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.