Konstantin Chaykin ThinKing Mystery: The World's Thinnest Mechanical Production Watch (1.65 mm) Now Has Sapphire 'Mystery' Discs

Konstantin Chaykin ThinKing Mystery — world's thinnest mechanical watch at 1.65mm

Description

Independent watchmaking has produced very few moments as quietly seismic as the one Konstantin Chaykin staged in May 2025, when his ThinKing prototype crossed the auction stage at Phillips Geneva and changed hands for CHF 508,000. The bid card mattered less than the number on the spec sheet: 1.65 millimetres, top to caseback — the thinnest mechanical watch in the world, narrower even than Bulgari's then-record Octo Finissimo Ultra COSC at 1.70 mm and Richard Mille's RM UP-01 Ferrari at 1.75 mm. But the ThinKing was always sold as a prototype. There was no production version. No one outside the auction room could buy one.

That is what changes today. The new Konstantin Chaykin ThinKing Mystery is the production version, and it is essentially a complete re-engineering rather than a copy of the prototype. Same 1.65 mm thickness — Chaykin refused to give up a single hundredth of a millimetre — but with a fundamentally different display: instead of conventional hands, the ThinKing Mystery uses two ultra-thin sapphire 'mystery' discs that float over the dial and indicate the hour and minute through printed indices. The watch appears to have no hands at all. It is the world's thinnest production mechanical wristwatch, and it is also one of the most visually unusual ultra-thin watches ever made.

It is being launched as a strict 12-piece limited edition, priced at CHF 400,000, and sold directly by Konstantin Chaykin from his Saint Petersburg workshop. For a working horological landmark — under-2 mm, in-house calibre, mystery display, named, dated, signed — that price is ambitious but not absurd. The conversation now is whether anyone else (Bulgari, Piaget, Richard Mille) can answer.

Design

The case is 41 mm in diameter and a barely-believable 1.65 mm thick. The construction is all stainless steel, vertically brushed across the case middle and bezel — essentially there is no separate bezel, just a single piece. Total weight without the strap is around 12.1 grams; on the wrist it is closer to a piece of paper than a watch. Both crystals (front and the deeply recessed back-glass that doubles as the lower bridge) are sapphire, and the entire architecture has been stripped to the bone: no traditional dial plate, no separate movement chassis. The "movement" is, in effect, the watch.

The signature element is the mystery display. Two transparent sapphire discs, each 10.6 mm in diameter and only 0.2 mm thick, sit one atop the other and rotate independently. Each disc carries printed indices that align — once a minute or once an hour — with the printed time scale on the periphery. Because the discs are sapphire, both are virtually invisible at normal viewing angles, and the watch reads as an entirely empty face with floating indicators. Winding is by detachable key, threaded into the caseback at 4 o'clock, replicating the system Chaykin first showed in the prototype.

Specifications

Reference: Konstantin Chaykin ThinKing Mystery (12-piece limited edition)
Case size & material: 41 mm × 1.65 mm, vertically brushed stainless steel
Weight (no strap): ~12.1 grams
Crystal: Sapphire (front and caseback)
Display: Twin sapphire 'mystery' discs (10.6 mm × 0.2 mm each), printed hour and minute indices
Movement: Calibre K.23-3.1 — in-house, manual key-winding
Architecture: Patented ultra-thin barrel, integrated case-as-movement design
Frequency: 18,000 vph (2.5 Hz)
Power reserve: 38 hours
Jewels: 54
Limited edition: 12 pieces
Price: CHF 400,000

Konstantin Chaykin ThinKing Mystery side profile showing 1.65mm thickness

What's Exciting

The big technical story here is the patented ultra-thin barrel. Every ultra-thin race so far — Piaget Altiplano Ultimate Concept at 2.0 mm, Bulgari Octo Finissimo Ultra at 1.70 mm, Richard Mille RM UP-01 at 1.75 mm — has had to fight the same enemy: the mainspring barrel is the thickest single component in a wristwatch, and once you've flattened it as far as standard architecture allows, there is nowhere left to go. Chaykin's barrel patent dispenses with the central drum entirely and integrates the spring directly into the movement plane, which is what allows the watch to clear the 2 mm mark with room to spare. If the patent licences out, every other ultra-thin maker will need to rethink.

The second story is the display. Going thin is one thing; going thin while adding a complication is another. A mystery display — invisible discs that appear to suspend the indication in mid-air — is one of the most demanding constructions in watchmaking, traditionally because the discs need to be utterly transparent and yet absolutely concentric and friction-free. Doing it inside 1.65 mm of total caseheight, with a 38-hour power reserve and no gain compromise, is the actual flex.

And finally, the business case. By selling as a 12-piece limited edition rather than auctioning a single piece, Chaykin moves the ThinKing from "stunt" to "collection". The Mystery is not a one-off, it is a model. That alone changes how serious independent watchmaking can talk about ultra-thinness as a commercial pursuit, not just an exhibition flex.

History

Konstantin Chaykin founded his eponymous workshop in Saint Petersburg in 2003 and was admitted to the AHCI (Académie Horlogère des Créateurs Indépendants) — the small global club of recognised independent watchmakers — in 2010, the only Russian to hold full membership. His best-known work is the Joker series, which uses standard hour and minute hands repurposed as moving "eyes" inside a smiling face — a piece that turned a quarter-million-dollar high-horology brand into a meme and a waiting list. Chaykin is also the holder of multiple watchmaking patents (Russian Standard Time Equation, Cinema Watch optical effect, the Lunokhod retrograde moonphase) and a regular GPHG nominee.

The ThinKing project began as a private engineering exercise in 2022. The objective was simple: to break the world thinness record then held by Bulgari (1.80 mm at the time, since beaten by Bulgari themselves at 1.70 mm). Chaykin's answer, the K.23-3.1 calibre, debuted as a working prototype in summer 2024 and was unveiled to the public the same year. The prototype was sold at Phillips' Geneva Watch Auction XXI on May 10, 2025 for CHF 508,000 — alongside its custom PalanKing carrier case. The Mystery is the first watch to bring the K.23-3 platform into series production, and the 12 pieces will be assembled and individually adjusted by Chaykin himself.