News · Konstantin Chaykin

Konstantin Chaykin gives the Atomic Heart Twins mechanical bodies

Two licensed editions put ruby time pointers and a moon-phase head inside a 40 mm titanium case, with 69 watches of each version.

Hen & Mills Editorial · 4 min read · 8 October 2026

• Konstantin Chaykin translates Atomic Heart’s robotic ballerinas into two licensed watches, each using rotating discs and a moon phase within the character.
• The Left Twin combines black and red, while the Right Twin places a silver-toned figure and golden applied details against a graphite dial.
• Each version is limited to 69 pieces and listed at CHF 20,000 excluding VAT, with orders requested through the manufacture’s product page.

A watch collaboration becomes much more interesting when the borrowed character changes how you read the time. Put a familiar figure behind ordinary hands and the connection can stop at decoration; make the figure part of the display and there is something to investigate even if you have never played the game. Announced by the manufacture on 29 September, the latest example comes as two titanium watches with rotating discs, synthetic ruby pointers and a moon phase occupying the character's head: the Konstantin Chaykin Atomic Heart Twins.

Two ballerinas, two very different dials

Chaykin has made the watches under an official licence for Atomic Heart, Mundfish's game set in an alternative Soviet Union in 1955. Its Twins are robotic ballerinas who serve as bodyguards to Professor Dmitry Sechenov, and the two versions give their metallic figures quite different settings. The Left Twin is a black silhouette against red, while the Right Twin has a silver-toned figure against graphite, with golden applied elements forming a cropped cardigan. Those choices affect the whole composition, rather than providing a small identifying accent.

Look more closely and the backgrounds separate them further. The Left Twin has Chaykin's variation on grain d'orge guilloché, with a pattern that opens out like a folded fan, while straight lines radiate down from behind the Right Twin's head. Lacquer, abrasive-blasted areas and applied details give the dials several kinds of surface to read. I lean towards the Left Twin because the red makes its silhouette immediately legible in the brand's images, although the Right Twin gives the eye more individual elements to pick apart.

Rubies tell the time and the moon supplies a head

The hour and minute displays sit on the characters' chests, with synthetic rubies in gold-plated brass settings acting as pointers on rotating discs. A further synthetic ruby forms the star above the head. It is an unusually literal way of merging the subject with the mechanism, and I expect the placement of those time displays to divide people more sharply than the case size or movement ever will. That is also why a generic character printed beneath conventional hands would be a less interesting watch.

Above them, the large moon-phase display forms the head, changing its balance of light and dark as the disc turns. Chaykin specifies a complete revolution in 29.5 days, with a separate sapphire crystal over the display and the ruby star mounted above it. The manufacture connects this arrangement to its Venus watch, whose artistic idea it develops here through a very different subject. The function belongs to the figure. You can understand the basic visual argument without knowing the game's story, even though recognition adds another layer.

A 40 mm titanium frame leaves the picture room

A narrow, smooth bezel gives the dial plenty of space, and the case has a single crown at three o'clock. Its titanium construction combines polished and directionally brushed surfaces, measures 40 mm across and stands 12.9 mm high. Those proportions put the emphasis on a contained diameter with enough depth for the layered display; I would not call it a slim dress watch on the strength of those figures. The front sapphire has an antireflective coating, as does the sapphire window in the back, which is held by six screws.

A Swiss base carries Chaykin's own display work

Turn it over and the automatic K.18-25 is visible through that rear window. Chaykin uses an exclusive modification of La Joux-Perret's G200 as its base, then adds a display module developed and made by the manufacture. The module comprises 68 components, relocating the hour and minute discs below the moon display. That distinction is useful when considering what the watchmaker contributes: the technical interest is concentrated in how a familiar set of indications is rearranged to serve the dial's picture, with the base movement supplying the drive.

The complete calibre has 30 jewels, runs at 28,800 vibrations per hour and offers a 68-hour power reserve. Including its module, it measures 34.5 mm across and 7.9 mm high, which gives some context for the case's thickness. Chaykin specifies hand-finishing visible from the back, while the strap is fabric with a titanium pin buckle made by the manufacture. I think that textile choice suits the illustrated dial better than a more formal strap would: it leaves the complicated surfaces of the watch itself to supply the visual interest.

Konstantin Chaykin Atomic Heart Twins pricing and availability

Each version is limited to 69 pieces. Orders can be requested through Konstantin Chaykin's product page. The listed price is CHF 20,000 excluding VAT; an Australian dollar price is not published on that page.

CHF 20,000 excluding VAT per watch.

For me, the stronger case for the Twins is the commitment to carrying an image through the mechanism. The hour pointers, moon phase and applied details all have jobs within the figure, so the collaboration reaches further than the choice of a dial decoration. Whether that figure is one you want on your wrist is a much more personal question. At this price, I would want the character and the way the watch works to be equally compelling, because neither feels incidental to what Chaykin has made.