Found on ebay.com -- this Amphibia(n) Vostok wristwatch apparently commemorating the pull out of the limited contingent of Soviet troops from the Democratic Republic of Afghanistan (DRA) in 1989. Seller's pictures.
Bracelet with a clasp doubling as a tag or something.
I think it is rare.. whether or not it is original is another matter though. Here.
It says that Vostok Europe is celebrating its 10th anniversary this year, and that the Russian-themed watches brand plans to celebrate with an aggressive expansion into Western Europe.
According to WatchPro, Vostok Europe describes itself as an extreme watch brand for extreme customers.
Its timepieces have been worn by the world’s greatest free diver and several national rally champions. In 2012 the company’s N1 Rocket Tritium watches were tested on a two week expedition into the 2km deep Krubera-Voronia cave, the deepest cave in the world.
The article claims Vostok Europe makes its own movements in a factory in Russia, and also offers Japanese-made Seiko units in some of its newer models, including its 10th Anniversary Expedition watches.
The part about a factory in Russia is not quite correct. Vostok-Europe has no factory in Russia but continues to use movements made by the other Vostok - Chistopol Watch Factory.
Other watches in Vostok Europe’s 2014 line up, all given names drawn from Russia’s rich history, include Lunokhod 2 (a 1973 unmanned lunar rover), Rocket N-1 (the rocket that launched soviet astronauts into space); Mriya (a large Russian cargo plane), and GAZ – 14 (the official limousine of Soviet leaders in the 1970s and 80s)
Vostok Europe has been active in the UK market for a year, working with its agent Kevin Reynolds of Arbro Limited. The brand has already featured in a trial on a TV shopping channel, but Alekniene admits that the company is in the very early stages of establishing itself and wants to push forward this year.
Turns out by "Russian Airforce" watches it means Nesterov which it calls the favored watch brand of the Russian Airforce.
It says Nesterov was at Baselworld, alongside RFS watches, both of which are owned by a large Russian retail group.
Nesterov produces around 20,000 watches per year, while it's more fashion-led stablemate, RFS, has an output of 50,000 pieces.
The company hopes Basel will give it a springboard into Western Europe, including the UK, WatchPro was told. Nesterov is already at an advanced stage with plans to go on sale in Italy this year.
The country will join the USA and Japan, which already have Nesterov distributors.
Mechanical wristwatch LUCH (read: Looch) 2609, made by Minsk Watch Factory in 2001.
Bluish-greenish face.
And
Hands with what appears to be a Luch emblem also looks somewhat like Mercedes' three-legged "star".
Back and a strap which says Eurotex and Genuine leather which may be true.
129
Here it is Luch' own 2609 caliber movement, marked: BY 2609 and the Luch emblem.
It is a rare (-ish) movement as it went into production late and wasn't produced for a long time. It was subsequently replaced by the Chinese standard movement (2650) for some time, which incidentally was also designated 2609. And now the Luch factory has no 26 mm caliber movement in its watches, the only mechanical caliber it still has is the small cal. 1801.
My Zodiac Signs-themed pocket watch -- a Molnija (read: MOL-nee-yah) with Virgo the Maiden on the dial.
There was a whole series -- 12 pocket watches but this is the only one I have.
Looks like the dial was tastefully hand-painted.
Was somebody doing a bit of nude modelling at the factory?
This watch is early 2000s. It is powered by a Molnija 3602 mechanical movement -- a large pocket watch movement 36 mm in diameter. I opened the back (which opens and closes without problem) and looked at the movement though made no photos this time. However the movement is a later 2000 version movement -- all yellow, minimal markings, reduced jewels, simplifications -- in fact exactly like the movement on this my Molnija pocket watch that I did a post earlier on (link).
You can select your region in the lower right corner, including, say, Europe in English, but you can also stay on the Japanese website which has a lot more information while all models and navigation buttons are still in English so no problem navigating the site.
Today in our restaurant (maybe it was yesterday... or even farther back than that) is this Pita Greek (Greek Pita?) sandwich taken from something that is known as McAvto here in Moscow, Russia.
Above photo borrowed from the Russian McDonald's site.
Below are my photos.
It says something like "snacks and refreshments" or literally "to snack and refresh (oneself)".
My chronograph Okean Final Edition by Volmax using the cal. Poljot / MakTime 3133.
I mentioned it in a previous post on this blog where you can also read a bit on the history of this watch.
Okean 3133 Final Edition and The Serpents Coil by Farley Mowat (Ballantine Books first edition I believe).
The watch is a chronograph using the Poljot (/MakTime) 3133 movement. 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 even if the winding crown is not very grippy (maybe it's a defense against overwinding).
Number 020/300
As I said it is not the HdR forum original but a "duplicate" by Volmax. But it is exactly the same, there is not telling it is not one of them. The only difference is it doesn't have the HdR edition box and paperwork.
