Saturday, January 4, 2014

Urofa 59 Based Tutima, Hanhart and 1st MWF Chronographs and Their Re-Issues

This photo borrowed from the Internet shows re-issues (replicas? copies?) of the famed Urofa-based chronographs made during WWII by Tutima, Glashuette, and Hanhart and then by the First Moscow Watch Factory after the war. The re-issues utilize the Poljot 3133 chronograph movement which is also a great movement in its own right whose production may have been now discontinued.
                                 

The legal question as to who owns rights to this chrono design (if anybody does) is rather complicated. The difficulty is that both Tutima- and Hanhart making equipment went to the victors as war reparations. The Tutima workshop ended up in Moscow as part of the aforementioned First Moscow Watch Factory where up to 3,000-5,000 such chronographs (1MWF above) were made in the late 1940s and the early 1950s, while Hanhart's equipment went to France, having been in the French zone of occupation.

I believe these 3133-based re-issues (replicas, copies) can still be found on the internet but quality varies, some issues have been reported. 

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