Zebra Watch

In this graphic artwork, Konstantin Chaykin depicts the ‘Zebra’ Wristmon with features characteristic of animal-themed Wristmons: the upper lugs of the case echo the shape of the character's ears, the crown occupies the upper or lower position, at 12 or 6 o'clock, and oversized pupils make the gaze recognisable at first glance. In this way, the graphic artwork continues the canon of mechanical anatomy the master has already established for this entire line of watches.

A connoisseur of the Wristmon collection will also easily recognise that the ‘Zebra’ watch is built on the Joker indication module with its two-disc day-of-the-week display, originally developed for the ‘Minotaur’ watch. This is another instance of inventive translation, in which a single engineering solution, once found, passes from one archetype to another, taking on a new form each time. Only the character's smile, graphic artworked here as the merest suggestion, reveals the presence of a function unique among Wristmons: an indicator showing the position of the crown. Pull the crown out, and the red ground of the smile turns white, so that even the Wristmon's expression proves subject to the logic of the watch movement, and the most fleeting detail of the graphic artwork conceals a technical complication with no equivalent elsewhere in the collection.