Vostok Komandirskie "Field Watch"

I bought this watch a while ago New Old Stock (NOS) from a seller in the USA. I really like the look of the crown in the two o'clock position. Unlike a lot of Vostok dials, the numerals are raised in this particular model, which gives it a nice effect. Powered by the workhorse 17 Jewel 2414 calibre movement, this watch is a manual winder. The original bracelet is a folded metal piece that really didn't do the watch justice so I've replaced it with a rubber tire tread design I quite like.

The watch must must have been originally imported for resale in the USA, it came in some unusual packaging that included English instructions. A bit of a mystery to me was the inclusion of the above mark on the Russian paperwork that I wasn't familiar with. It turns out that it's a quality assurance mark. Thanks to Shturman on WUS for assisting with that. Additionally, the word "RUSSIAN" is stamped on the back. It looks much like an afterthought which is consistent with the time period the watch was produced: Dec of 1992, two years after the fall of the USSR. Interestingly the dial bears the mark of being produced in the CCCP - did they have some old dials sitting around, or maybe they were still marking things in the old fashion until the political situation became clearer? Stamping the back of the watch "RUSSIAN" may have been an importation requirement, a selling feature or perhaps a requirement by the importer to have the product identified clearly as being made in Russia?

To the left you can see the word "RUSSIAN" stamped on the back, almost as an afterthought, inconsistent with the pre-existing beautiful ocean sunrise and bird motif of the normal Vostok case back.

One of my interests is photographing the watches that I collect. I find it fairly difficult to get a good shot that doesn't have any glare off of the crystal. Currently I use a Nikon D40X with a 18-55 Nikor lens. I photograph the watches with the flash off using the illumination of the natural light coming through my kitchen window and a small IKEA halogen desk lamp for filler. I use a fabric light tent I picked up on Ebay to eliminate most of the pesky reflections. I haven't fiddled with any of the cameras settings yet other than the flash, but in future posts I want to try to get off the automatic settings and experiment a bit. One valuable lesson I have learned is to use a tripod and the remote to keep the vibrations down to a minimum when using the macro settings with no flash. Makes for a much cleaner photo.