# Newbie needs advice about Vostok Komandirskie



## gibbs (Apr 28, 2020)

I`ve just got bought my first Vostok, an Amphibia which I`ve kept on its original metal bracelet and I love it .But I was wondering how good are Komandirskies.I like Nato straps on watches ,the thinner Komandirskie would seem to suit these better (especially as I have small wrists\).But what I need to know is how a Komandirskie would put up with frequent hand-washing with hot water and soap in these difficult times. I am still working as a Housing Support Worker with the elderly and currently wear a Casio Tough Solar , which puts up well with this, but I feel everybody needs cheering up these days and maybe a cheeky , quirky Komandirskie (or two!) could be the way to go..

Take care and stay safe everybody

Kenny

Also any pics of your Komandirskies would be appreciated


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## Lampoc (Oct 31, 2010)

Hi Kenny,

The simple answer is that the Komandirskie is an inferior watch to the Amphibia. If we're talking about the older style models (not the newer Amphibia cased versions from Meranom etc) then water resistance is far lower and the cases are chrome or titanium nitride coated brass (which will wear off over time) rather than the stainless steel cases on the Amphibias. The only thing better about them is the price! They're not even that much thinner (assuming we're comparing automatic Amphibias with automatic Komandirskies - obviously a manual winding Komandirskie will be much thinner due to the lack of rotor).

Saying that, I own loads of the bloody things! Here's some of mine. I do have many more....


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## gibbs (Apr 28, 2020)

Fantastic collection.....but I wouldn`t want to have to keep them all wound up!...I appreciate you getting back to me so soon , the one that caught my is the bottom left watch..can you tell me more about that one?,I love the look of it.

Regards

Kenny.


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## WRENCH (Jun 20, 2016)

Morning Kenny. I've had a few of the older Komandirskie, and they have stood up well. As said the plating/coating won't last long, but the rest has been durable. I recently got one of the newish ones,










From here,

https://meranom.com/en/komandirskie-classic/28/vostok-watch-komandirskie-280683.html

Much better in my opinion. Cost including post was around £52. I think they had an offer on.



gibbs said:


> Also any pics of your Komandirskies would be appreciated


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## Lampoc (Oct 31, 2010)

gibbs said:


> Fantastic collection.....but I wouldn`t want to have to keep them all wound up!...I appreciate you getting back to me so soon , the one that caught my is the bottom left watch..can you tell me more about that one?,I love the look of it.
> 
> Regards
> 
> Kenny.


 The bottom left one is an early 90s titanium nitride plated manual wind Komandirskie. I believe the crest on it is from the Municipal Moscow Militia - it's a pretty rare one. I've found titanium nitride to be far more resistant to wear and corrosion than the chrome plated watches. There's also the added advantage that when the coating does wear it doesn't show up the brass underneath as much.

On a personal note, I've always been a far bigger fan of the 80s Soviet era Komandirskies - I've generally found them to be of superior quality to later models, plus it's just, in my opinion anyway, the golden era of Russian watches!


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## gibbs (Apr 28, 2020)

Thanks for all the info Lampoc, especially on that new style Komandirskie......this could be the start of an expensive hobby!....and I really love the thought that you are wearing a piece of history on your wrist with the likes of that sweet Militia watch.

Many thanks

Kenny


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## gibbs (Apr 28, 2020)

WRENCH said:


> Morning Kenny. I've had a few of the older Komandirskie, and they have stood up well. As said the plating/coating won't last long, but the rest has been durable. I recently got one of the newish ones,
> 
> 
> 
> ...


 Sorry Wrench I should have thanked you for that pic of the new style Komandirskie..it has sort of a "steam-punk" look to , as though Vostok had melted down a few old T-72 battle tanks , to make watches...really cool!


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## bowie (Mar 12, 2005)

got a few vostoks


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## gibbs (Apr 28, 2020)

Thanks Bowie..I really like the middle one with the bezel that looks like a gear cog!..I have now joined the Komandirskie club with this submarine themed one (To go with my Amphibia) and I also really your submarine Komandirskie.

