It was 2016, the planet had seen many years of relatively peaceful times without major upheavals, but signs of impending doom were getting clearer day by day. When you live in Russia, thoughts of Memento Mori would come up either way, and with the increasing pressure of a dictatorship government, I wanted to audibly express them.

I had made several models of skull watches before, but here, I wanted to create a mechanical sculpture. By the time the initial model was ready, Covid had taken millions of lives. When I managed to launch the watch in a small series, Russia attacked Ukraine, and we still don’t know how this is going to end. Memento Mori, comrades.

None of my business partners liked the idea. Too dark, they said. However, I contacted Ukrainian 3D artist Fred Bekher, and together we managed to create the initial visual concept. I’m very grateful to him!

When the first sketches were ready, the announcement of the Joker watch by Konstantin Chaykin came out, that was wild... Soon I came to Konstantin with a 3D-printed KOPF model and asked - should I seriously make this thing? He said I absolutely should. Some time after this conversation, my workshop moved to a small room in the K. Chaykin manufactory, and I gained an unbelievable amount of knowledge and experience there, it was an incredibly valuable investment.

I would like to note the help of Pierre-Alexandre Aeschlimann (CEO Andersen Geneve), he gave me some great advice on how to “complicate” the design of the initial prototype and make the watch more sophisticated.

The first prototypes were created in Moscow at our own workshop with an Arix CNC machine. Since 2019, as the political situation in Russia degraded, I gradually moved the manufactory from Moscow to England. In 2022, I moved my Moscow craftsmen team to Europe and finally closed the old workshop.

Since 2022, we have been ordering rough CNC blanks from a medical tool manufacturer and creating our own mechanical parts (cutting gear teeth, axles, bridges, etc.)
The most expensive procedures - setting jewels, assembling wheels, finishing, electroplating, engraving, control and adjusting are carried out entirely in England, in the Horological Underground workshop in Bristol.

The watch (including the base mechanism) has over 250 components, and more than 90 of them are manufactured, processed or assembled in our workshop. 

The idea is to move away from the classic modern “icons of watch design” and create something unique, almost from a perpendicular reality that only matches our own with the presence of 12 hours, 60 minutes and 60 seconds (but we could also brainstorm with the idea of an alternate timekeeping system).

KOPF watches were developed in such a way that they could be recognized even from afar. Every corner, every surface of the watch should be “signature”, bearing the individuality of this model.

It was crucial to design a case that no one had ever made before. A dial that no other watch had. Hands that are not placed anywhere else. A winding crown that you will not see on any other watch. A special combination of textures and colours - trying not to copy other samples, but experimenting and finding my own unique combinations.

A pleasant bonus - if you follow the principle of perpendicular design, then somehow the product itself becomes harmonious and individual, acquires primacy (not being a derivative of something else). Such things either evoke very positive or very negative emotions, and that's a good thing - as long as you’re not indifferent to it.

I advise independent craftsmen to follow the same principle. To boldly ignore "watch canons" is the greatest privilege of an independent craftsman, which major brands cannot afford to do. 

For a designer-developer, the horological language consists of some elements: contours, shapes, figures (forms) and their intersections, surface treatment, etc. Combinations of elements, their layers and geometric proportions, colours and shades, reflections and play of light, sound and tactile factors - these "letters" of the horological language form a picture and impression of the watch in the mind.

Complexity or simplicity, rest or exhaustion, wealth or cheapness, all these can be expressed through the horological language. You can even develop a practical method of expression for any idea through watch creations, but I’ll leave this for now (to not go insane).

For me, the concept of a “horological language” has become a sort of revelation, it’s a great tool for a designer! As such, “Kopf” means “head” in German, and the KOPF watch means “head” in the horological language. Intended to be a skull, turned out more like a robot; this is an interpretation of an object expressed through the mechanical horological language.

Just like how a Japanese fencing master is able to express Thought and Idea in the form of a Kata pose or the motion of his sword - a horological master can’t just generate meaningless trash, he has to have a grasp of the watch language and bring Thought and Idea to the world through his creations. 

Of course, the inspiration were the mechanical sculptures of MB&F!

Throughout many years of servicing work, my hands have come into contact with a great number of rare and unique watches, there were many I could try on my own wrist to get a better idea of the dimensions.

In terms of size, I was guided by the URWERK 103 - despite its crazy shape, it is a very comfortable watch for the wrist. The width of the KOPF case excluding the eye sockets is only 34 mm, which is very wrist-friendly.

I’ll admit, some references were rather borrowed from the world of supercars, science fiction, guns, and space objects, and to a lesser extent from the world of watches.