The Return of Pobeda?

As was noted elsewhere, the legendary Soviet Pobeda wristwatch may be about to make a comeback.

The new (so-called) Raketa may have purchased rights to the Pobeda brand and says it is preparing a run of Pobeda watches for the year 2015, promising to make the first ones available some time in 2014.

They even went so far as to set up a dedicated website, even though not everything works on it, and you can't find the new Pobeda watches on sale yet.

Link to the website: New Pobeda by Raketa

Personally I am not convinced. For one thing, I don't see Pobeda wristwatches without the cal. 2602 movement. Secondly, even though it was once the most widely produced Soviet and then Russian movement, it still is more technically complex and more difficult to make than the simple Raketa calibers, such as the cal. 2609. Then there is also the issue of the sub-dial second hand which is not offered by any of the current Raketa movements.

For this reason, I fear this will be a failure and an insult to the image and memory of the true Pobeda. But we shall see. In the meantime, I am going to stick to late-period Pobedas by ZiM -- my favorites.  

Junkyard Ford Tauruses

A 2011 post on TTAC by one Murilee Martin in his long-running Junkyard Find series.

Junkyard Find: Where Tired Tauruses Go To Die

Borrowed pic, courtesy TTAC

100+ pictures of junkyard Tauruses! Exterior shots mostly.

Blog on Hampden Watches

A good resource on the history of Hampden Watches is much recommended. 

Beyond Springfield & Moscow: The Remarkable Story of Hampden Watches

In particular, of interest to me as this blogger is the connection between Hampden watches and early Soviet watches, especially Kirova Type I watches.

The Dueber-Hampden Watch Co. plant was purchased by the Soviet government via Amtorg and the equipment was used to start the First Moscow Watch Factory and maybe even the Second Moscow Watch Factory.

Thus the importance of Hampden watches in Soviet watch making cannot be overestimated, yet it should be noted that Soviet sources claim that the equipment bought from Dueber-Hampden was old, worn out and in many instances in poor repair and the Soviet authorities were unable to use it to great success in starting mass watch-making in Russia -- even though they succeeded in producing some iconic watches, such as the aforementioned Kirova Type I wristwatch, which are much sought after by collectors these days -- thus failing in their principal goal of establish a mass watch-making industry in Russia. That came later on the basis of own Soviet designs and also with the help of Fred Lipmann's Lip, of France, whose role was arguably more important in the establishment of Soviet watch industry than Hampden's or Ansonia's for that matter.

But it still is a remarkable story of watch-making and American and Soviet industrial cooperation in the pre-WWII years.

Slava Watches 1993 Catalog

A 1993 catalog of watches by Slava (2nd Moscow Watch Factory).

Links to the catalog:

1 -SLAVA 1993 CATALOG

2 -SLAVA 1993 CATALOG (opens a PDF document)

Some interesting watches in the catalog:

In 1993 they continued still to make the Slava "Monster" featuring the Cal. 2427, a brute of a watch, very popular with collectors. 

A Slava United Nations Military Force watch with the Cal. 2416 is also in the catalog. I wonder what the United Nations Military Force was up to ca. 1993. 

Slava America 1492-1992 with the Cal. S2146 -- I guess this one celebrated the discovery of America by Columbus, no?

Snowboarding Slopestyle at Sochi 2014

Some drama and comedy at a ladies' snowboarding slopestyle event at Sochi Olympics today.

Czech Rep's Sarka Pancochova has a nasty crash... but survives apparently unhurt.. the helmet doesn't... brave girl.




Austria's Anna Gasser has a false start... attempts to get back to starting position...

Molnija Pearl

A Molnija (read: MOL-nee-yah) pocket watch from my collection. 

I have it with an original paper box plus documents where it says that the date of production was some time in September 2001 but no chain to hook it to a trouser belt or something. And I bought it as new old stock (BNIB) some time in 2013.

This one is in a hunter case (with lid/duster) and the design is called Pearl.

I think you can see some pearl related motiffs. Though at first I didn't know that it was officially so called and thought it was related to something agricultural and mistook the "pearl" on the lid for some root vegetable.

The dial also continues to explore the Pearl theme, with the yellow circle at 12 o'clock also apparently representing a pearl and the dial in two shades of blue -- the color of the ocean.

And

 

On the back there's a generic Molnija ornament. 

 

Movements shots:

 

The cal. 3602 movement in its 2000s version -- yellow plates (brass?), no central stone, other simplifications, no decoration, rough machining. 

Watch collectors don't have much respect for the Molnija movements of this particular vintage believing them somehow to be inferior to Molnija movements of almost every other period but, whether true or not, I don't share this snobbery.

If anything, in this guise, they look even more like their Corterbert ancestors.  Compare.

Picture courtesy Internet

Picture courtesy Tourby watches 

List of Okean 3133 Final Edition Owners

A list of owners of the Okean 3133 Final Edition 1975-2011 (sometimes also known as ... Okeah...) by Volmax, both originals AND duplicates.

For those unfamiliar with the short but sometimes sordid history of this watch, this would be a good place to start. But there are also other sources out there and in several languages therefore just google it, if you please.

Here's the watch in question -- my timepiece, a duplicate.

Number 20/300. This is not a Spanish forum original but, as I said, one of those duplicates apparently additionally made by Volmax in an unknown quantity hopefully not exceeding the original run, i.e. no "triplicates". 

Click the link below to view the list.

List setup is as follows:

First Column -- originals made by Volmax for a Spanish watch enthusiasts forum, Hablemos de Relojes - HdR.

Second Column -- Volmax "duplicates".

Third Column -- reserved for now.

Owners are (not) identified solely by their forum monikers and the forum they belong to or are most active on, all information is freely available in the public domain.

I should make it clear that I am more (marginally) interested in the fate of duplicate Okeans (seeing as my own watch is one of those duplicates) and their actual number in existence. For this reason I will not update the first column, which is already much outdated as I understand, but I am only going to update the second -- duplicates -- column, and I hope it won't be necessary to do anything in the third one ))

☭☭☭OKEAN F.E. 1976-2011 LIST⚓ ⚓ ⚓