Konstantin Chaykin Levitas Jazz

The Konstantin Chaykin Manufacture, the only Russian company creating unique, luxury class mechanical watches with proprietary calibres, will present a new piece unique, the Levitas Jazz Watch, at the upcoming Baselworld 2013 Show. The Levitas Jazz Watch is an improvisation aimed to capture the hearts of jazz lovers everywhere.

The new Levitas Jazz Watch is a joint project by the Konstantin Chaykin Manufacture and Sergey Lunev’s Principal Guide design studio. ‘I found it interesting to see how my transparent mystery Levitas Collection would look with a completely new design,” shares Konstantin Chaykin, Head of the Konstantin Chaykin Manufacture, “I was looking for a fresh, innovative approach. I know the work of Sergey Lunev from the days when I created the Lunokhod Watch. I always respected his approach, so I decided to ask Sergey and his team to create a new design for the Levitas Watch Collection. I am completely impressed by the results”.

The Levitas Jazz Watch is unique not only due to the amazing technology that creates the effect of mysterious floating hands, but also due to the completely original design. The watch embodies music, not in sounds, but in dynamic, interwoven symbols. A whirlwind of musical images swirls and attempts to catch up to the melodies in the heart of the artist as he sketches the watch.

“It is Summertime, the lullaby sung by the incomparable genius Ella Fitzgerald –”, admits Sergey Lunev, “It is this music that is the leitmotif not only for the Levitas Jazz Watch, but also, in my opinion, for the whole era – the Age of Jazz”.

The Levitas Jazz Watch is a collector’s item, a piece unique – made completely by hand. A key design element is the revolving glass disc serving as the background of the large opening in the dial. A single gold hand marks the hours, while a unique indicator marks the minutes. Instead of a classic minute hand, a revolving transparent sapphire disc indicates the minutes with a gold monogram.

The dial of the Levitas Jazz Watch is a classic record made of agate onyx instead of vinyl. This ‘record’ even has sound grooves engraved on it. A sapphire disc in the center is decorated with openwork patterns and the words ‘PG-BAND performs improvisations on to the works of Konstantin Chaykin”. The single hour hand resembles a wedge shaped gleam of light made by a single beam through a crack in the curtain on a sunny day. These three elements – the moving discs, the dial and the hour hand join to create a harmonious image: a record turns, reflecting a falling sunbeam, while an old house sways to the sounds of classic jazz.

The heady rush of jazz is reflected in every design element of the Levitas Jazz Watch. Jazz infuses the keys of the ‘tired piano’ on the bezel, the bass strings, the mother-of-pearl drum cover, jazz is embodied in the asymmetrical form of the case, the bass stings, the mother-of-pearl drum cover, in the winding button, in the forms of the ears, and naturally in the unique dial, which resembles an antique record. The secondary hour markers are notes, while the main hours of 6 o’clock, 9 o’clock and 12 o’clock are represented by musical clefs – the G-clef, the C-clef and the F-clef. The small diamonds held in the centers of tiny gold notes are not simple jewels: they embody the purity, the effortlessness and the clarity of Ella Fitzgerald’s voice.

The Levitas Jazz Watch has a transparent caseback, which allows us to see the intricate details of the miniature KMR 02-0 calibre. This is a micro-world which lives according to its own rules and moves according to a rhythm established by the watchmaker once and for all. All of the parts are beautifully polished and finished by hand by the master watchmakers in the Konstantin Chaykin Manufacture, and their functions have undergone thousands of hours of testing. The complicated movement is based on a set of gears and wheels, which rotate sapphire glass discs.

A gramophone horn located at the 3 o’clock position in the Levitas Jazz Watch on the dial contains a Jazz Moon, slowly changing to indicate the moon phases. The night sky around the moon is lit up by stars – notes. To complete the musical atmosphere a stylized image of a gramophone needle floats above the record. Any minute the needle will fall into a groove on the record and the watch will burst into polyrhythmic song; haunting blues, magical bebop riffs or soothing cool...

Everyone hears their own internal melody. When we listen to our own melody, we hear the music of our heart. And the Levitas Jazz Watch swings its balance and plays its own music: tick tock, tick tock...and something else, something elusive...something inexpressible.