Many watches described as space-ready have perhaps been to a marketing meeting about space, and not beyond our atmosphere. The Konstantin Chaykin SC02C has actually been there, strapped over an Orlan spacesuit and outside the airlock, being tested in the dark vacuum of space. For many this seems quite unlikely, as Konstantin Chaykin is known for haute horlogerie with a liberal dose of fun. This includes his utterly complex and Halter-like steampunk take on Mars time, while holding the flyweight belt (see what I did there) for the world’s thinnest watch, the super light ThinKing. Tool watches are not what Chaykin’s atelier is about. So why have they release one, and why now? I asked Konstantin last week at the Geneva Watch Days.
“I have inevitably kept returning to the theme of space in watchmaking,” Chaykin told me. “The manufacture’s very first steps involved projects like the Lunokhod and the Mars Time wristwatch, which were engineered for future conquerors of Mars.”
In 2018, the brand initiated communication with the Russian space agency, Roscosmos. By 2019, they had already kicked off the development of a mission-specific wrist chronograph, purpose-built for actual operational use by cosmonauts. At this point the Chronograph was powered by a heavily modified Swiss movement, until the second iteration in 2022. “These watches were first space-tested, quite literally, during an actual extravehicular activity (EVA) spacewalk by the cosmonauts. Following that success, we developed a slightly modified civilian version, which we proudly debut at Geneva Watch Days.”
For the first time, the Moscow manufacture is releasing a civilian version of the instrument it developed for cosmonauts and the latest chapter in a collaboration between Chaykin and Roscosmos that began in 2018 with a blunt practical brief. The Russian watchmaker was commissioned to design a mechanical chronograph that could survive extravehicular activity, and by that I don’t mean jumping out of your drop top on King’s Road. Space Walks, that is what we are talking about, and it is a tough task even for brands touting an actual moon-landed watch, as Space is ruthless.
“The challenges lie in the structural integrity and physical properties of the materials under extreme conditions;” said Chaykin. “We have to work with highly specialized measurements, and the requirements for space-adapted watches exist in a completely different dimension. For a watch to perform flawlessly in space, it must undergo totally different stress-tests: impact resistance, heavy vibration, and forces alien to terrestrial life, such as G-loads.” According to Konstantin Chaykin the challenges also lie in the verification of how the movement behaves in zero gravity and how it handles massive thermal swings and intense solar radiation. “As a rule, standard wristwatches and ultra-thin timepieces don’t require this level of environmental testing, but here, it is absolutely vital.”
The first result, the Space Conqueror, reached the orbital station in April 2021, and one prototype ventured out in the dark with cosmonaut Oleg Novitsky on two separate excursions. The data that came back sent Chaykin’s team back to the bench to rework how the crystal was secured, and the upgraded watch returned to open space. Most recently, in May 2026, two cosmonauts spent just over six hours outside the ISS wearing the latest generation. The SC02C is the watch now released in its civilian form, an old-school big boy at 44mm with a 14.5mm thickness on a tough Velcro strap. And yes, it looks remarkably traditional for a watch with the hands-at-ten Chaykin logo at 12, which no doubt will open up to a new cadre of collectors with more traditional tastes.
The SC02C looks like a handsome vintage-flavoured pilot’s chronograph rather than a piece of aerospace hardware, with rounded lugs and a crisp dial. But here, you feel that every classical-looking decision is a practical one, with no need to reinvent the wheel. The deep black dial, oversized markers and generously proportioned hands are there for legibility during long, awkward work in a suit, including the best-looking red rocket-like hour hand tip I have seen in years. This is a motif carried over from Chaykin’s Mars Conqueror Mk3, not mere decoration. You can also line the hour hand up with the 12 on the rotating bezel at the start of a task, and the elapsed interval can be read straight off the hand’s position, a backup timer that needs no pushers. Luminous material on hands, markers and bezel keeps it readable in the dark, while anti-reflective sapphire cuts unwanted reflections both down here on Earth and up in the darkness.
But beyond the oddly asymmetrical placement of fixing screws on the dial at a bit after 3, 7:30 and 11:30, its tool-watch genes show in the emphasis on protection. An antimagnetic inner cover shields the movement to 4,800 A/m, while the sapphire crystal sits in a reverse dovetail seat, its bevelled edge designed so that pressure changes and overloads push it more firmly into place. Water resistance runs to 100m, but the more telling figure is opposite in a way. The case is built to hold up in a near-total vacuum of 1 x 10-6 atmospheres. For security, the watches are run through a centrifuge, vibration rig, thermal extremes and impact tests before they ever left Earth soil. The strap is equally over-engineered, with pins carrying two extra locking threads, and the set includes both a standard length strap and an extended version made to close over a spacesuit.
For a watch that had to be trusted in orbit, an unproven mechanism was simply not an option, and Chaykin settled, unusually, on the Poljot 3133. This hand-wound chronograph movement has decades of history, and the team re-engineered it by adding 60 in-house components to create the calibre K.20-5. The modifications added a 12-hour counter, a stop-seconds function, a damping ring, and a balance regulated by micrometric weights rather than a traditional index, chosen specifically to resist vibration and overload. The finishing is done to high standards even though the solid, protective caseback hides it from view entirely. This is a watch meant to be tested to within an inch of its life (or yours), not coddled. Limited to 28 civilian pieces at CHF 50,000 (approx. £45,700).
Price and Specs:
More details at Konstantin Chaykin.
