I collect mechanical watches and have a fair number of vintage Soviet watches in my collection - Rateka, Vostok, Poljot, etc. Cheap, reliable, and often with striking designs.
(Today's watch is a Poljot - Russian: Полёт, literally meaning "flight", is a brand of Soviet/Russian wristwatches, produced since 1964 by the First Moscow Watch Factory. Poljot produced numerous historical watches used in many important space missions, including the world's first space watch worn by Yuri Gagarin.)
I don't think I've ever had a stranger complicate my watch when I've been wearing a Rolex, or something high-end, unless the person making the comment was also wearing one. But I get weekly comments on the cheap and cheerful watches.
Even now, in pandemic times, I still put on a watch every morning, and it still makes me smile. If smart-watches had batteries that lasted for a few weeks or more I might be tempted, but until then I'll stick with mechanical watches. (And one Casio terrorist watch, just for completeness!)
Any recommendations for where to purchase these vintage watches? I've always thought they were beautiful but never sure where to find legitimate sellers (despite googling a bit)
One of the biggest sites is chrono24.com, which is essentially ebay for watches. The majority of sellers will use the site's integrated escrow system so there's little risk of somebody failing to ship.
To get started just enter "soviet vintage" into the search-box. Once you have some results click on "Filter" and you get the option to set "Location: European Union", "Max Price: €100", etc.
There are a lot of regional variations, so I use chrono24.fi, for example. But the content is the same - I think it's just the default location and currency that changes based on TLD.
The site has been around for many years and is well-regarded, but even so I don't think I've ever paid more than €1000 for a watch there. Just in case.
Edit: Main thing to pay attention to are the dimensions of the watch. Watches from the 40s-80s tended to be smaller. So you'll find diameters of 34mm, 36mm, etc. Most people prefer larger watches these days. For me 36mm-42mm is fine, but that's because I have thin wrists. But I know looking at photos can be misleading in terms of diameter/dimensions so read the details.
The Withings Steel lasts a couple weeks on a charge, and it can do simple step counting, heart rate, some very unobtrusive notifications. It actually got me interested in watches; I'm no collector but I have a few at this point. It also looks like a watch, in that it has physical hands which move. Watching it find the new time zone as soon as my phone connects when I land in a new place was pretty satisfying.
I gotta say though: stick with mechanicals. There's an elegance to it which smart watches will never touch. And I say that as someone who has settled on the Apple Watch as my daily driver. It's so useful! Does a bunch of small things that add up to a great tool, and I'm even fond of it. But it... isn't a watch!
I'm looking forward to dressy evening stuff happening more, so I can leave it behind and put on something nice.
That casio keeps super time if you leave it on your desk in a large climate controlled building. Like HAQ quality. Do you have any of the single hand watches from raketa? Always wanted one but didnt like the shape.
I don't have Raketa, but I have one of Botta Uno series. It is super inconvenient to read. If you are planning to actually use a single-handed watch for telling you time (rather than just adding it to a collection), I would very atrongly advise against it.
A Pebble can go on for a week (longer without smart features enabled). My smartwatch, Fossil Hybrid HR, works for 2 weeks with smart features enabled. They go automatically off with < 10% battery, after which the watch still functions (I would prefer the option to put the smart features off, as well as bluetooth).
I'm in the market for a new watch as I just ditched the Apple Watch after moving back to Android (LinageOS). Not wanting to be locked in yet again to a watch/phone platform, but not knowing how long before PineWatches were back in stock, I didn't know what to look out for.
Missing my Pebbles, this looks like an awesome replacement. Thanks for the link!
I got one of those in between. Extremely limited smartwatch capabilities, and I can't put Bluetooth off. Plus without physical buttons. I want physical buttons during commute/travel.
I’ve got a Poljot de luxe that was made for export (English text on the dial) from the 70s. I am pretty impressed with it on the overall - for the time it’s very thin, reasonably accurate and has an elegant timeless look to it.
> He believes that mechanical watches were created by the best minds of 18th and 19th centuries. "Many modern watchmakers admit that we will never match them," he adds
I think there is some pretty innovative stuff coming out of Japan right now. The high accuracy quartz models from Seiko (under the Grand Seiko brand) and Citizen have insane accuracy measured in seconds per year.
