We still find many of those vintages today. Molnija’s Chelyabinsk Watch Factory annually produced about 30 thousand specialized watches and over 1 million pocket watches that time. They began manufacturing with the production output of its first aviation cockpit watch, the AVR-M. They established the Molnija Watch Factory in the city of Chelyabinsk and used Cortebert swiss movement variants as base movements. This changed with certain watches being developed for general sale, which helped to develop some brands which still exist today. They did not produce most of the Russian watches, such as Shturmanskie watches for the public, but mainly for use by the Army/Air Force. The leaders of the Soviet Union approved these names and specifications of these watches. In 1946, the Moscow Watch Factory produced the Pobeda (Victory) watches. Soon after, the Chistopol Watch Factory, popularly know as the brand Vostok today, launched and manufactured the first few batches of the K-43. However, after being evacuated and moved to the city of Zlatoust in Chelyabinsk Oblast, the first Moscow Watch Factory shifted the focus towards aviation chronometers and aircraft watches. A watch that often comes to mind from this era is the “Commander” which was commonly used by the officers of the Red Army.īy 1940, the Moscow Watch Factory had already produced 2.7 million pocket and wrist watches. They presented the first 50 watches produced by the Moscow Watch Factory using materials and machinery from the United States at the Revolution Theatre back in 1930. Kirova K-43 derived from Size 16 movement (Courtesy: Dashiell Stanford ) The Size 16 movement was in fact the base for Kirova K-43 trench watch from 1st State Watch Factory. The Amtorg Trading Corporation, representing the Soviet Union in the United States, gained the assets of the bankrupt Dueber-Hampden Watch Company and launched the First Moscow Watch Factory. While the American and European watch industries were producing watches on an industrial scale since the 1800s, they did not find the first indigenous Russian watchmaker until 1927. Russia came very late to the watchmaking party. Gostrest Tochmekh pocket watches were made from salvaged/imported swiss watch parts mixed with domestically produced parts. Until then, you could not call the watches that were made with salvaged Swiss parts or any imported ones as a proper people’s watch. However, the real revolution in horology began in the Soviet Union after the Bolshevik Revolution and around WW2. Petersburg during Czarist era (Courtesy: Dashiell Stanford ) Pavel Buhre Pocket watch from Czarist era. By 1922, the entire watchmaking industry had become part of the State Trust of Precision Mechanics, also known as Gostrest Tochmeh. The State confiscated all independent watchmaking workshops, and it eventually forced the original owners to withdraw from the market. In 1918, a year after the Bolshevik Revolution, the nationalization of the entire Soviet industrial infrastructure took place. Moser was one of the most prolific independent watchmakers in the Imperial-era Russia, manufacturing a wide variety of pocket and wristwatches for men and women. Moser & Cie, founded in Le Locle, Switzerland, opened their workshop in St. In 1899, Buhre received the title of the Official Supplier of the Imperial Court and granted the right to use the Russian Coat of Arms as part of its logo.Ī lesser know fact is that H. Specialized independent watchmakers, such as Heinrich Moser, George Favre-Jacot, and Pavel Buhre (Paul Buhré) who appointed by the Imperial Court, undertook this assembly. Because of a lack of technology and equipment, it was more affordable and even rather efficient to import unfinished Swiss and German components than assembling them in local Russian workshops. The Imperial era in Russia saw several small watch workshops and enterprises, usually assembling watches using parts made abroad. In fact, through the Czarist era, the designing of various clock towers, cathedral clocks and many styled ornamental clocks took place in Russia. But there is surely more to it! Well, we’re obviously talking in terms of the watches. Thanks to all those fiction movies and novels, we often couple the Soviet era with thoughts of the cold war era spy gadgets, weapons, secret technologies, space and rocket technology. When we come across the term Russian Engineering and Manufacturing, our thoughts immediately switch to best built fighter jets, tanks, armaments and then the architecture of their churches, cathedrals, the Kremlin and so on.
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