This was another eBay find and I paid £18.00 for it. I bought this solely to bring to my YouTube channel. I liked the look from the photos and wanted to explore more Russian made watches as I hear many good things about these. Usually that they are basic but work well and have a unmistakable look. The listing clamed that the owner bought this in Bulgaria back in the 90s and I had no reason to doubt this.
Here are the listing photos.
All looks good in the photos in my opinion.
The watch arrived and to me it looked fine, it was not working but then that was what I wanted. I filmed all of the next part an you can watch that video here:
If you do not wish to watch the video lets just say that this watch is a mixed bag, Possibly a Frankenstein watch. It has a Vostok movement 2209 but from what I can gather this is not the correct movement for this type of watch. On disassembly I found the dial to be glued on deliberately using some fabric and possibly some epoxy glue. This presented lots of problems for removal and then cleaning.
I then had fun removing the shock jewel on the main plate. It looked like the usual incabloc shock spring that usually hinges to open but this was not the case and lets just say that even at 60 FPS in video I may only have captured 2 frames of it flying away it was that fast!
There were a few other problems along the way like a broken second hand pinion that I broke. That said it was also modified and the second hand tube had been crushed to fit the pinion. I sourced the original part and then had a job of opening up the tube to accommodate for the right pinion size.
Overall this watch threw some challenges at me and I overcame them all, I improvised with gluing dial feet on so the same dial could be used and the second hand mess was good to sort out. I am disappointed to say that the watch does not keep time well and at some point I will have to find the original movement to finish this properly.
For £18 and a few days of fun and a ton of learning experience I think this watch delivered on its promise.
Here is the finished watch in all its glory.
