Konstantin Chaykin Caliber K.01-5

The Konstantin Chaykin caliber K01-5 is an in-house handwound mechanical movement found in the Genius Temporis watch.

The noteable feature of this Russian-made caliber is its way of displaying the time: There is only one hand which displays the hours. To see the minutes of the current hour, you press the pusher located at 2:00 on the case. The hand will quickly jump to the current minute marker for accurate reading of the time.

The idea is that by only displaying the hours, time appears to move slower. The Genius Temporis and caliber K.01-5 were first introduced on November 6, 2014 at Salon QP in London. The price of this timepiece when it was released was approximately $25,000.

In Konstantin Chaykin’s own words:

“The calibre K.01-5 of the “Genius Temporis” watch was developed by Konstantin Chaykin and is equipped with a mechanical device to switch the single hand between the hour and minute indications upon the pressing of a button, a device also invented by Konstantin Chaykin. The movement was made entirely at the Konstantin Chaykin manufactory and is made according to the standards of haute horlogerie. Components finished using classical techniques: abrasive blasting; perlage; fine longitudinal, radial and circular grindings; flat polishing; manual chamfering, polishing; polished screw holes, pins and jewels; spherical polishing of the axel tips; and galvanized plating of rhodium and gilding.” –source

The Concept:

@kchaykin’s YouTube channel talks about the meaning behind the watch…

“Alexey Kutkovoy, the Russian watch expert and journalist suggested the name “Genius Temporis”, which is Latin for ‘The Spirit of Our Time’ because Alexey felt that this name best reflects the evolution of single handed watches as an echo of our perception of time.

Man created his first timepiece in conjunction with Nature: the sundial. The sundial needed the rays of the sun in order for the gnomon to cast a shadow. Hands as we know them today first appeared in tabletop clepsydras and then eventually in tower clocks. When you travel through Europe today, you can still see old towers with strange single handed clocks.

Time passed and people began to watch it more carefully. Timepieces became necessary in everyday life. Clocks appeared in homes, people took them on trips in their pockets and finally on their hands. The first mechanical clocks were not very accurate and had only one hand – the hour hand. As clocks became more accurate, the tempo of life increased. First came the minute hand, then the second hand; then came trains, cars, telephones and electronics. As we try to do everything at once, we have become slaves to Time, with watches to count out tiny increments of our lives – minutes and seconds. Naturally, watch makers began offering their tired and stressed customers a new type of watch – the single handed watch.” –source

Additional Images:

Dial side…

The images below are screenshots from the second short video below (please excuse the quality). The short film was captured at Baselworld 2015, about 6 months after K.Chaykin introduced the Genius Temporis watch to the world. If you have better images of this movement, please submit them…

A Raw KC Calibre K01-5 in Action:

Genius Temporis Watch Hands-On:

Additional Resources:

• Konstantin Chaykin official site
• More Konstantin Chaykin movements