No. 3 Poljot 3133 Chronograph!

Finally, another (#3) Poljot 3133 Chrono in the collection!

And not just any Poljot 3133 chrono...

... but one that says on the back, "From Head of Military Counter Intelligence"!

I leave the rest to your imagination ))

I wonder if this watch has a bit of history.... but now let's proceed to the movement.

A Poljot 3133 movement (I wrote a lot about it in some earlier posts, use search) with a proper Poljot stamp (not later MakTime).

But to re-cap, I'll just say that the watch is a chronograph using the Poljot (/MakTime) 3133 movement. 

And a chronograph (not to confuse with chronometer) is basically a watch with a stopwatch (which is a "complication"). 

So, it has a center stopwatch hand, a small seconds hand at 9 o'clock and a 30-minute counter at 3 o'clock and also a date at 6 o'clock. The power reserve is very good almost up to 70 hours on full winding. And it is very pleasant and easy to wind. 

Also, there is a quick (one of the quickest) date change mechanisms whereby you rotate the hands backwards from 1:00 to 23:00 o'clock.

Maybe some experts will see something or read something into this movement. To me, it looks OK.

And it works so far (admittedly it's the first day I have had it).

I am a happy bunny this New Year eve!

The rest stones are of course rubies (artificially grown) as per tradition in watch-making and there are 23 of them (23 jewels).

Best Deals on Ebay: Pojot 3133 and ST1901 Chronos

Poljot 3133 chronos are not cheap anymore, unfortunately, but these are respected sellers.

Poljot 3133 and China ST1901 Chronos on eBay

Poljot 3133 and China ST1901 chronos on eBay

Koutouzoff's soviet watches: Early chronograph 3133, silver dial

Koutouzoff's soviet watches: Early chronograph 3133, silver dial

Where 3133s Can Still Be Found

The Poljot 3133 movement is a manual wind chronograph movement with a long history.

Here it is in one of my 3133 based watches.

For more information about the Poljot 3133 movement you can search this blog for 3133 or just google it.

Watches with the movement, both new and old, are very collectible and getting more so by the day because the movement ceased production in 2011 and also for many other reasons which are maybe the subject for another post.

However, I could not help notice that you can still by new (NOS) watches with the movement... even on Amazon... but only if you are prepared to be content with Moscow Classic branded watches (of which I haven't bought a single one yet, so pass no judgement one way or the other).

Anyway here they are... in my astore even.

POLJOT 3133 BASED WATCHES ON AMAZON


For example, a nice looking R-7 Semerka (Strela looks).

Or a Night Hunter...

Poljot 3133 - How to remove stem and crown / youtube video

A video about what it says in the title which may or may not be useful, and it's Pol-YAWT actually.

Except the video recordist doesn't seem to know much about the 3133 but still it could be useful. 

I have some 3133s too -- see page My 3133s -- only two so far but bought new. And personally, I wouldn't work on them myself.

Alexander Shorokhoff: Avantgarde Miss Pilot

Alexander Shorokhoff (founder of Poljot International) with a pilot watch for ladies? - Avantgarde Miss Pilot.

Article in German

Alexander Shorokhoff: Avantgarde Miss Pilot


Personally I am not convinced... but, as far as I was able to understand, it is powered by the Poljot 3133 so I guess that redeems it.

WUS Thread: New Arrival: Camel Chronograph 3133

New arrival: Camel chronograph 3133.

WatchUseek thread - a Camel 3133 chronograph ca. 1993 bought! Congrats to emoscambio!

Actually I mentioned the Camel Trophy Poljot 3133 once before on this blog in my post on Curiosity 3133. 

Okean 3133 "Not Quite" the Final Edition

Saw this beauty in a store here in Moscow about a month back and "report from the scene of the disturbance".

It is in fact a new version of the Okean (Okeah) 3133 Final Edition chronograph watch and I think it will confuse matters even further. Slightly.

To understand, I recommend consulting my two previous entries on the subject on this blog.

• Okean Final Edition 3133 from my collection; and

• List of Okean Final Edition  owners

Looking at the face you can see it differs both from both the original and the previous known duplicate version (such as mine - which are identical in everything but the box and paperwork):

• different stopwatch hand - barbed or winged like on Shturmanskies;
• different small register hands;
• different hour and minute hands with different lume - white -- also. 

The rest seems as before.

 Compare with my watch (duplicate):

 However when you see the back...

...you realize that the back is identical to the final edition, also the same strap.

Here's mine again for comparison.

There are two possible explanations. 

One is that it is a duplicate edition, or second run, watch but with those differences in front because either (i) Volmax has run out of original Final Edition parts; or (ii) has started using different hands etc. to differentiate from the Final Edition after much criticism. The other explanation is that it is something from the third run of watches (triplicates).

I feel the former is closer to the truth, as I was warned in the store that, if I wanted to buy it, I should do it now as they were running out of them. And in the store itself there was, like, only one this watch, I think.

More photos after the jump.

Koutouzoff's soviet watches: A rare 31659 added...

Koutouzoff's soviet watches: A rare 31659 added...: Here is a relatively rare variant of the 31659: grey and grey dial, military issued stamped mechanism, but above all: green lume and black h...

Poljot 3132?

Poljot 3132 anyone? Not 3133 that is.

A picture posted on a Russian watch forum.

Pic courtesy wulpie, WRU

It clealy says 3132 not 3133 on the heart piece and the font seems to be right. Wonder if anyone has seen it before - the Poljot 3132. Or is there any other way to explain it.

And another watch with 3132 from here.

 Pics courtesy AAG555, WRU

 

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. 

Curiosity 3133

In this category titled Curiosity 3133 I am going to collect Internet pictures of some unique, interesting or outright bizarre watches utilizing the Poljot (later MakTime) 3133 movement.

The Poljot (MakTime) 3133 chronograph movement is a storied movement which has been in production since the early 1970s but may have been discontinued now though new watches with the movement are still widely available.

In the 1990s the 1st Moscow Watch Factory and a number of smaller offshoots experimented widely with cases, dials, bezels, overall styles, themes and looks of their 3133 movement watches with varying success -- some had more style than others.

Common themes were aviation, military, space exploration, Party and state leaders.

To start with, here are pictures of three interesting 3133 movement watches.

Poljot 3133 Leninist

Poljot 3133 "Leninist". On the dial it says Leninist, 26th Congress of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union. On the back it says "To a Delegate of the 26th CPSU Congress" and "By Order of the Central Committee, CPSU", all unprovable of course. Also interesting how the serial number on the back is done up as a mandate number (mandate is a document needed to take part in work of a party congress and vote thereat). Looks like this one was made by Poljot International.

Camel Trophy Poljot 3133

Note the nice hinged lid on back with a display case back underneath.


Brezhnev Poljot 3133

This one is in the same mold as the Leninist above commemorating Leonid Ilyich Brezhnev, General Secretary, CPSU.