Russian Watches Mentioned in Online Publications

"Poljot Shturmanskie" gets a mention in Business-Standard.com, in "answers to the last week's quiz", apparently there was a quiz. Goes into a bit of history this one does.

So the quiz question was:

 8. Connect the defunct companies: Ansonia Clock Company of Brooklyn, New York, and the Dueber-Hampden Watch Company of Canton, Ohio, with Yuri Gagarin and what do you arrive at? 

  

What do you arrive at indeed? Answer (as supplied) after the break.

Photo: Slava Sign

Slava sign from behind on the roof of the 2nd Moscow Watch Factory (which is no more)...

Source: internet

Nika Commercial

A Nika youtube ad.




Nika of Russia makes watches in gold cases, with gold bracelets etc., utilizing imported quartz and mechanical movements, Swiss and Japanese mainly... Now if only they made a watch with, say, a Vostok movement...

Link: Seiko Catalog 2011-12

Seiko Catalog Australia 2011-2012, link opens a large PDF file.

Many Seiko models, some info, product matrix and even instructions for some models, 90 pages, many pictures and... funny prices too!

The New Raketa Automatic?

 First the Raketa Amphibian and now the Raketa Automatic.

Apparently Raketa Watches sent a letter to some members of a Russian watch forum (watch.ru), in which it told them about their forthcoming new Raketa Automatic with pictures, including an advertising poster for the new watch due to go on sale early 2014. Here are those pictures. 

Nice touch. Unless, of course, it is another attempt at free Taliban (i.e. guerrilla) advertising by the Raketa company.

Personally, I miss the Raketa of old - before von Polier - with watches priced at $30 - $40 with a wide variety of dials. 

Russian Railways

I like this Russian Railways picture.

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Is This the New Raketa Amphibian?

About a week back a French watch forum did an exclusive with pictures on the new Raketa Amphibia, automatic, with Raketa 2615 movement.

Chinese Mechanical Chronographs ST19 (TY29) Series

The Chinese ST19 (TY29) chronograph is one of the three mechanical chronographs currently manufactured in China. It differs (in a good way) from the other two in that it is not a clone of Valjoux 7750 but is derived from Venus 175, a famed Swiss chronograph movement of yesteryear.

Some time in the 1960s, equipment for the manufacture of the ST19xx chronograph was sold to China by its original Swiss maker. The Sea-Gull factory of China started using it in its pilots' watches. Its production was suspended for some time; however it was resumed recently and the chronograph movement is now available in many watches made by Sea-Gull, by some other Chinese companies, by foreign companies such as Ingersoll, to name just one, while its cheap versions can even be found in some fakes.

Usually this particular chronograph movement is designated ST19xx - the designation used by Sea-Gull itself to refer to its chronographs - or TY29xx - where the letters TY stand for the city in which the company is located -- Tianjin. It is possible that the latter designation is used to mark movements sold for use by third party manufacturers.

ST19 is a chronograph with hand-winding based on Venus 175. According to this excellent Chinese horology resource, seven variants are currently in production:

• ST1901: 2 register, small seconds at 9, 30 min counter at 3
• ST1902: 3 register, small seconds at 9, 30 min counter at 3, 12 h register at 6 that mirrors the time-keeping hour hand
• ST1903: 3 register, small seconds at 9, 30 min counter at 3, 24 h register at 6 that is not affiliated with the chronograph function
• ST1904: unused model number, possibly being reserved for an automatic winding or true 3 register chronograph version
• ST1905: 2 register, small seconds at 9, 30 min counter at 3, decentral power reserve at 4:30
• ST1906: 2 register, small seconds at 9, 30 min counter at 3, decentral power reserve at 6
• ST1907: 2 register, small seconds at 9, 30 min counter at 3, central power reserve indicator
• ST1908: 4 register, small seconds at 9, 30 min counter at 3, date at 12, real moon phase at
• ST1940: 2 register, small seconds at 9, 30 min counter at 3, automatic.

I am interested in this type of Chinese chronograph, in addition to all other reasons, for the following reason: I noticed -- as others also did -- that some time ago (two or three years back) some offshoots of the former Poljot, and namely, TD Poljot, Poljot-Stil and Poljot-Chronos made a series of automatic chronographs. TD Poljot designated such movements in its watches as Poljot 2940 while Poljot-Chronos preferred to call them 3140 (possibly intending to slightly mislead the buyers as to its relation to the cal. 3133 which is not there).

Almost certainly the movement used in those chronographs was and is ST1940 (TY2940). There are simply no other options considering the layout of its sub-dials and the fact that it is automatic.

