Not all images were able to load for printing. Please close the print window and try again. New Colours for the Louis Erard x Konstantin Chaykin Unfrogettable
The Frog Princess dons new skin colours and Chaykin’s unmistakable googly-eyed time indications.
One of Manuel Emch’s defining moves to put Louis Erard back on solid footing was his collaboration strategy. By inviting avant-garde independent watchmakers such as Alain Silberstein and Vianney Halter to create collaborative pieces using the brand’s signature Regulator display, he elevated Louis Erard’s cachet without tying it to stratospheric pricing. Another winning collaboration involves master watchmaker Konstantin Chaykin, who taps into his more playful side with his Wristmons (wrist monsters). Last year, Louis Erard and Chaykin released the Unfrogettable, a whimsical Frog Princess with googly eyes to tell the time. Returning in new colours, the Frog is back.
The fun thing about Chaykin’s menagerie of weird monsters and frog princesses is that they all come with a story. In Russian folklore, the frog is secretly a powerful sorceress named Valissa the Wise; in Japan, it is a symbol of good fortune and resilience; and in Chaykin’s hands, it becomes a fascinating, “unfrogettable” time-teller.
In a departure from the time-devouring Wristmons that adapted the Regulator format with unbridled creativity – featuring a gaping mouth eating the seconds at 6 o’clock, a cyclops revolving eye at noon for the hours and a squiggly hand pointing to the minutes on the periphery – the Unfrogettable adopts a horizontal rather than vertical display of the hours and seconds.
By flipping the regulator movement 90 degrees, Chaykin’s Frog Princess indicates the hours and seconds at 9 and 3 o’clock, respectively. Because the large eyes and pupils rotate at different speeds, the watch face changes constantly. Like traditional regulators, the minutes sit on the periphery and are indicated by an arrow-shaped hand.
Rotating the regulator movement meant redesigning the case. Unlike the more conventional case of the Time Eaters, with its crown at 3 o’clock, the Unfrogettable features the crown at noon. Crafted from lightweight grade 5 titanium, the crown is shaped like a three-pointed tiara and sits atop the Frog Princess’s head. Measuring 40mm across and 12.45mm thick, the crown at noon also affects the lugs, which now wrap around the case in a style that might remind you of De Bethune’s articulated lugs.
The new Unfrogettable models flaunt new dial colours. The grained turquoise dial features a two-toned violet and dark turquoise peripheral minute track. If you look closely, you’ll see the Louis Erard and Konstantin Chaykin names united by a heart in the violet segment. The expressive eyes and nostrils are picked out in dark turquoise, and the minutes are indicated by a rhodium-plated arrow-shaped hand extending across the dial.
The brown version is warmer and features 5N-treated accents on the crown, the minute hand and the eyes. Set against a grained brown background, the eyes and nostrils of the Frog Princess are encircled by a darker brown colour also featured on the top segment of the two-tone minute track. Both variants have green luminescent accents on the eyes and arrow tip of the minute hand.
The Unfrogettable watches are powered by the automatic Sellita SW266-1, the same reliable calibre used in several Louis Erard regulators. It operates at 28,800vph and offers 38 hours of autonomy.
Both are paired with black Himeji Kurozan calfskin leather with an Urushi lacquer finish and a titanium pin buckle. Limited to 178 pieces in each colourway, the watches retail for CHF 4,500 (excl. tax). More information at louiserard.com.
