Konstantin Chaykin, Russian inventor and watchmaker, presents his new unique development on the day, marked by two rare astronomical events. July 27, 2018, Mars and Earth will be in notable sectors of their orbits, where the distance between the planets is minimal. This event is called a perihelic opposition and occurs every 15 or 17 years. At the same time, another remarkable astronomical event will take place – it is the longest lunar eclipse in the 21st century. It will last 3 hours 56 minutes (from 21:24 to 01:20 on Moscow time). Konstantin Chaykin chose this day for the presentation of his new invention not by accident: the orange Mars will be supported in the sky by the unusual reddish tones of the eclipsed moon. This rare heavenly decoration especially dramatically emphasizes the astronomical character of the Konstantin Chaykin’s invention.
Just some years before no one seriously believed in the practical feasibility of sending manned space expeditions to Mars. But now Mars constantly appears in the news line, explorations of the Red planet are included in the prospective space programs of Russia’s Roskosmos, USA’s NASA, SpaceX, Boeing and some other countries, conducting their own space programs. NASA in addition to making extensive scientific studies of Mars have started competitions of leading architectural bureaus for the design of Martian settlements as a part of Centennial Challenges Program. Roskosmos and ESA develop a joint venture ExoMars aimed at deep exploration of Mars and search for signs of life on it. Boeing Corporation states the first person to fly to Mars will get the Red planet on the rocket built by the company. In 2020, China plans to send to Mars an automatic orbital space station and landing rover for surface exploration. Further in accordance with the results of unmanned expedition in 2040 or even earlier a manned flight to Mars will be organized. China is seriously preparing for the manned expedition and will soon erect a Martian village for crew training. The United Arab Emirates also builds Martian cities in the desert, India conducts its own program of Mars research.
Elon Musk, the inspirer and the actual initiator of the Martian race, and his company SpaceX after the phantasmagoric launch of Tesla outwards Martian orbit intend to send their space trucks towards Mars… Actually, the story of Konstantin Chaykin’s Mars Conqueror watch began with Elon Musk. Konstantin Chaykin recalls that the idea of a wristwatch for future conquerors of Mars appeared one at late November 2017 evening. He noticed an employee of his manufactory while performing finishing of the movement parts of Joker watches had listened Elon Musk, who explained Big Falcon Rocket project (Elon Musk, escalating any situation, emphasized the phrase as “Big Fucking Rocket” [citation from wikipedia.org]), as well as plans for the colonization of Mars. “Big Fucking Mars Conqueror? Yes!”
The concept of the new Mars Conqueror watch was appeared almost instantly: it should be a watch that shows the local Martian time, but constantly linked to the Earth time. Obviously, it is too early to speak about development of independent human settlements on Mars. The watch should be equipped as well with an indicator of the space arrangement of the two planets realized in an intuitive way. The development of highly complicated mechanical module with three dials of Martian time, Earth time and planetary indicator took about eight months. This is remarkably short schedule for watch of high level of complexity (in terms of the number of functional parts the Mars Conqueror watch is comparable to the minute repeater). Definitely that was possible because of Konstantin Chaykin’s great experience of astronomical watches and clocks development – starting with his Lunokhod, Decalogue wristwatches and to his numerous supercomplicated Computus Clocks.
Nobody knows which of the space corporations will be the first to succeed in conquering Mars, but it is absolutely certainly Konstantin Chaykin is the first watchmaker who invented and produced a specialized 100% mechanical wristwatch suitable for the future conquerors of Mars.
The Mars Conqueror watch features a unique combination of astronomical and space traveler’s functions that did not exist before. The astronomical clocks were appeared at the dawn of the mechanical watchmaking with the aim to reproduce mechanically the motion of heavenly bodies – as we see them from the Earth. Specialized space traveler’s functions are still at the early development stage in watchmaking. This is due to the fact that manned expeditions are conducted in Earth’s low orbits (with the exception of several lunar missions of the 1960s and 1970s), so cosmonauts and astronauts didn’t need any special “space” time measuring. Their life and missions during orbital flights are based on Earth’s time. Nevertheless, long before the Martian expedition could seem a reality, in 1954 American astronomer I. M. Levitt designed the Space Clock Mars, which might be used further by the conquerors of Mars. There was the first time in the history of the watchmaking when real space traveler’s function was implemented – as an electromechanical clock indicating Martian time and date, supplemented by an indication of Earth time and date. Two copies of Space Clock Mars were produced by the American watch company Hamilton according to Levitt’s design.
Levitt’s stationary clock had electromechanical movement, that means the state of the art for the middle of the 20th century, but the movement was far from to be compact enough to be used in wristwatches. The production of the first wristwatches, both mechanical and quartz, with the indication of Martian time was started by the Californian watchmaker Garo Anserlian in 2004. Anserlian’s wristwatches were used by the NASA engineer’s team controlling Martian rovers Spirit and Opportunity. Konstantin Chaykin made a significant step forward, combining for the first time in the history of watchmaking the space traveler’s functions of local, i.e. Martian and Earth’s time and date indications (Martian and Earth’s dates in Mars Conqueror watch are indicated approximately) with the astronomical function of the indication of Mars and Earth positions. The latter is produced as a planetarium. The astronomical indication has also a very important space traveler’s function, intended for future Mars conquerors: it shows the positions of Earth and Mars in their orbits, allowing to estimate the distance between the planets, it has as well an indication of the moments of oppositions and perihelic oppositions, where a distance is minimal.
Mars Conqueror is hundred percent mechanical watch that guarantees their good operation both during the future space flight, and on the surface of Mars, where, as known, the watch will not be protected from the radiation due to the weakness of the planet’s magnetic field, and because of the tenuous Martian atmosphere. Specially for the Mars Conqueror watch Konstantin Chaykin has developed a module with unique astronomical and space traveler’s indications arranged in three dials. The first dial contains the Earth time with a central second hand as indication that watch wasn’t stop and in working order. On the second dial we have local Martian time and on the third dial there is a planetary indicator of the relative positions of two planets and their oppositions. The indications of the average solar time on Earth and on Mars are synchronized, the movement uses only one balance assembly. This is the guarantee that Mars Conqueror watch will not accumulate deviations in the indication of Earth and Mars time, which could occur in a movement with two balances.
Mars Conqueror’s complicated module of astronomical and space traveler’s indications is completely made, assembled and adjusted by the Konstantin Chaykin Manufactory in Moscow (Russia). The module consists of 159 parts, including 30 wheels, 6 pinions and 6 jewels for reduction of friction and wear. The module is installed on a reliable, tried and tested automatic Caliber Eta 2836-2, real workhorse of the modern watch industry. The watch is equipped with three correctors for indicators adjustments, placed in the caseback.
