Historically, gentlemen of a certain class never wanted to be reminded of their watch. Think back to the roaring 20s or the sharp style of mid-century evening wear. There was no place for a bulky timepiece that ran the risk of catching on the cuff of a smart tailored dinner jacket. It was considered somewhat of a sartorial tragedy back then. Watchmakers bent over backwards to create wafer-thin pocket watches, and later wristwatches, that would slide completely unnoticed under a pristine cotton shirt. The goal back then was absolute discretion.

Wearing an ultra-thin watch makes you more discreet and on point, but psychologically, you’re aware more than ever of the fragile mechanical miracle that sits strapped to your arm. And that’s the true appeal of a thin watch. A watch that weighs virtually nothing prompts a fascinating question: when a watchmaker strips away the physical mass of a timepiece, leaving almost nothing behind, does it change our emotional relationship with time itself?

Konstantin Chaykin is there to answer that burdening question, because this manufacturer has never been one to shy away from a mechanical headache, and in 2024, released the ThinKing.  The ultra-thin timepiece boasted a case thickness of just 1.65 millimetres (yes, that’s even thinner than a modern two-euro coin). It was a remarkable flex of independent watchmaking muscle from the Russian brand, which now returns to the scene with the Konstantin Chaykin  ThinKing Mystery. Limited to just 12 pieces worldwide, this new creation proves that extreme thinness can be a robust, repeatable reality.  

From Luck to Logic

The fundamental problem with ultra-thin watchmaking is that the normal, reliable laws of physics suddenly seem to work against you. At critically small scales, clearances become practically non-existent, and tolerances are drawn incredibly tight. Suddenly, a watchmaker is forced to worry about structural deformations measured in thousandths of a millimetre. And if you thought you could simply assemble a watch in the fashion of a standard timepiece, you can think again, because every single component demands selective hand-fitting and microscopic adjustments to the nth degree.

To turn the original 1.65 millimetre record into a production reality, Chaykin had to completely refine his entire workflow, developing strict assembly conditions and final checks that ensured the case could survive an entire 40 separate routing checkpoints before leaving the factory. This sort of manufacturing can’t simply be a matter of luck. Moreover, this multi-stage manufacturing process needed to reproduce the miracle on demand.

The Transparent Eyes

If you follow independent watchmaking, you’ll immediately recognise the cheeky face of this watch. It heavily draws upon the concept of the Joker, Konstantin Chaykin’s most famous and instantly identifiable creation, with his logo and name cleverly acting as a visual nose and mouth. Yet, this iteration introduces a brilliant new visual trick to the dial. The “eyes” that indicate the hours and minutes are now entirely transparent, completely devoid of the crossbars seen in previous iterations. The design choice can be traced back to a much older piece of Chaykin’s history: the Mystery 1000 Jewels clock from 2007. It was a tribute to Jean-Eugène Robert-Houdin, the brilliant 19th-century illusionist and watchmaker, who used to build clocks with floating hands driven by hidden, glass discs.  

Chaykin had always wanted to bring a mystery display to the Joker family, and the ultra-thin architecture finally provided the perfect technical excuse. Whereas in previous mystery designs, motion was always transmitted to wheels on a central axis, the ThinKing Mystery uses a lateral drive to turn solid sapphire discs measuring just 10.6mm in diameter and 0.2mm in thickness, causing the eyes to literally float beneath four sapphire crystals.

The Engine

To maintain rigidity, the 41mm case of the ThinKing Mystery watch acts as a load-bearing structure with the caseback itself serving as the mainplate for the ultra-thin, in-house calibre K.23-3.1. The movement packs a total of 284 components into its architecture while achieving a jaw-dropping weight of just 12.1g (without the strap). Even more impressive, the balance assembly is laid out completely flat in a single plane, comprising a patented dual balance with toothed coupling, two co-planar, interlocking wheels, and a primary balance wheel that governs the frequency and isochronism of the oscillations. The movement beats at a steady 18,000 vph. The second wheel, fitted with a roller, acts as the impulse-jewel plate and interacts directly with the Swiss lever escapement and even features a mainspring with no traditional upper cover, further mitigating height. Cleverly, the barrel arbour is packed with tungsten carbide balls, providing a highly respectable 38 hours of power reserve. This proprietary calibre also utilises 54 jewels and delivers an accuracy of −15/+20 seconds per day.

The strap of the Konstantin Chaykin ThinKing Mystery is crafted from leather and features elastic inserts, as well as titanium stiffeners, operating as an integral part of the watch’s architecture. The strap is specifically designed to absorb everyday shocks and reduce any unwanted bending stress on the ultra-thin metal case, and fastens with a classic stainless-steel buckle, made entirely by the Konstantin Chaykin Manufacture.

Interacting with the ThinKing Mystery

When your watch measures 1.65 millimetres thick, a traditional winding crown can visually weigh down its clean silhouette, bringing structural weaknesses to the case edge. So, Chaykin rejected the crown entirely. Instead, owners interact with the ThinKing Mystery through two separate, bespoke auxiliary tools that come included. The first is a highly engineered, compact winding box fashioned from carbon and stainless steel, meaning you carefully place the watch inside, resting it on 4 spring-loaded supports. The winder keeps the mainspring safely tensioned whenever you decide to swap the ThinKing Mystery for another favourite in your rotation. The second option is an elongated, stainless-steel winding key, which slots into a dedicated zone on the caseback. Crucially, both of these tools feature built-in safety mechanisms to ensure the delicate mainspring can never be accidentally overwound.

Final Thoughts

The Konstantin Chaykin ThinKing Mystery is far more than a novelty item but rather a profound rethinking of exactly how a mechanical watch is constructed, assembled, and ultimately worn. Once again, Chaykin has created something genuinely mesmerising. This ultra-thin watch challenges the wearer to look past the whimsical, floating eyes of the dial, as captivating as they are, and appreciate the skill involved in bringing such a machine into existence. For the 12 collectors fortunate enough to acquire one, it offers an incredibly rare experience and a chance to wear a watch that feels physically like nothing else on the market. At all.

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