However these chronographs are already sold out and are out of stock. 

For example, this specimen (they were all in the same style, with a peculiar way to attach the strap to the case).

Out of stock.

ETA (December 26, 2013):
I now have in my collection a Russian watch similar to the above (same case & strap, also stopwatch hand) with an ST1940 (TY2940) movement - an automatic chronograph with a seconds subdial at 9 o'clock, a central stopwatch hand and a 30 minute accumulator dial at 3 o'clock. Below is the link to the main entry on the watch.

Poljot President 2940 Automatic Chronograph with an ST1940 inside.

New Acquisition: Vostok Troika 2416B

My new acquisition is this NOS 2004 Vostok Troika with a Vostok 2416B movement, with tags.
Here are some quick and nasty photos with my cheap point and click camera. 

Troika is a brand which may have been owned by Vostok not by itself but together with its partners, specifically a certain firm styled ChasProm of Belarus was mentioned. But the brand seems to be more or less discontinued now.

This particular series of Troika watches all have a nice (and rare for Vostok) display caseback with a view on its Vostok 2416B movement.

I have only had it since yesterday - so far so good. It IS working (it's a 2004 watch) without a service history. 

The movement as seen through its display caseback. I think it is a good-looking movement, even if undecorated. The rotor in particular is well shaped and rotates very happily and easily and also noiselessly, fun to watch actually. In fact, you can play a little game with it by trying to make it go full consecutive circles by moving you watch.

I am going to add a review later based on my use of this watch. That is, IF I use it and not just retire it straight to my watch box on account of me having too many wearable watches already. Competition for my wrist time gets real fierce.

I am attaching some more pictures below.

Volmax Watch Catalogs 2013

Mechanical alarm wristwatches - Poljot 2612 movement, Open Outer Space series.

Mechanical alarm watches -Volmax 2013


Sturmanskie watches, quartz and mechanical, series Sputnik, Arktika, Gagarin, Outer Space Pioneers, Open Outer Space, Ocean (Okeah), Traveler, Mars.

Sturmanskie by Volmax 2013 - a large and picture heavy PDF file, 45 pages.

CD Collection: Conquest by Uriah Heep 1980

In addition to my ever growing watch and clock collection, I also have a collection of 500+ CDs which I only get to listen to in my car.

About to be fed to my carnivorous CD changer is a new addition to said collection but in fact an old album - Conquest by Uriah Heep fronted by John Sloman.

I looked for it and I bought it on purpose and it is an expanded deluxe edition with some bonus tracks. I know that some won't even consider it to be a proper Heep album but I like it. 

To be honest, I have no time for the classic Heep - July Morning kind of stuff. 

I like this album and that's that. If I didn't it wouldn't have already been in my CD changer for a month. First, I listened to it on repeat, now it waits for its turn to play but it is still there and likely to stay for some time.

My favorites are Feelings and Think It Over but the whole album is very much listenable.

Feelings x 2

 Think it over x 5

Link: Alexander B. Brodnikovsky's Collection of Raketa Watches and Clocks

In this thread in Russian on Watch.ru, a Russian watch forum, you can have a good look at Alexander B. Brodnikovsky's collection of Raketa watches and clocks as it was displayed recently on the occasion of the 292nd anniversary of the Petrodvorets Watch Factory, the maker of Raketa watches. 

Alexander B. Brodnikovsky's collection is probably the largest collection of Raketa watches anywhere in the world. 

I especially recommend these posts -- where the pictures are:

Post # 10 

Post # 11 

Post # 31 

Post # 39 

Slava 2428 Day-Date Handwind

Another watch from my collection is this Slava utilizing the Slava 2428 movement in its current Russian version with 21 jewels only. It has a centrally mounted seconds hand, a day and date calendar, a quick date change pusher and only manual winding.

I have had it since January 2012, wore it for some time after I bought it, even grew to like it, then rotated it out of my wind-and-wear daily set (of about 8-9 watches) due to new arrivals competing for wrist time and retired it to rest among my "collection" pieces. It didn't cost me too much money yet was not that cheap either, I think about US$70 bought new from a Slava store here in Moscow.

It has some interesting, though simple, features both case-wise and movement-wise.

The dial is chrome-toned to match its brass chrome-plated case and has some kind of an embossed motif showing a large Cyrillic letter C (corresponds to the Latin S) which stands for Slava and some kind of a rising sun pattern. Other than that there is nothing remarkable.

