# Strela, Sapphire Or Mineral



## mofo911 (Dec 28, 2010)

Hi All,

This is my first post on this forum. Please excuse me if this question has been posed earlier, I looked but I havent seen it.

I am looking to buy a strela watch (of some kind) and some retailers are listing it as having sapphire glass, and some are listing it as having mineral glass. As far as I can can see it has to with the size of the watch. The smaller ones having mineral, and the large ones having sapphire. Is this true, or is it possible to get the 38mm version with sapphire?

BR

mofo


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## freestyle_gus (Oct 17, 2010)

mofo911 said:


> Hi All,
> 
> This is my first post on this forum. Please excuse me if this question has been posed earlier, I looked but I havent seen it.
> 
> ...


Welcome!

I'm about to source a 38mm Strela and as far as I'm aware it is only available with a mineral crystal. Of course I'd love to be proved wrong!


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## Kutusov (Apr 19, 2010)

Welcome to :rltb:

All the reissues of the original Strela have a mineral crystal and so they should IMHO (except one brand, see below). It fits a lot better a military style watch as it scratches easier but won't shatter as easily as sapphire.

The bigger ones you're talking about are the Volmax Strelas, branded as Sturmanskie. Volmax is a splinter group from the original Poljot, like many other Russian brands. They are aiming at a higher market than other brands (like Moscow Classic or Marktime) so they have better materials closer to luxury watches. They retain some well know soviet designs like the Strela or the Okeah but they interpret them more loosely. They have much bigger cases and sapphire crystals, two things that are more to the taste of the nowadays market.

So, sorry Gus but no sapphire crystal for you unless you go with the much more expensive Volmax  Mineral crystal is a good thing though


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## mofo911 (Dec 28, 2010)

Thanks for the replies - and the welcome  .

I have a different question though (hijacking my own thread, i'm sorry).

As far as I have been able to find, its not possible to get the non volmax re-issues with cyrillic writing AND the paddle hands (I really want one with lumen on the hands) is this really true?

/morten


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## Kutusov (Apr 19, 2010)

mofo911 said:


> As far as I have been able to find, its not possible to get the non volmax re-issues with cyrillic writing AND the paddle hands (I really want one with lumen on the hands) is this really true?
> 
> /morten


As far as I know, yes... the Cyrillic models are reissues of the first Strelas which were more dressy. Paddle hands were available only on the late models which didn't have Cyrillic writings... see Martin's picture here: http://www.thewatchforum.co.uk/index.php?showtopic=61458


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## mofo911 (Dec 28, 2010)

Thanks again Kutusov, now I'll just have to be on the lookout for a nice one without too much milage ;-)


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## Kutusov (Apr 19, 2010)

mofo911 said:


> Thanks again Kutusov, now I'll just have to be on the lookout for a nice one without too much milage ;-)


Not easy to get but not impossible... and the reissues go for â‚¬300 new


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