Of course if you want to limit the discussion to the mechanical realm the Spring Drive is for all intents and purposes a mechanical watch with an electromagnetic quartz feedback loop slowing the unwinding to the correct pace to keep time. Not as accurate as the full quartz but very impressive and it truly glides (instead of ticking).
"right now" is relative, grand Seiko started in 1967 and the spring drive was invented in the 90s. I think in the age of smartphones, internet and gps time innovation regarding high precision independent time keeping almost stopped.
It's still there, but certainly died down after the invention of quartz time keeping.
My hope is consumers start demanding the availability of parts when buying a high end watch though.
It's a good feeling knowing you can repair that hunk of metal on your wrist, with interest, and a fair amount of study.
(There was a guy in the Navy whos boat was torpedoed by the Japanese during WW2. He, and rest of the crew were stuck on a deserted island. One by one the sailors watches were breaking down. Since he was a Watchmaker in life, he took over repair. At first it was difficult. He then got creative and made small screwdrivers, and even made a lathe. Anyhoo--I thought that was neat. A guy fixing jeweled watches with tools he made himself in that enviornment. I saw the article years ago, but haven't been able to find it again.)
>It's a good feeling knowing you can repair that hunk of metal on your wrist, with interest, and a fair amount of study.
That... goes for everything, software included. But watches being something of a Veblen good [1], wouldn't availability of parts just make consumers realize that actually this $700 watch is practically no different from that $70 watch? They wouldn't want to sell parts for that reason, I think.
Right now being in contrast to the 18th and 19th century mentioned in the quote I was responding to from the article. Between quartz and the spring drive hybridization I would argue that great innovation has come since the 18th and 19th century and watchmakers from Japan have “matched them”.
That said I do agree with you that in today’s world innovation in high precision independent time keeping has stopped. A radio controlled relatively accurate quartz watch will keep excellent time with no user intervention over many years.
There used to be more HAQ watches. Radio sync and gps seems to have taken the wind of their sails a bit. Too bad. I would love a new Seiko SBCM023 dive watch (but secondhand market prices are outrageous).
I fully recommend a Vostok, from the original factory in Chistopol. Their mechanical selection is affordable and bulletproof, if not somewhat overstated in its design.
Thanks for posting that... I've always sort of idly wanted a 24-hour analog watch. I have my phone set to 24 hour time representation because it has eliminated the problem of me setting a meeting or alarm for 9pm when I meant 9am.
I don't know if it applies to Soviet watches, but somewhere I read that the problem with Soviet cameras (Kiev, fake Hasselblad etc.) was not the design but the consistency of the manufacturing and quality control. On certain days/shifts you could get an amazing machine, on others, total crap.
- Kiev rangefinders (2A, 3A) which are the Contax rangefinders copies. Overall they are pretty solid (build-quality wise probably the best, compared to FED/Zorki/...). The lenses are charming, too.
- Kiev 88, which are the Hasselblad copy. Only tried 2 or 3, and all of them have the usual light leak, irregular frame spacings etc issues.
+1 on manufacturing consistency/quality control. Shooting with Soviet cameras is fun when they are working properly.
But if you are willing to spend a bit bigger cash, pick Japanese gears instead (Nikon, Bronica, Mamiya etc). Their built quality, overall, are better.
Sounds a bit like Japanese synthesizers vs US synthesizers in the 80s... the US synths had unstable oscillators and would always drift, even to the point where bands would have multiple on stage waiting for the currently playing synth to go wonky before being swapped out with one on the side lines.
I had Vostok watches with jet fighter and crunchy adjustable outer diving rim, they ran 5 minutes earlier every day. I also had small gray watches with black metal band that just said "quartz" and "sdelano v sssr" and they were off by 1s per month, entire family set time from me.
If you're serious about mechanical watches or have a small addiction like me, I'd highly recommend buying an old school timegrapher and regulating(link below).
I have a rather ridiculous collection of Orients, and some were off by minutes a day from the factory. Just the nature of them, I guess.
I would just offer to regulate them for other people, but I've scratched enough casebacks to never feel comfortable in that.
Yeah, I still want a Soviet Union watch. There also some old Chinese Seagull watches that look great. I have a small collection of watches (only have 19). They sparkle joy :) I have a Apple Watch (1st gen) but never really liked it I keep going back to the mechanical watches.My latest addition is the gorgeous 1815 Moonphase
Personally, I started with a Longines Moonphase watch and a Maurice Lacroix. The former is probably easier to find for $1000. I still think while way its over your budget the JLC moon phase are beautiful too
Recently was reading about a rocket explosion in Baikonur in which the chief engineer was killed. The document stated that the only remains that could be found of him was a small amount of melted gold embedded in the ground from one of his medals, and his watch, which had survived whole
A shame, and indignity must be forgotten lest you want somebody to say that it wasn't, and pick it as its banner.