One of the mildly interesting features is that it has an exhibition snap-on back which I think is a rare combination because exhibition case backs tend to be screw-on case backs. You can even see some of the rather plain and undecorated movement. In fact, you can see most of it, devoid of color as it is. Still a great but dying-out movement surviving on existing and already growing old and depleting inventories.

What you can also see through said exhibition case back is Slava's famous twin mainspring barrels - an uncommon feature, especially in cheaper watches, which allows one to easily identify Slava movements.

Link: Guide to Seiko's Main Collectible Wristwatches

An excellent Spanish watch forum thread on Seiko's main models (google-translated into English here).

With pictures, listed are Seiko watches with their own unofficial or semi-official (sometimes even official) names, not just letters and numbers, and they may even be arranged in alphabetical order, top to bottom. But official Seiko designations are also given, so you can easily find them, should you want to do so.

I find these "named" Seikos more interesting -- what with names like "monster", "tuna can", "alpinist", "alien", etc. Well worth a read and a look and in fact can be used as a reference, hence this post. I am definitely going to add some Seikos to my collection some time soon.

Ten Years After: Casio CA53W-1Z

Here is a Casio watch from my collection -- Casio CA53w-1z. This one is one of the earlier pieces in my collection and is basically an electronic calculator watch. Casio was famous for such watches in the 1980s -- the heyday of calculator watches. You can read up a bit on calculator watches in this Wikipedia entry although it makes no mention of this particular model.

I personally bought the watch on May 5, 2003, as you can see from the picture above where the date of sale is marked clearly on a battery replacement coupon (or something) which I actually haven't had to use yet but more about it a little later on in this entry. Bought on May 5, 2003 makes it two months (minus 15 days) after the start of the Second Iraq War -- just to put a time reference on it. And I even have an original receipt for it which states that it cost me the whole of RUB 680 which is about US$20+. 

I wore the watch for a couple of years (but not too often) and then it has spent another 8 years in my writing desk. I have had no occasion for the use of the calculator either. I doubt using it would have been very convenient. But on the whole I liked and still like the look of this calculator watch. This particular model is a true, if cheap, classic. Apparently it was in production since the early 1980 until very recently. And even now there are plenty NOS specimens on the Internet which you can easily find if you google its name. Interestingly the price has stayed about the same as in 2003 which suggests that plenty of them were made in their time (still being made?). 

A remarkable thing about this watch is that it is still running on the same battery I bought it with -- and that is more than 10 years already! And I assume it must have spent some time in the store before I even bought it. And, for all this time, the watch has been running with a daily alarm which I forgot how to switch off and too lazy to look up in the instructions, and was running with an hourly chime until a year or so ago when I finally turned it off. It has to be said though that this model has no backlight -- but it's a good thing as far as battery life is concerned though not so much if you want to use the watch at night.

I haven't touched this watch for the past 9 years or so and it's now running about 16 minutes fast which makes it a 1.7 minute gain per year (assuming it was set correctly at the start or didn't go a full 24 hour circle). Not a bad result anyway, I think.

However as I was getting it out of my desk, a sizable chunk of the original plastic Casio bracelet broke and came off. So it cannot be worn on wrist any more and that's that. Replacement bracelets can be found though -- but who wants to bother?

In addition to being mine, this watch is also famous for having been worn by Marty McFly in Back to Future. 

5ChM Vostok Ship Cabin Clock

Not a watch this time but a whole wall mounted clock from my collection. And not just any clock -- a Vostok ship cabin clock!

I have had it since 2007 -- that means what -- for 6 years already? -- and it has been operating flawlessly and generally keeps a very good time. I had to move the adjusting slider at the top of the dial a bit at first but since then it has been running within single seconds per week -- better than almost all of my wristwatches.

The watch case opens and locks tightly with a key. The same key is used to wind the watch up. The case is dust- and water-proof. But some even claim that the clock is genuinely a water tight clock, they even say that such clocks have been found working and in some cases still ticking on board submerged vessels -- literally under water.

Setting time and winding.

 

Its technical data sheet runs like this:

Movement with 12 jewels with an anchor escapement.

Monometallic balance.

Splash-proof aluminum case with anti-corrosion coating.

At temperature 20±5°C, at humidity to 80% 6 days operation accuracy rate is ±90 sec.

Power reserve – 8 days.

Daily temperature change accuracy at the temperature range –25°C to +50°C is not over 1 sec. per 1°C.

Diameter – 210 mm.

Height – 74 mm.

Weight not exceeding 2,8 kg.

