By Harlan Chapman-Green
This is ridiculous, I doubt people will find it funny any more but alas Jovan Krstevski has yet to cotton on to this fact, or maybe he has. Those of you who follow WristReview (if you don’t why not?) or the work of our friends at Konstantin Chaykin will know that as fun and creative as their Joker line of watches is, it doesn’t half creep the heebie-jeebies out of me. So imagine my face when I was handed the new ‘now with colour’ special edition to celebrate the launch of the remake of ‘It’, a classic horror movie based on a novel by Stephen King.
Comparison of the Konstantin Chaykin Clown watch (right) and the Joker watch (left)
Now, trolling around online I got the impression people misunderstood me when I put the Joker watch in our Top 5 Most Ridiculous Watches (Konstantin Chaykin didn’t mind you), it’s not that I don’t like it, I think it’s extremely creative and a great example of the flexibility of an ETA movement. But the whole creepy face thing wasn’t me, I never liked clowns. Unfortunately, this didn’t go brilliantly as the new ‘Clown’ watch is, as expected, even more colourful. For instance, the main dial plate is now a more creamy colour to simulate the makeup used by the colourfully off-putting entertainers. The guilloché down between the eyes has been replaced by a big red nose you just want to push and hear a squeaky noise. Perhaps most unsettling is that it’s now more realistic, the eyes have green coloured irises now too and instead of the symbols from a deck of cards engraved in the bezel, it now spells ‘CLOWN’ instead, in case you did manage to forget.
The dial is played out in the same way though. No running seconds, one googly moving faster than the other to represent minutes, while the slower one does the hours. A mouth as a moonphase with a red moon becoming the tongue. There’s even two crowns to mimic ears, so it’s at least not subconsciously off-putting by being aesthetic in design.
I think for me the worst thing is the connection to ‘It’. Not in a business sense or anything rational like that, but it’s knowing that this clown is actually a demon, behind the almost maddening smile is lurks a creature which has no remorse and wishes only to cause harm. Of course, a watch is a watch so it won’t harm anything, but it’s the thought that counts. I can’t wear this timepiece and watch the Simpsons, Krusty the Clown will never be the same. For more info, please visit konstantin-chaykin.com
