# Different Hands For The Same Watch



## gregor (Nov 5, 2003)

jus something I like to share with you all:

My friend has bought excactly the same poljot as I have,

the shturmanskie 2001

Roy has one on the site. (polst)

But yesterday we when we compared we came to the shocking...(well not really shocking, just a little surprising) conclusion that the hands on his shturmanski where black filled with luminova while mine where naked metal filled with luminova. (like the one on Roys site)

My number is 358, his was older.

Gregor


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## JoT (Aug 12, 2003)

Never seen black hands before on a Shturmanskie


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## rhaythorne (Jan 12, 2004)

It's something I've noticed with lots of Poljots. The precise style of the hands (especially the sub dial hands on the chronographs) is often different on examples of the same model. My guess is that when they run out of one style they just use whatever other substitute part they happen to have available at the time.


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## raketakat (Sep 24, 2003)

My guess is that these minor variations are the justification for their seemingly unlimited "limited editions" - although I might be being cynical ( perish the thought )







.


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## MarkF (Jul 5, 2003)

raketakat said:


> My guess is that these minor variations are the justification for their seemingly unlimited "limited editions" - although I might be being cynical ( perish the thought )
> 
> 
> 
> ...


That spoilt if for me, I liked the previous answer, it goes with my vision of men in tan overalls huddled over old wood benches messing about with vices and pliers









"My guess is that when they run out of one style they just use whatever other substitute part they happen to have available at the time."

That is how I like to imagine them being made


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## raketakat (Sep 24, 2003)

MarkF said:


> in tan overalls huddled over old wood benches messing about with vices and pliers


 No - thats what Roy is like, in my mind's eye.

There's his penclip in his breast pocket and look at the sheen on that brylcreemed hair














.

Sorry Roy







.


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## raketakat (Sep 24, 2003)

In a more serious vein - I saw a couple of photos taken inside The 1st Moscow Watch Factory and most of the workforce were women.

" That figures," will be the response from certain quarters







.


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## gregor (Nov 5, 2003)

> My guess is that these minor variations are the justification for their seemingly unlimited "limited editions" - although I might be being cynical ( perish the thought ) .










I really hope they dont do it like that!

now I quickly checked my own small photodatabase and most of the pictures I have of this shturmanski show black hands....alltough it's hard to see sometimes due to reflections.

gregor


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## rhaythorne (Jan 12, 2004)

Ian's theory is one I'd also considered. It could easily be a combination of both. They run out of one style of hands, start using an alternative style and, at the same time, just start the "limited edition" stamping from 001 again









There must be an element of this involved. My Aviator says it's a limited edition of 999 but surely they must have made hundreds of thousands of them. Likewise I can't believe they've made only 500 SS-18's. Maybe 500 black dial, 500 blue dial and each with the two variations of hands I've seen; so that's 4000 at least.

A third (even more cynical) theory is that they just grab almost any suitable caseback from the "pile" and screw it onto whatever watch it happens to fit. For example the Aviators have a display back option so there must be more case backs than watches. So how do they guarantee that the correct "limited edition" back gets put on the correct "limited edition" watch? They must just stamp 1000 display backs and 1000 solid backs and hope (with a little quality control no doubt) that all the backs get screwed onto an appropriate watch. It's not like they throw away the unused backs! I've seen the casebacks of Aviators like mine but with different limited edition ranges - 999, 5000 and 8500 for example. Not that this worries me at all, it's just yet another Russian watch mystery


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## raketakat (Sep 24, 2003)

rhaythorne said:


> A third (even more cynical) theory


 Oh no Rich - lets not start a cynicism contest







.


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## adrian (May 23, 2004)

rhaythorne said:


> they just grab almost any suitable caseback from the "pile" and screw it onto whatever watch it happens to fit


 LOL!


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## 1madman1 (Apr 14, 2004)

> they just grab almost any suitable caseback from the "pile" and screw it onto whatever watch it happens to fit


Maybe that's why the caseback on my new 31681 Sturmanski says 3133 on it!


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## rhaythorne (Jan 12, 2004)

I think the 31681 is just a slight variation of the 3133 with an extra complication or two (like the 24-hour dial on the "Gagarin" Sturmanskie).


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