Union of Soviet Socialist Watches

[semperfi55 4,707]

Greetings comrade,

The party has noted the disappointingly  few Russian watch threads on this forum.  The lack of Soviet representation here can be blamed on the devious capitalist Photobucket plot and the deceptive, superfluous appeal of bourgeois Swiss watches.  Representatives of the All-Soviet Workers and Peasants Watch Collective wish to demonstrate a few examples of Soviet precision and reliability. This demonstration will prove once and for all the superiority of Soviet watchmaking; the perfect balance between cost, aesthetics and mechanical design!

Whilst waiting for my first rep to arrive, I got impatient and discovered the market for Soviet watches. It's one of those easy traps that noobs like me fall into: cheap, funky designs, cool historical associations. In total I now have 7 Soviet/Russian watches and the total cost was still cheaper than one mid-range rep. It was pretty hit and miss but I'm glad to say there were more good ones than bad ones and many lessons were learnt!

So let's start off with a group shot:

I tried to collect Soviet watches across the spectrum (one with metallic bracelet, two divers, four dressier watches) and across different brands (three Vostoks, two Raketas, one Poljot and one of the Sputnik commemorative watches).

 

The Soviet Divers

Here is my Vostok Amphibian (1980s) and Vostok Komandirskie (1980s).  Very simple watches, no date display, no rotating bezel. Possibly waterproof when new but I wouldn't risk it nowadays. They do have screw-down crowns with waterproofing though. You can clearly see the design influences of Fifth Fathoms and Submariner in them. I am terrified when trying to wind these watches as the screw-down crown does feel a bit flimsy when winding or setting the time. Very delicate procedure.

Putting  a bond NATO strap on a Warsaw Pact watch seems very contradictory but you cannot deny a diver watch with a Bond NATO strap is a good look regardless of ideological clashes.

 

The Franken Sputnik Watch

Ah the Sputnik watch. One of the most counterfeited Soviet watches. It was made to commemorate the first orbiting artificial satellite by humanity: the Sputnik. The historical value of a gen Sputnik watch makes it a hot collector's item. After doing some research, I am inclined to believe mine is a genuine watch (very scratched up case) but it has a new shiny franken dial. The seller was upfront about it and lists that on the description so no deception there. Furthermore, the hands have been replaced; the original would have "necktie" shaped hands.  Lastly, the movement is stamped with the date of production "4-56" which means fourth quarter of 1956.

Problem: Sputnik 1 was launched in October 1957! Either this is a complete fake or they used old stock movements to make this watch in 1957. 

Whatever the case, I'm not too fussed. Apart from the historical significance, it also has a very unique seconds subdial. Instead of the conventional small seconds hand, it features a rotating disk with a hole. As the "hole" rotates, it displays the seconds at intervals of five. Pretty cool!

One thing however, I notice the watch stops on any sudden movement. The watch can be restarted by tapping the case at 4 o'clock (near the balance wheel). It seems that the balance wheel is perhaps slightly misaligned or dirty so it gets stuck sometimes and needs a flick to restart it. Anyone has any ideas on what is happening? Does it require servicing or just dismantling and putting it back together? Input welcome!

This is not the only Sputnik watch out there. There were many other designs made and collectors do try to get them all. But the aesthetics of this one does it for me.

 

The Russian "Perpetual Calendar"

My dear sister gave it to me as a graduation gift. As you can see on the dial, this was made in Russia, not USSR, meaning this watch was made after 1990/1991. I really like the strange design with lots of numbers on the dial and Cyrillic day display. This is not a true perpetual calendar, of course. It is more of a manual calendar, if you align  the year wheel using the crown at 4 o'clock. Say you want to find out the what day was 26 Dec 1991, the day USSR collapsed, just align 1991 to December and refer to the top half of the dial. Look for 26 and it should be aligned to the day. The years only run up to 2000 so it is pretty much useless today. I just align it to my birth date and leave it at that. 

Another interesting feature I learnt about Raketa movements is that there is a quickset for the date which is done by pulling the crown one step further. There is no quick set for the day display so you have to turn the hands through multiple days to get to the right day.

 

The Soviet Beauty

Ah, such a beautiful 1970s Vostok dress watch! Bought a light tan leather strap on sale from cheapestnatostrap and it seems to fit really well. Overall this is a very well-built watch: sturdy crown, intricate hands, beautiful detailed dial, Roman numerals and keeps time well. Surely this must have been too bourgeois for Soviet sensibilities? Will be wearing this beauty to my next dress-watch-worthy event.

 

The Soviet Lessons

I have been relatively lucky and made the right choices for most of this collection. The two here are beautiful in their own right but each carry a lesson for collecting vintage Soviet watches. On the left is a 1980s Raketa dress watch with my own leather straps. The lesson here is that however new they look, these are very old watches. On delivery, the day wheel must have been damaged or misaligned, I'm not too sure. Basically, as the hour hand moves past 12, the date wheel jumps fine but the day wheel only advances by a tiny bit each day. Any help/input is welcome! I haven't open it up to investigate as I want to practice tinkering on other watches first to build my confidence. 

