BBC News - Chai - the drink India can't live without

 On tea as sometimes consumed in India

BBC News - Chai - the drink India can't live without

Review: 2015 Hyundai Sonata Limited 2.4 | The Truth About Cars

A ttac review of the 2015 Hyundai Sonata

Review: 2015 Hyundai Sonata Limited 2.4 | The Truth About Cars


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Clinton's Watches

Something about Bill Clinton's watches... that he gives away

Totally ‘In Touch’ Bill Clinton Laughs About Buying 14 Fancy Swiss Watches 


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Koutouzoff's soviet watches: Fab 5 chrono Shturmanskie

Koutouzoff's soviet watches: Fab 5 chrono Shturmanskie: Rare birds back from the watch maker: Super rare and early Shturmanskie with 1st batch 3133 caliber, just restored and fit with a m...

Auto Neurotic Fixation: Wayne Thiebaud - San Francisco Streets

Auto Neurotic Fixation: Wayne Thiebaud - San Francisco Streets: American, 1920-

Russ/Russian Watches Blog Is No More

Russ has shut down his blog, it appears

His last post on blog

Re;Selling Watches.

Russ/Russian Watches at Russ/Russian Watches - 4 weeks ago

Over the coming weeks,i will be selling most of my collection,[apart from the watches,that have been given to me as gifts or mementos]. Mainly for personal reasons,but,also because,i have realised,due to my limited budget,most of the watches that i would like to acquire are now out of my price range,by several multiples. When i eventually close the blog down,the one thing i will miss,is all the very pleasant people i have met from around the world,through there love of watch collecting. Regards, Russ.

I think I linked to it once or twice. Also had (and still have) it on my blog roll and reading list. 

Jaws III at World Cup?

Luis Suarez...

Italy 0-1 Uruguay: Luis Suarez mars win after appearing to bite Giorgio Chiellini during Group D showdown

Read more: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/sport/worldcup2014/article-2667441/Italy-0-1-Uruguay-Luis-Suarez-mars-win-appearing-bite-Giorgio-Chiellini-Group-D-showdown.html#ixzz35aGvk7mX

Uruguay are through to next stage, Italy are out.

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From Russia With Luxe: Why The Best Limited Edition Watches Are In Russia

From Forbes by Valerie Jack

From Russia With Luxe: Why The Best Limited Edition Watches Are In Russia 

Are they though?

Forget the iWatch. The truly hip go for the pocket watch

From MarketWatch on the pocket watch. Pocket watches are back apparently, see link to source below.

Forget the iWatch. The truly hip go for the pocket watch

Of course, the pocket watch predates the wrist watch and was basically a man's watch while first wrist watches were strictly for the ladies.

Watch Bracelet

A watch bracelet in my collection from olden times -- USSR made.

Miru Mir!.. Meaning "Peace to the World!"

Stars.

On the left is a Kremlin tower; what is on the right looks suspiciously like the Capitol or something. Must be Perestroika times. 

 Ц7р50к - RUB 7.50... not cheap at all the time.

Swatch’s Sistem51 Rethinks The Mechanical Watch

Another one about Swatch' Sistem51 from techcrunch....

Swatch’s Sistem51 Rethinks The Mechanical Watch




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Mechanically Powered Flashlight

My mechanically powered flashlight, or torch.

It needs neither batteries nor an electrical source -- it is powered by the muscle power of your wrist as you squeeze the handle repeatedly -- this one is a dyno torch, dynamo torch or squeeze flashlight.

It is an old Soviet design but in a 1990s Russian version. Similar flashlights exist elsewhere. 

Made in Russia.

The white clasp is released and the metal handle can be "squeezed" repeatedly which works a small dynamo lighting a small incandescent bulb. 

The handle is released.

From Wikipedia:

A dyno torch, dynamo torch or squeeze flashlight is a flashlight or pocket torch which stores energy in a flywheel. The user repeatedly squeezes a handle to spin a flywheel inside the flashlight, attached to a small dynamo, supplying electrical current to an incandescent bulb or light-emitting diode.

It fits snugly in the hand. You use three fingers to squeeze the handle.

It doesn't produce much light but enough to see what you are going to step into, also good at home when power fails. That's why I have two of them -- one at home, the other at my country place.

Dumb and Dumber To - Official Trailer (2014) Dumb and Dumber 2 Trailer [HD]

Dumb and Dumber To

Watchmaking: The high-tech world of old-world watches | The Economist

The Economist says the real innovation is in "old-fashioned" mechanical watches... not in quartz watches and not in "smart" watches which are not very innovative -- "most are a mash-up of phone, activity-tracker and music-player". On the other hand, the mechanical watch has now silicon and plenty of it... as well other "innovative" stuff.

Watchmaking: The high-tech world of old-world watches | The Economist

NYT: Watches Win NATO Support

A New York Times article

Watches Win NATO Support

Not necessarily about what you think first... it's about the Nato strap and on how it is becoming more popular.

Also goes into history of said strap.

The watch strap is a type many call a NATO. Whether it is in fact a NATO is a subject of considerable online debate, like most everything to do with the world of fine watches and Bond.

Named for the North Atlantic Treaty Organization, though likely created for the British armed forces, a NATO is classically a length of plain woven nylon with two stainless steel loops and a metal buckle. Like Bond or Galore, it is tough, resilient and hard to kill.

And it is a certifiable trend. At least it was during the huge Baselworld watch fair held in Switzerland in the spring, when large numbers of watchmakers showed their costly wares on NATO straps, and before then on the wrists of Billyburg hipsters, still the most reliable early adopters when it comes to matters of style.

Watch purists hate them. NATO straps “don’t belong on any watch that costs more than the strap,” sniffed one professed online arbiter known as the Watch Snob. For that matter, he added, they have no business supporting any timepiece to which “a leather strap can be attached.”

Electronika 77

Electronika 77, a Belorussian post-USSR electronic watch.

This one is Electronika 77 and not the Electronika 77A, that is without the "A". But there is no difference function-wise.

It is made by the Minsk Electronika plant.

The Electronika 77 (without the "A") is much rarer than the one with the "A". So it's a rarity of sorts.

The watch is a clone of the 1980s Hong Kong electronic watch called for some reason Montana, known in some parts of the world and maybe still in production but in a much cheaper mainland China version. 

Technical specs [in Russian].

The manual below works with it.

Video: Vostok 2409A Movement, Review and Tear-Down

Video [in Russian] showing the tear down of the Vostok 2409А movement... not the putting it back together however... and making it run again :) But still a helpful video.

AChS-1V Aviation Clock

My AChS-1V aviation clock also known as a board or panel clock. Typically found in an aircraft instrument cluster.

No, it doesn't ride with me in the car... just sits in the kitchen of my country home.

It is a good time measuring device. It is actually a chronograph -- has a stopwatch. And it also has a "flight time" counter. You wind it once and it goes up to 3 days on full winding.

It's been in the family for 30 or something years. And probably did some service on an actual plane before that (may be not).

There are two version of the AChS-1V clock -- this one which is the more recent of the two and the other one where it says "2 days" on the face in white paint. It is possible that the clock is still in production [in Russian].

There is lume on the hands and indexes which glows green in the dark.

Back of the clock.

Ronin [1998] - Car Chase - BMW vs Peugeot

Car chase in Paris from Ronin - a BMW 5 series v Peugeout 406 turbo