Regarding its appearance, my only complaint is the dial design, specifically the submarine picture on the dial. I would much prefer a plain white dial or a radio room type of dial. You see, the submarine picture and especially the black detail around it interferes with the hands, especially the shorter hour hand when it is between 11 and 1 o'clock -- the hand gets lost against the black circle when viewing it from certain angles -- as a result dial readability suffers. Other than that, I am satisfied with everything.

More after the break

Montre du Jour, Sept 27, 2013: Okeah 3133 Final Edition by Volmax

My watch of the day today is an Okeah 3133 Final Edition.

Raketa Early Bitcoin Adopter

It appears that Russian watch manufacturer Raketa is an early adopter of Bitcoin currency and may even be the first watch company in the world to do so according this Bitcoin gets big bets from tech industry.

Quote:

While it's unclear whether regulators will sign off on the untested concept, Bitcoin is increasingly finding favour with merchants that range from blogging site Reddit to watch manufacturer Raketa.

Watchmaker Alexander Shorokhoff in the Jakarta Globe

In this article from the Jakarta Globe evocatively headlined "In the Land of Rubber Time, Watches Still Have Meaning", Tunggul Wirajuda introduces Indonesia's watch lovers and collectors to the watchmaker Alexander Shorokhoff and his watches.

The article starts by quoting Alexander Shorokhoff making some bold claims -- saying that he employs "no watchmakers but only watch masters", also saying that movements, fine engravings and parts in his watches are all handmade and that that is the reason why they only make 500 watches of all types annually, and also says that Alexander Shorokhoff himself designs his timepieces from the eponymous collection. 

Alexander Shorokhoff is also quoted in the article saying that while the Shorokhoff brand is obscure compared to Patek Philippe or TAG Heuer, wearing his watches is apparently more of a statement. The author then goes on to quote Alexander Shorokhoff saying that his is the only company in the world at the moment that makes true avant-garde watches.

The author then writes that Jakarta's watch buffs now get a chance to buy Shorokhoff’s watches, as Indonesia's retail chain Red Army Watches has added them to its collection of Russian products that already include Poljot and Vostok. The article says that, sold for an average price of between Rp 14 million to Rp 33 million ($1,300-$3,000), Shorokhoff’s watches range from the unassuming yet elegant chronographs to exquisitely crafted timepieces. 

According to the article Shorokhoff's watches are made in Germany and there is a bit of personal history behind the fact -- Shorokhoff first came to Germany in 1991, just before the dissolution of the Soviet Union. He  was among 20 or so managers sent to the West by Soviet Premier Mikhail Gorbachev, to learn about "free trade", which was in line with his (some would say misguided) policy of Glasnost and Perestroika, and Shorokhoff's been living there since. A year later he founded a marketing company to market and sell Russia’s most iconic watch — the Poljot — to the West.

Then in 1995, Alexander Shorokhoff started making watches himself under the label “Poljot International” to meet international demand after Poljot’s manufacturing center, the First Moscow Watch Factory, was, as he claims, unable to do so.

The article goes on to say that Shorokhoff started up Alexander Shorokhoff Watches, based in the small German town of Alzenau, in 2003 after the distinctive designs he made for Poljot International began to be in demand around the world.

Shorokhoff said the designs are inspired by his observations of watch lovers around the world, as well as his eye for avant-garde aesthetics and Russian traditions.

This is reflected in Alexander Shorokhoff’s Heritage collection of watches, a nod to his Russian roots. Named after iconic Russian cultural figures like Leo Tolstoy, Alexandr Pushkin and Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky, they have a vintage, 19th-century feel combined with modern precision technology. Produced to a limit of 25 pieces per watch, the timepieces embody Shorokhoff’s notions of individuality.

In conclusion the article says Shorokhoff has plans to add to his line of watches, which currently numbers about 40 timepieces. What he has up his sleeve has yet to be revealed, concludes the author.

Alexander Shorokhoff in a picture from the article.

Design for Denissov Watches

Have you ever wondered who makes watch designs for Denissov?

Well I am about to tell you whether you have or haven't. It would appear that Katia Helwig and her design firm are responsible for most of the Denissov designs as well as most of the watch designs of other remaining Poljot offshoots.

Check out these links.

http://keyhelwig.com/en/portfolio/nautiulus.php

Not everything works on the site. To navigate, use pictures on the right, first navigate between projects on far right, then click for pictures in the other column. 

http://watchdesignconsulting.com/

It seems even a tourbillon was once on the cards. Picture from the site.

There's also this large PDF in the download section, which suggests that her most recent work is Mars for Volmax (opens a pdf file).

http://watchdesignconsulting.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/08/helwig08_2013.pdf