Louis Erard and Konstantin Chaykin Bring the Unfrogettable Back in Turquoise and Brown

Manuel Emch's plan for Louis Erard has been simple: make a couple of base watches, with a very strong focus on regulator display setups, and then let loose a bevy of independents with strong personalities to apply their style onto the watches, while keeping the price relatively attainable. Alain Silberstein and Vianney Halter both took a turn, but Konstantin Chaykin's Wristmons have been the most fun of the lot. The Unfrogettable, his Frog Princess from last year, now returns in two new colors and it's just as fun.

The case is 40mm wide and 12.45mm thick, made out of grade 5 titanium. Chaykin turned the regulator movement 90 degrees, which pushed the crown to 12 o'clock, so he made it a three-pointed tiara on the frog's head. The crown had to move anyway, which you'll see why later. To make room, the lugs wrap around the case in a way that recalls De Bethune's articulated lugs. Without the articulation, of course. You get sapphire crystals on top and bottom, as well as 50 meters of water resistance.

The reason for the rotation of the movement is to use the regulator display's hour and second indicators that usually sit at 12 and 6 as frog eyes by moving them to 9 and 3 o'clock. Hours are indicated in the left eye, seconds in the right, and because the pupils turn at different speeds, the face never looks quite the same twice. Minutes are indicated around the edge, pointed to by an arrow-shaped hand. There are two colors available – turquoise and brown. The turquoise version gets a grained dial, a two-tone violet and dark turquoise minute track, and a rhodium-plated hand. The brown version has 5N-treated accents on the crown, while the eyes and minute hand sit against a grained brown dial. Both have green lume on the eyes and the arrow tip.

Inside is the Sellita calibre SW266-1, the automatic regulator base Louis Erard already uses across its collection, beating at 4Hz with 38 hours of power reserve. It's reliable and easily servicable. Both models come on black Himeji Kurozan calfskin strap, hand-rubbed, naturally tanned and finished with Urushi lacquer, closed with a titanium pin buckle.

The Louis Erard x Konstantin Chaykin Unfrogettable is limited to 178 pieces in each color, priced at CHF 4,500 excluding tax. See more on the Louis Erard website.