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Results for Vostok

14 articles · 7 videos found

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Vostok Amphibia Review: The $70 Russian Dive Watch With Global Appeal Teddy Baldassarre
Vostok Mar 10, 2026

Vostok Amphibia Review: The $70 Russian Dive Watch With Global Appeal

The Vostok Amphibia has long been recognized by in-the-know enthusiasts as one of the most affordable yet reliable dive watches on the market, as well as one that retains a quirky appeal like no other, owing both to its origins in Soviet Russia as well as its more recent turn as a character-defining prop in a cult-classic Wes Anderson movie. Here’s everything you need to know about the Vostok Amphibia and a brief hands-on review of one of the current models.  [toc-section heading="Russia’s Watchmaker: Chistopol Watch Factory"] The backstory of the Vostok Amphibia is one that is winding and complex, and it actually can be traced back not only as far as World War II Russia but even farther, to the Hampden Watch Company of Canton, Ohio. In 1930, the bankrupt Hampden sold its machinery, equipment, and technical designs to the First State Watch Factory, soon to become the First Moscow Watch Factory, founded in Russia (then the Soviet Union) on the order of Joseph Stalin. It was the nation’s first state-owned manufacturer of watches and mechanical movements. With Nazi Germany’s army advancing on Moscow in 1941, the factory was evacuated to Chistopol, a town in Tatarstan on the banks of the Kama River. The renamed Chistopol Watch Factory produced not only watches and movements but also equipment for the Soviet military, both during the war and in the decades afterwards. Chistopol Watch Factory became the official watch supplier of the USSR Ministry of Defense in 1965 and...

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Ep. 78 – The Vostok Amphibia… That’s What The Whole Show Is About Two Broke Watch Snobs
Vostok May 1, 2018

Ep. 78 – The Vostok Amphibia… That’s What The Whole Show Is About

Alright, guys - this is the big one. We've been threatening this episode for a while - this week's show is entirely dedicated to the Vostok Amphibia. We discuss the history of the piece and just how much impact it had in Russia during it's creation in 1967. Plus, Kaz breaks down some notable versions of the Amphibia and reveals some of his Vostok grail pieces. This show's got history, movement geekery, sex-talk, and a whole lot more.

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Ruhla: The East German Watch Brand That Went to Space Worn & Wound
Dec 26, 2025

Ruhla: The East German Watch Brand That Went to Space

For decades now, watch collectors have become enamored with the significance, popularity, and (perhaps most importantly) the absurd affordability of Soviet-era watches. There’s the ingenious Vostok Amphibia dive watch; the various Poljot and Strela chronographs vital to the Russian space program; and the minimalist, glossy-white Raketa Big Zero that signified “the end of history.”  What’s lesser known are the timepieces from another part of the Iron Curtain-East Germany, which once encompassed two of the most significant areas of the historic watch industry. Today we associate German watches with the town of Glashütte, where Walter Lange set up a watchmaking school in 1841 and evolved it into one of the great horological houses.  Meanwhile, about 300 kilometers to the west is the town of Ruhla. Like Glashütte, Ruhla was also known for metal mining and a tradition of blacksmithing and metalworking. After World War II, it also happened to fall into the Soviet occupation zone, even though it was as far west as one could get. Perhaps it was always fated for this.  Image via Ostalgie-Ruhla: Watches of the GDR Both sides faced the evolution of pocket watches to wristwatches, on opposite sides of the World Wars. After 1945, the watch factories in Glashütte and Ruhla were reorganized into publicly-owned enterprises-having endured reparations back to Moscow (to jump-start the USSR’s own watch industry) and the general devastation of the war. Glashütte was a mor...

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21 Small Dive Watches for Men and Ladies, from Under $100 to $10,000 Teddy Baldassarre
May 10, 2023

21 Small Dive Watches for Men and Ladies, from Under $100 to $10,000

Dive watches, as many of their enthusiasts know, are not generally known for being understated in their dimensions. This is, of course, by design, and in the service of both legibility and safety. To be used underwater, often in very dark conditions, a watch needs to be sizable enough (as well as luminous enough) for the wearer to discern both the time on the main hands as well as the remaining immersion period as set on the dive scale bezel. For these and other practical reasons, most watches built for diving tend to come in at 40mm and above in diameter. However, as the dive watch has become more a fashion statement and less a wearable tool - for ladies as well as gents - watchmakers have responded by downsizing some of their popular divers to offer more choices for a wider range of wearers, including those who will likely never wear their timepiece underwater. In some cases, the designs of these more modestly sized dive watches are even drawn from the brands’ archives, from historical eras in which smaller sizes were the norm, even for purpose-built tool watches like those made for divers. Using a 40mm diameter as our upper limit of “small,” here are 21 small dive watches, in ascending order of price, all of which combine professional-grade water resistance (at least 100 meters) with unisex appeal. Vostok Amphibia Price: $99, Case Size: 39mm, Thickness: 15mm, Lug-to-Lug: 49mm, Crystal: Acrylic, Water Resistance: 200m, Movement: Automatic Vostok Caliber 2416 Th...

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RAKETA “BAIKONUR” Review WatchAdvice
Raketa Aug 6, 2021

RAKETA “BAIKONUR” Review

It’s the dawn of the new space age. Over the past 10 days, we have had two separate billionaires venturing into space in their very own spacecraft. With Elon Musk also firmly in the race (albeit not in his own ship… yet), it’s quite apt that we look at another aspect of the space age… as in, what will the space tourists wear on their wrist… in space??? When we think about mechanical watches, Swiss and Japanese watches usually come to mind. Perhaps followed closely by German watches. What about Russian? They pop up in a watch conversation perhaps as many times as humans have been into space. (Although given recent developments, the numbers might grow in favour of humans in space…) However, the Russians did have a thriving watch industry and whatever your viewpoints are political, you cannot ignore the fact that there are many interesting and fascinating Russian watches available today. Some of them were even developed with space travel in mind. Introduced in 1961, named in honour of Yuri Gagarin’s first manned flight to outer space on the Vostok 1, Raketa (Russian for “Rocket”) is perhaps one of the better known Russian watch companies. In fact, they are a true Manufacture in the sense that not only do they make their own movements, they also produce their own hairsprings, meaning they don’t need to rely on Swiss or Japanese supplies for this crucial part. One of the main points of difference is the “secret Soviet alloy” used to produce the hairsprin...

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Ep. #91 The Seiko SKX007… That’s What The Whole Show Is About Two Broke Watch Snobs
Seiko SKX007… That’s What Aug 6, 2018

Ep. #91 The Seiko SKX007… That’s What The Whole Show Is About

After having a blast focusing on the Vostok Amphibia, the guys tackle another iconic watch in the affordable spectrum, the Seiko SKX007. Before kicking things off though, Kaz and Mike look back at what it was like growing up in south Florida and getting excited about air shows. Thankfully, the Blue Angels allowed for a quiet recording session, even though they were performing all weekend close to downtown Seattle.

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