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.

Luch 1901 - Children's Watch " Karlson"

My very first Ebay purchase! A Luch (Lutsch) 17 Jewel Calibre 1901 children's watch. The Luch factory is located in Minsk Belarus.

Factory Website

The character on the watch face is Karlson who is featured in a beloved children's cartoon popular back in the USSR days.

Karlson Video with English subtitles.

I'm saving this one for my 3 year old daughter for when she begins to learn how to tell time.

The case back is snap on and has an integrated spacer built into the back. The small size of the movement is impressive to me - we expect electronics to be small these days but seeing something mechanical that small and precise is always amazing.

New Straps

I haven't added any new watches to my collection in some time, but I have purchased some new straps to go with two of my most worn pieces.

I picked up a Hirsch carbon fibre stap with white stitching to replace the steel bracelet on my Vostok N1 Rocket. It's got a nice heft too it and the white stitching compliments the black and white dial. Though not a selling feature for me, the strap is marked as 100m water resistant.

For my Poljot I wanted something a little retro to compliment the Aviator look of the watch. I picked up this nice little strap from RM Nilsen's store on Ebay. It has two snaps for securing the strap to the spring bars, which makes it a good buy for a watch with fixed bars or if you wanted to change it around on easily on other watches.

Vostok White Radio Room

Some pictures at the one year anniversary of the production of this custom watch, produced for Russian watch enthusiasts inhabiting two well known watch forums.

Other Owners

Origin of the Species

A YouTube video explanation of the markings.

3 Soviet 2 O'Clock Crowns

Three of my favourite Kommanderskies with the crown at a comfortable 2 O Clock tonight.

Vostok Amphibia Ministry

Wow, haven't posted in almost a year. A young child can do that to you I guess....

Today I was playing around with the settings on my camera (Nikon D40x with a Nikkor 18-55 lens) and came up with a couple of shots I'm happy to share. Without the light box or tripod they came out quite nicely.

I've had the watch for over a year but it wasn't getting a lot of wrist time. I switched the folded metal bracelet that came with the watch to this much more comfortable mesh bracelet I bought on EBay, and it's been my regular watch for about two weeks now.

Collecting Mechanical Watches

This passage mirrors many of my own thoughts on mechanical watches:

"Mechanical watches are so brilliantly unnecessary.
Any Swatch or Casio keeps better time, and high-end contemporary Swiss
watches are priced like small cars. But mechanical watches partake
of what my friend John Clute calls the Tamagotchi Gesture. They're
pointless in a peculiarly needful way; they're comforting precisely
because they require tending.
And vintage mechanical watches are among the very finest fossils of
the pre-digital age. Each one is a miniature world unto itself, a tiny
functioning mechanism, a congeries of minute and mysterious
moving parts. Moving parts! And consequently these watches are,
in a sense, alive. They have heartbeats. They seem to respond,
Tamagotchi-like, to "love," in the form, usually, of the expensive
ministrations of specialist technicians. Like ancient steam-tractors
or Vincent motorcycles, they can be painstakingly
restored from virtually any stage of ruin."

William Gibson
Science fiction author


Read the whole thing here: "My Obsession"

NOS Vostok Komanderski Paratroops

One of the things that I enjoy about collecting Soviet/Russian watches is the often bold and iconic designs they use on the watch faces, which is very different from western watches.

This particular watch is photographed alongside the sleeve patch of the parachute forces of the USSR.

I posted about this particular acquisition on Watch U Seek.

Rodina

Back from the Watchmaker is my 1950's Rodina (Motherland) automatic watch made by the 1st Moscow Watch Factory (Poljot).

A 22 Jewel automatic, this was the the first automatic design produced in the USSR. Also known as a Kirova after the founder of the 1st Moscow Watch Factory.

From the Poljot watch site:

"By 1955, 1.1 million mechanical wristwatches were made by the 1st MWF. In 1956 production of the first automatic movement watches under the Rodina (Fatherland) brand started. The Rodina watch opened a new line of watch movements with the 24 mm caliber. They have a central second hand. The height of the movement was 6.3 mm, with 22 jewels."

Though no definitive proof exists to my knowledge, it has been suggested that Yuri Gagarin the first man in space wore a Rodina watch on his first flight into space.

One of the notable things about this watch is the clear audible clicking sound of the self winding system. My watchmaker was much impressed with the quality of the mechanism and gave it a favourable comparison to more expensive and well known Swiss brands.

Some pictures of the back and mechanism:

My watch was likely an export model as evidenced by the English script on the back and the obverse of the back.