The world was very judicious in being uncompromising in stomping out every bit, and part of third reich, and Tojo's militarism.
That's why you don't have a world war 3, and next populists in line coming shouting "make Germany great again"
Unfortunately, the world has not finished this business completely, and now we have no shortage of historical revisionists wanting to take a revanche on the Post-War-World, promising "great old times" again.
Why? Erasing history is biggest of all evil. Even if you believe in "never again" doctrine.
History should be preserved - friends or foes, otherwise we will end up with pure propaganda regrading "old times".
In my case: I'm socialist so i can see multiple benefits of Bolshevik revolution and its impact on let's say modern labor law, or things like maternity leave(not is US). Same goes towards great evil during Stalin era.
I have a Soviet marriage watch remade in Eastern Europe with new parts except the back case and movement. The face has a blindfolded, collared, naked girl on it. Even my regular, super by-the-book post office lady thought it was awesome.
I can't show you my mechanism as its "sealed-out", but it is tiny winder that you move between -45* and +45*, you need very tiny screwdriver to manipulate it right or left.
Also it my case i observed that i have better accuracy when NOT winding the main mechanism to the maximum.
I've got a Vostok Amphibia, and when I got it off ebay it was extremely slow. I took it to get regulated and now it's almost dead-on (+/-few seconds a day).
its strange how soviet union stuff is a fetish for coastal people but you never see much nazi stuff. the soviets murdered more people than the nazis and they are objectively evil. but that detail is simply lost somehow.
If a watch enthusiast owned and wore a 1938 Lange System Glashütte swept-second watch, I wouldn't think he was a fan of what the Nazis did either. I'd think he had a cool vintage timepiece.
yes, exactly. everyone is very quick to point out how evil the united states is. but there is no public reaction about the soviet union in which millions upon millions of people were deliberately murdered. more people than the nazis and the united states. i point out the absence of objectivity when i see it because i am a good citizen.
What if you separated the doings of the nations' leaders and military from what this is, a discussion about old school technology in the form of watches? One presumes the watchmakers didn't run gulags in their spare times.
Do you show up in discussions of 60's muscle cars and moan about the USA dropping nuclear bombs in Japan?
I was wondering what sort of "good citizen" has this username and spouts this... stuff, so I checked your profile. You wrote previously:
> my peers seemed super petty and intellectually average. easily pulled into dogmatic, fuzzy ideas.
>but there is no public reaction about the soviet union
There's literally non-stop public reaction against the Soviet Union, a country that stopped existing 30 years ago, especially in threads like this that are completely non-political. Case in point, you, congrats on being the first person who thinks watch connoisseurs are committing wronkthink by talking about watches.
You need a chrome/FF extension that adds to every comment an extra sentence like:
- "I disagree with Stalinist grain policies"
- "The Soviet Union murdered millions"
- "I think the Ukrainians are right to complain about the USSR"
- "They were too many gulags if you think about it"
- "But of the course, the Soviet Union was bad"
- "Stalin? No, I disavow him"
Then you don't have to derail a thread about watches to defend the Nazis and United States from the ghost of Stalin.
https://17jewels.info/
I collect mechanical watches and have a fair number of vintage Soviet watches in my collection - Rateka, Vostok, Poljot, etc. Cheap, reliable, and often with striking designs.
(Today's watch is a Poljot - Russian: Полёт, literally meaning "flight", is a brand of Soviet/Russian wristwatches, produced since 1964 by the First Moscow Watch Factory. Poljot produced numerous historical watches used in many important space missions, including the world's first space watch worn by Yuri Gagarin.)
I don't think I've ever had a stranger complicate my watch when I've been wearing a Rolex, or something high-end, unless the person making the comment was also wearing one. But I get weekly comments on the cheap and cheerful watches.
Even now, in pandemic times, I still put on a watch every morning, and it still makes me smile. If smart-watches had batteries that lasted for a few weeks or more I might be tempted, but until then I'll stick with mechanical watches. (And one Casio terrorist watch, just for completeness!)