Take care and stay safe

Kenny

IMG_1509 by kenny burns, on Flickr


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## WRENCH (Jun 20, 2016)

gibbs said:


> Sorry Wrench I should have thanked you for that pic of the new style Komandirskie..it has sort of a "steam-punk" look to , as though Vostok had melted down a few old T-72 battle tanks , to make watches...really cool!


 It's now on a "subtle" strap, as the metalwork on the Zulu strap, is too much for me.


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## angus5041 (Sep 1, 2020)

While on the vostok topic i have a amphibian the white back ground and red hands , i am going to adjust the strap but the pins to push out are not obvious , any help would be welcome


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## WRENCH (Jun 20, 2016)

angus5041 said:


> While on the vostok topic i have a amphibian the white back ground and red hands , i am going to adjust the strap but the pins to push out are not obvious , any help would be welcome


 If you can post a pic of the back of the bracelet that may help.


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## angus5041 (Sep 1, 2020)

working on it thanks wrench


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## champ (Feb 17, 2020)

angus5041 said:


> While on the vostok topic i have a amphibian the white back ground and red hands , i am going to adjust the strap but the pins to push out are not obvious , any help would be welcome


 I adjusted the strap on mine.The strap edges are burnished (?) and are mostly very hard to see but if you look closely you might be able to see the odd one or two which will give an idea where to place the punch.They are quite hard to get going but once one is done i found it fairly easy to tap out and replace pins.I had never done this before and it is my first Vostok.


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## angus5041 (Sep 1, 2020)

Thanks champ i will be having a go


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## Bob Bobalot (Jun 27, 2020)

Hi All

Just caught up with this thread, very interesting, thanks. Great learning.

I also have a couple of Vostoks arriving soon as I build a collection from zero

I recently picked this one up too... very different from the usual military style I've seen before. I attach an image here. 


http://imgur.com/rb4Tfbd


(Sorry, did try to paste link URL from imgur... on insert image below...but can't seem to do this on my iPad... my bad

Bob


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## WRENCH (Jun 20, 2016)

Bob Bobalot said:


> but can't seem to do this on my iPad... my bad


 :thumbsup:


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## Nick67+1 (Jan 1, 2020)

Well after watching another frustrating home performance by Leicester on Wednesday I somehow found myself on the Meranom site yet again and as a result this is just leaving Russia. I had my eye on it for a bit but it hadn't been in stock.


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## Atlantia (Mar 7, 2021)

Nick,

That is an absolute retro beauty. How does it look in person?


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## SolaVeritate (Mar 21, 2021)

I've heard it said that the komandiski has a brass body that's chrome plated. I don't know much about the older watches but the newer ones are stainless steel. At least mine is. You can tell with the feel of it.










I'm not a bezel type of guy either and replaced mine with ease from an e bay seller. What does annoy me is the lens type, plastic/antique.. you can see it's easily scratched.. 4am top right.










It is a full solid bracelet though but not made in house as it says stainless steel in English on the underside of the butterfly clasp.










It keeps excellent time though but I'm not taking it down 200m to see if it leaks.

I also preferred the 24h without the date. I also think the numbers on the face are embossed.

It's very heavy, with russian watches.. they wear you.


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## Lampoc (Oct 31, 2010)

SolaVeritate said:


> I've heard it said that the komandiski has a brass body that's chrome plated. I don't know much about the older watches but the newer ones are stainless steel. At least mine is. You can tell with the feel of it.
> 
> I'm not a bezel type of guy either and replaced mine with ease from an e bay seller. What does annoy me is the lens type, plastic/antique.. you can see it's easily scratched.. 4am top right.
> 
> ...


 Most Komandirskies still are plated brass. Some of the newer ones such as the 650, 350 and 020 cases are steel - you can tell by the third number in the sequence (0=steel, 1 = chrome plated brass, 9=Titainum Nitride plated brass).

The crystals on these watches are made of plastic for a reason - they're designed to deform under pressure to increase water resistance. As long as the watch back and crown are properly sealed, these watches are cpable of going down to much more than 200m. I have one that's been tested to 800m before it failed! Scratches are easily polished out using products such as polywatch.


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