The one on the right is a 1980s Poljot. I got this watch purely to round off the collection with at least one watch with metal bracelet. Lesson two: Soviet watches are cheap for a reason. The bracelet feels extremely light and flimsy. Furthermore, there are actually no pins in the links so I can't resize them. So this watch sits rather loosely on my wrist.

 

Final Thoughts

I absolutely adore my Soviet/Russian collection. It has been an educational journey. I've had to research the sellers. Research and scrutinise the watches. Compare them to confirmed gens. Follow the market to determine what is a fair price for these watches. Learning the history of the watches and their factories.

Here are some things I've learnt so far:

1) Just like reps, you need to buy the seller. Look up their feedback and decide if you trust them or not. Of course feedback is not 100% reliable all the time but it is a fair indicator.

2) If possible, go for the watch that has recently been serviced. This will save you a lot of time and money. Especially in London where they charge at least 60 quid for a full service.

3) Research the watch. For reference, http://www.ussrtime.com/ is a website listing one man's impressive collection. A meticulous, well-kept catalogue which serves as a good source for comparison pictures. I often use the photos there to compare with eBay lsitings to see if they are the genuine article/franken/fake.

Well that was my Soviet collection. Do share yours here too!

[McGilli 1]

Thank you.

99% of the posts on this forum are just one sentence, or even 1 word. So. It's always nice to sit down, and sink into someones post. In this case, none of the watches are my style per se - but - sign of a good post, and interesting, is that I actually read the entire thing. Looking at the watches, the details you mentioned. SOme of them seem 'odd' in a way that I like. Hope the ones that aren't in top shape get sorted out for you.  It was well done, thanks for posting.

If I had to choose - the Russian Beauty would be my choice. I do like the dial on it for sure.

[Glaude 1,615]

 Excellent post !

25 minutes ago, semperfi55 said:

I am terrified when trying to wind these watches as the screw-down crown does feel a bit flimsy when winding or setting the time

Don't worry, it seems flimsy, but they are way tougher than you think  

And nice choice of strap for the beauty  

[RussP 22,191]

Welcome to the forum. 

I have just one Russian watch in my collection. 

Your post has inspired me to double it.

[VMSG 2]

Really nice

[fetasigma 0]

Love me some Russians

My okean(I know know it's a redial from another case but still love it)



My raketa 24 hour world timer



My zissou vostok amphibia



A very old soviet Era amphibia that cost 5 dollars including shipping, looks like it went through a nuclear strike but runs like a top



A newer vostok amphibia with custom bezel and strap, couldn't leave without a scuba dude



Sent from my SM-G892A using Tapatalk

[semperfi55 4,707]

@fetasigma Nice collection! Where do you buy your Russian/Soviet watches? I really like the Raketa World Timer!

@RussP Good to hear  What Russian watch is it?

Edited April 28, 2018 by semperfi55

[RussP 22,191]

This one:

[semperfi55 4,707]

@RussP Nice one! What does the other crown do? How is the lume holding up?

[RussP 22,191]

The other crown is to wind the alarm as well as set the time for the alarm to go 'off' (see the tiny hand at 7).

It's a crap watch.

Non-existent lume.

It's in my collection just because I don't have any other Soviet made watches (call it a token watch if you must).

[fetasigma 0]

I buy most of mine off of flea Bay unless I am buying vostoks then I deal only with Meramom. I have a very large collection including Gens and reps. Just live having a little Russian side collection too

Sent from my SM-G892A using Tapatalk

[Mossback 0]

Simperfi55, you are a wonderful storyteller. Informative and interesting to learn about those watches, thanks for sharing.

I've got an official copy of the Chinese Airforce 1963 red star wristwatch.

[fetasigma 0]

Semperfi love your sputnik and your raketa perpetual nice pieces

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[fetasigma 0]

Moss back, nice reissue, I have been thinking of one of those

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[aitcharGMT 0]

Very nice collection and writeup! I've never had a Russian/Soviet watch but I have a nice Eastern European camera collection and in there I can appreciate simplicity and good mechanics (I fixed one of my medium format cameras).

[FunnyStarSystem 7,538]

How did I miss this awesome thread? That Sputnik is gorgeous - provenance be damned! I'd be happy with a reproduction, in fact I'm going to go look now. 

[semperfi55 4,707]

@Mossback That's an interesting brand! I learnt about Red Star watches from Long Island Watches on YouTube.  I want to get one at some point as a novelty

@aitcharGMT Ooh that's cool! What do you have? I have a Zorki 4K recently repaired.

(photo was meant to show off the travel case, but camera is still there  )

@funnystarsystem Thanks for the kind words! Most Sputniks on the market are most likely reps or franken. Plus as a 1958-1960 watch, a gen would be in pretty bad condition too. If you search "Sputnik" at the website USSR time (link above), the guy has gen Sputniks- different versions. Good resource to compare to when you're trying to buy the Sputniks.

