# Poljot Alarm Traveller 5



## it'salivejim (Jan 19, 2013)

Hopefully someone can shed some light on this.

I've just received a Poljot Alarm Traveller 5 from another forum, and everything looks kosher - it was a good price, excellent condition, full invoice and letter including operating instructions, etc. It was purchased in June this year from Poljot24.de but my question is this, the case back has no serial number engraved or the Poljot crown logo, like this one has:










It looks exactly the same otherwise. I'm fairly certain no one is going to produce fakes of a Russian hand winder, but why these omissions on the case back? It's a limited run of 999 and mine is supposed to be 206.

Any thoughts?


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## Kutusov (Apr 19, 2010)

Well, a couple... first, Poljot24 is an honest seller AFAIK. I never owned that watch but I'm familiar with the many variations and their usually watches from Poljot era, I mean, that movement was gone before the Molnijas of the 31xx. So what might have happened is that the watch was put together after Poljot went down and so there was no serial because it wasn't a full series run. They just used the engraved backs they already had made.

As to the crown, my thoughts are similar. Take the Poljot Aviator I... some have Poljot crown logos, the later ones have an Aviator "A", which means it's already a Volmax era watch, eventhought the Aviator I was never part of their catalogue. Again my guess but I think they've used what was left and the crown stamped with the A because they are the same on some other Volmax models. What that tells me is that they had them without any engraving, that was something that would be done along with a series run.

So I say enjoy the watch and don't worry. Those are old Poljots and, if something, the lack of serial means you have one of the last to be assembled, so the newer thing you could get.


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## it'salivejim (Jan 19, 2013)

I knew I could rely on you Kutusov :thumbup:

So are Poljot no more? Or has the name changed hands to another company?


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## Kutusov (Apr 19, 2010)

Poljot died in 2003 or something like that*. The factory stayed in the hands of a Poljot division related to export and Western European markets and became Volmax, then an umbrella name for the brands Aviator, Buran and Sturmanskie. Buran was sold to the Swiss a while back and that Swiss brand is Buran V.A. or something like that. Movement production of the 31xx was sold to Maktime. I know some handwinds were produced at Slava also and it's not clear to me how that worked out.

Now, the thing is, you have Volmax with a brand new catalogue on one hand and the same factory and stock on the other. So not all, say, 38mm Poljot chronos are pre-2003. Of course they cashed in on putting together what they already had for spares and latter editions. But there's also the new ones, much more expensive and supposedly upgraded in this or that.

*Wikipedia says that "in the late 2000s, the company was bought by the businessman SergeÃ¯ Pugachev, becoming one of the companies of his new luxury group, including: HÃ©diard, and the channel Luxe TV" but I don't even know what those are and as far as I'm concerned, it's just a name. The 1MWF is on Volmax's hands. What they are going to do with it now that Vostok is the only one making Russian calibres I don't know but they seem to be making new models with Swiss movements like everybody else (ETA, Sellita, etc)


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## it'salivejim (Jan 19, 2013)

Brilliant info. Thanks Kutusov.

The watch is a beauty though. I'll be showing it off in Friday Watches


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