Sorry for the smudge
Issues:
It was not completely trouble-free however. It has what may be a common problem with (somewhat ill-adjusted) 3133s -- the stopwatch hand sometimes refuses to zero properly at first try. I use a one-minute method -- start the stopwatch again, let the stopwatch hand go a full circle then stop and zero again. Usually it zeros correctly on the second try. I know there are specific solutions to these problems which involve some adjusting and/or oiling certain parts. However I will not even open most of my watches and I certainly won't attempt to adjust a 3133 movement. While going to the watchmaker is impractical (and likely expensive). This problem may have gone away though. I don't even remember when I last observed it.
I have had this chronograph since October 2012. Other than the above issue everything is okay. Not very well adjusted at the factory (or may be it's the fact that it spends most of its time lying on its back rather than being worn on wrist -- too many watches), it goes at + 20 something seconds per 24 hours... which is still within the movement specs though.
It is mainly about a wristwatch called The Bradley Timepiece.
But other watches for the blind are also mentioned.
Watches for blind (or partially sighted) people are of different types utilizing different principles to allow blind people to tell the time:
Talking electronic watches
Tactile watches -- both with hands that look more like regular watches with flipping glass crystals allowing people to feel the hands and the watch face which has raised hour markers and without hands like said Bradley Watch which uses a metal ball -- nothing particularly new though.
The post (linked to above) is from some two years ago that I came across just now.
The link is worth clicking only to look at some attached pics of the Lada 2107.
The written commentary is frankly all predictable and cliched rubbish most likely produced by someone who has never driven one, let alone actually owned one, though it is understandable.
But I did drive it. In fact I learned to drive in it.
For a long time it was top of my car wish list. In fact, it remains there.
Unfortunately it's now two years since it went out of production.
Yes, it was the world's last compact and affordable rear wheel drive classic sedan.
An excellent and very useful WUS forum thread on choosing G-Shocks, especially for first-time buyers or collectors wishing to expand into Casio G-Shock collecting -- START HERE -- Choosing your G-Shock (link).
Lots of useful information:
Explanation of lettered prefixes - the most important, such as: DW, GW, G, as well as all the others.
Classification by series: 2300, 5000 (5600), 6900, 7000, 8900 and
Master of G
And the discontinued Masters of G.
Very handy... for me too as I am thinking of buying my first G-Shock, I need to have at least one. at the moment leaning to something out of the 30th anniversary edition.
As was reported earlier - elsewhere and on this blog too, the Raketa factory, Petrodvorets, Russia, decided to re-launch the old USSR's famous Pobeda watch.
Recently first photos appeared on watch forums (borrowed pics).
Pobeda Red Twelve, Pobeda Crimea (too soon?), Pobeda Victory Day.
Pobeda Crimea
The look: not as bad as it might have been. The question of the price remains as the original Pobeda was one of (if not the) the cheapest watches in the USSR and then Russia. And also the fact that there is no small seconds hand at 6 o'clock is almost... almost a fail which is only redeemed to a degree by the fact that there were original Pobedas with the central seconds hand using so-called tall movement. So its design is not entirely out of keeping with tradition... Unless, of course, these are going to be quartz watches -- that will certainly do it... The best one can hope for is that they are going to be using Raketa's 2609 movements (which are of the same size as Pobeda's 2602).
The new poster. Says "Crimea 1944-2014 - 70 Years Without Fascism". No more no less.
Gérard Depardieu launched recently a collection of exclusive watches, Proud to be Russian. He is.
He may have been undone a little by the timing... in light of recent events, but it is hardly his fault.
The watch features the crest of Russia - a double-headed eagle made of pure gold. Three varieties are said to be offered -- chronograph, tourbillon and an automatic.
The watches will be made by Cvstos of Switzerland which has this photo on its Facebook page.
Here comes an INTEGRAL ChN-03/1.9, an old-school electronic watch from my collection, made by the Kamerton Factory located in a town called Pinsk in Belarus.
This one was manufactured as far back as in 2002. Of all the ChH-0Xs, the ChN-03 is the rarest. I have seen it in the flesh only once -- when I was buying it.
Maybe, it is not much to look at and has a usual array of features: normal time mode - seconds, minutes, hours, calendar - month, day, date, year; stopwatch; backlight; 12/24 time display mode; hourly signal, automatic correction; automatic winter-summer time change (can be turned off); and some basic melodies.
Special feature: five (!) daily alarms, independent of one another.
According to this Russian article [in Russian], Arnold Schwarzenegger may have been wearing a Soviet Military Zlatoust Diver 192 ChS (or 191-ChS, to be exact) wristwatch.
And also in this knife wielding (and budget cutting) video...
It has to be said though that there is a difference of opinion. One school of thought is that they are several watches, at least some of which are Russian Diver series Invictas... Still the concept and idea for [the relaunched] Invicta's Russian Divers were borrowed from the Zlatoust Diver in the first place.
To my untrained eye, those on a strap with metal things like rivets look more like Zlatoust, while the thing in the video could be an Invicta Russian Diver 2625 model, ditto on the 2008 Esquire cover below.
Zlatoust Factory's current re-issue of the famed diver - 192 ChS.
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.
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