[aitcharGMT 0]

@semperfi55 oh, what I don't have! I have Zorkys, Kievs MF(88, 88CM, 6C) with a ton of heavy lenses including my precious multicoated fisheye, Lomo, Lubitel, FED, a load of old Zeiss lenses, Zenit etc. My addictions, ehrm, hobbies, vary! LOL (Very nice camera, you're, by the way.)

Edited May 7, 2018 by aitcharGMT

[brang1 4,007]

Fantastic post, i love the look of some of these Russian/Polish watches, mind you, some are just straight out FUGLY . Great job though

[ruddz 0]

Some very interested watches there, so many old Russian subs and other watches that have been forgotten

[cvp3 2,103]

Bought this for ~$65 off the bay. On its way. Should be any day. Figured what the hay. What do you say? By the way, I suspect Russian meddling in my purchase decision.

 

[semperfi55 4,707]

On 02/08/2018 at 03:01, cvp3 said:

I suspect Russian meddling in my purchase decision.

WRONG! That's FAKE NEWS! If anything, this watch was made in China but shipped from Russia to dodge fair tariffs! 

This one looks like a more modern post-90s take on the Vostok divers. Interesting that they have merged old and new designs together! The good thing about these cheapish Russian watches: it's not too big a problem if they turn out to be a bust. But terrible for us hoarders, less severe in my case of course  

Post up some pics when you receive it!

[cvp3 2,103]

Will do comrade!

[semperfi55 4,707]

More iconic and funky Soviet watches incoming!

 

The Soviet Traveler

The Raketa World Time is the poor man's World Timer watch.  There's no fancy GMT function. Just a bi-directional bezel.

This watch used to have a gold coating all over but most of it has been worn/rubbed off now. That probably explains why it was much cheaper than the average listing. It uses a typical Raketa movement that has day and date function.

The bezel has inscriptions of various cities around the world, written in Russian. Good luck with the Cyrillic letters! Unlike Western/Capitalists Travel watches, the watch uses less well known Soviet cities instead, where possible. Trying to figure the time for Beijing/Shanghai/Hong Kong? Good luck with finding Irkutsk! Want to know Tokyo time, look for Yakutsk! This watch will test your knowledge of the Russian language and geography!

Here's an example on how to work it's "World Time" function.

You're in London and want to find out the time in Hong Kong. In London, people are having a lovely time moaning about the hot weather at 5:20pm. Convert that into 17:20 hrs. Now find the city of your time zone on the bezel. Fortunately enough, London (Ло̀ндо̄н) is on the bezel. Align that city to the "17" on the dial.

Now you know the time for every time zone,if you can decipher the Russian and figure out where your non-Russian locale is in relation to various Russian cities. Hong Kong is on the same time zone as Irkutsk (Ирку́тск). And that is aligned to 24, so it is midnight over there, 7 hours ahead of UK time.

I do recall Putin consolidating various time zones in Russia to bring them down from 11 to a more manageable 9 (still more reasonable than China, which officially only has one time zone). I'm wondering if Putin's time-warping antics would have rendered the Soviet-era bezel inaccurate? I'll let you guys know once I master the Russian language/ can be bothered to google translate all the remaining cities on the bezel.

 

The Cosmonaut

The Sturmanskie is/may be the watch model that Yuri Gagarin wore to space. Or not. Or maybe he wore it but not into space. Regardless, the myth/legend has stuck so the watch market has happily gone with the hype, and along with that, the prices. Mine undoubtedly has a new franken dial. When comparing with the gen dial, there is a big difference in the font of the "И" letter in "Sturmanskie", not to mention the dial looks to clean to be from the 60s.  The movement in mine is definitely old  though.  This purchase was just to complete the collection of Soviet watches linked to space events.

 

The Red Astronomer

The Raketa Copernicus has weird ring/plate for hands. Great conversation starter! 

 

The One Armed Belorussian

The wrist check thread is a dangerous place. I'm allowed scheduled, supervised visits to those threads from time to time, followed by debriefing sessions to counter any impulse buys.

Does it seem a bit over the top? Perhaps. But it does work. I don't impulse buy anymore. It's more of a delayed impulse buy.

One word. All the difference.

I managed to bag a very cheap deal for a new iconic one-armed Luch. Yes, that ECG squiggle on the dial stands for Luch.

No doubts and suspicions of this watch. No Ukrainian franken claims either. A nice, wholesome, new Belorussian watch. Must be a special edition too, with the decorated caseback!

The watch is missing a second hand and a minute hand but that's ok. Between the hour markers, you have 3 shorter 15-minute markers and 8 even shorter 5-minute markers.

 

[BravoDelta 22,442]

On 04/08/2018 at 16:19, semperfi55 said:

Ло̀ндо̄н

Cool  thread here (⌐■_■) worth a read. I want that Soviet traveler so I can figure out the time in Ло̀ндо̄н. I'd really like to get back to Ло̀ндо̄н for a visit someday.