# Russian Watch Factories Still In Production



## Julian Latham (Jul 25, 2005)

Just an idle thought but does anybody know for sure if any 'real' Russian factories are still manufacturing the old favourites ?

Also be interesting to know if there have been any new movements created in the post soviet era.

Julian L


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## tomshep (Oct 2, 2008)

Vostok crank out lots of watches in Tchistopol. you can buy one today for under Â£30.


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## Chascomm (Sep 9, 2005)

Julian Latham said:


> Just an idle thought but does anybody know for sure if any 'real' Russian factories are still manufacturing the old favourites ?


I guess you're including Belorussian factories?

The live ones:

Vostok, Chistopol - complete watches, movements for Vostok-Europe, Lithuania. Current owners of the Poljot 2612.1 Signal tooling that they've been sitting on for 4 years now









Maktime, Moscow - complete watches, movements for Volmax and various foreign brands. Movements all ex-Poljot

Slava, Moscow - assembly of complete watches using old-stock movement parts and new cases, dials etc. Tooling in storage awaiting investment

Zarja, Penza - complete watches. Heard they've been bought by Maktime

Luch, Minsk - complete watches, both quartz and mech. Heard a rumour that they've been bought by Swatch Group :cry2:

Integral, Minsk and Pinsk - complete digital watches

The casualties:

Molnija, Chelyabinsk - no longer making watches or watch movements

Zlatoust - no more Type-1 movements in their souvenir dive watches

Raketa, Petrodvorets - cottage industry of assembly of new watches from old-stock parts somewhere in the St Petersberg area

Chaika, Uglich - closed a couple of years back



> Also be interesting to know if there have been any new movements created in the post soviet era.


Depends on how 'new' you mean.

The calibre 31679 moonphase and other variants of the old 3133 chrono were post-Soviet. Poljot also greatly expanded their 26mm range post-Soviet e.g. 26667, 26668 etc.

Vostok have continued expanding their 24mm range, mostly for Vostok-Europe.

Luch added a couple of variations to their 23mm quartz range. Possibly their pocket alarm-clocks (1801.1 with electric buzzer) may have been developed since the end of the Soviet era.

In the 1990s, Zarja developed the 2615 auto (Russia's thinnest ever auto), and the 1609 (update of the 1509?), but neither seem to have reached production.

Integral some years back brought in the all-new Kamerton ChN-05 ana-digi, but it actually consists of their module wrapped around a Miyota base movement.

So no, basically nothing significant has happened in that line for the last 16 years.


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## Julian Latham (Jul 25, 2005)

Thank you for your replies :thumbup:

Julian L


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## blackandgolduk (Apr 25, 2005)

That's a great historical run down, cheers Chascomm.

Let's hope that Vostok, Maktime and Volmax can keep it all going for a few years to come. I just wish that Maktime hadn't brought in a new logo on their 3133's  I think they'd have been better off sticking with Poljot for the time being at least.


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## Chascomm (Sep 9, 2005)

Chascomm said:


> So no, basically nothing significant has happened in that line for the last 16 years.


Sorry. I forgot one possibly very significant detail.

Luch have recently been making watches with calibres 2609 (hand-winding) and 2616 (auto with date). These seem to be all-new movements as I have never seen any reference to them from Soviet times. They appear to have a very simplified construction with a rather small balance wheel that I suspect is identical to the one they use on the 1801.1

What makes the Luch 26mm calibres significant is that the watches in which they are used are styled much the same as their quartz models. Belarus is a country in which mechanical watches can still compete with quartz as everyday 'it's just a watch' items. Do you see the significance?

OK, so compare this with the Seiko 5 and various other watches that in some parts of the world are sold as 'just a watch' (i.e. not the niche product they are in Europe, North America, Australasia etc). Such watches are made with movements dating back to the time when mechanicals still ruled (like all the Russian watches). Then there are all the new mechanical movements that have been designed in the last decade or so in Switzerland and China, which are intended specifically for a special-interest market. They are luxury items. Even the cheapest Chinese mechanical is sold as a very cheap luxury. It's not 'just a watch' like a fleamarket quartz. But the Luch 2616 _is_.

I suspect that the Luch 2609/2616 is the _last ever_ completely new designed mechanical movement ever built for the mass market _anywhere in the world_!

Somebody call Guinness.


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## Chascomm (Sep 9, 2005)

One more minor addition.

Some months back, Maktime announce the imminent release of their new calibre 30664 automatic chronograph. The story goes that development began in-house at Poljot back at the end of the Soviet era for a next generation movement to supersede the 3133, but then the money ran out in the 1990s. Now they've finished it.

The only thing is it happens to look exactly like an ETA-Valjoux 7750







It's a mystery to me how they will be able to compete against the ETA 7750, Sellita's proposed clone, and the prolific 7750 clones from Liaoning and Shanghai. I suspect that a production 30664 may never see the light of day.


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## Silver Hawk (Dec 2, 2003)

Julian Latham said:


> Thank you for your replies :thumbup:
> 
> Julian L





blackandgolduk said:


> That's a great historical run down, cheers Chascomm.


And from me Chascomm! Very informative! :thumbsup:


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## paul1684 (Jul 21, 2008)

Are you sure Petrodvoretz is not still in operation? I've had correspondence with one person from there (who sent me scans of some old catalogues), and their website looks like a serious affair.



Silver Hawk said:


> Julian Latham said:
> 
> 
> > Thank you for your replies :thumbup:
> ...


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## mel (Dec 6, 2006)

Very useful info for us all. :yes: :yes:


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