykin’s dark sense of humour. The wandering, blood-shot eye, star-shaped small seconds counter and squiggly minute hand was inspired by the one-eyed Likho, a creature in Slavic mythology personifying evil fate and misfortune. Somehow, the original Louis Erard X Konstantin Chaykin The Time Eater watch was a little less daunting that the second edition launched this week, offering a crisp silver backdrop and playful colourings of green, red and purple. For the new edition, things get darker, literally.
The new Louis Erard X Konstantin Chaykin The Time Eater II watch continues to embody Likho, but instead places the one-eyed monster’s face on a dark wavy background with a matching black minutes scale and a black and red teeth-shaped small seconds counter at 6 o’clock. To match, the blood-shot black and red eyeball at 12 o’clock follows the hours while the elongated wavy red hand at the centre monitors the minutes. Is that hand flipping us off? The menacing hand includes a middle finger on one end, and horns on the other.
Louis Erard X Konstantin Chaykin The Time Eater II - Credit Louis Erard
Like before, there are two editions of the Louis Erard X Konstantin Chaykin The Time Eater II watch. The first is kept a little more classic with a 42mm polished stainless steel case while the other matches its menacing dial with a black PVD sandblasted 39mm case. The smaller of the two presents the wavy dial in black while the larger is done in anthracite.
Following in the footsteps of Louis Erard’s typical Excellence Le Régulateur watch, the case has domed sapphire crystal glass with anti-reflective treatment on both sides and 50 metre water resistant rating. There’s also the familiar Konstantin Chaykin crown and a decorated case back to display its limited-edition status of 178 pieces. From here, you can see the Sellita SW266-1 élaboré grade movement with a 38-hour power reserve.
Louis Erard X Konstantin Chaykin The Time Eater II - Credit Louis Erard
The Louis Erard X Konstantin Chaykin The Time Eater II watches are completed by black toad leather straps with red rabbit leather lining. They are both limited to 178 pieces each and retail for £4,200. If the previous editions are anything to go by, these are not going to last long at all.
Technical Specifications:
- Brand: Louis Erard
- Model: Konstantin Chaykin The Time Eater II
- Price: £4,200
- Material: Stainless steel, polished or with sandblasted black PVD
- Movement: Sellita SW266-1 élaboré grade, automatic winding
- Complications: Off-centred hours, central minutes, small seconds
- Dial: Wavy black or anthracite
- Size: 42mm or 39mm
- Limited: 178 pieces each
- When the reviewer would personally wear it: This is one of those watches I’d love to own, purely because it’s cool and different. But when would I actually wear it? I really don’t know.
- A friend we’d recommend it to first: As soon as I saw this, I immediately forwarded it to a good friend of mine who is a collector of weird and unusual watches.
- Best characteristics of the watch: It has to be the entire dial, right? How often do you find fun dial designs like this?
- The worst characteristics of the watch: It’s not a watch for the faint-hearted, aka anyone with a distaste for the weird and wonderful.
