Vostok: The watchmaking sputnik that came from the cold... a Russian watch to materialize the glory of the Soviet Union

Vostok, the brand unknown to most Westerners, has been manufacturing mechanical and automatic watches since 1942 in the greatest tradition of the Jura watch industry. It is also, remarkably, one of the few manufactures in the world to produce its own movements without purchasing a single component from outside.

A look back at the events that led Stalin and the Politburo to ask the Allies for help during the Great Patriotic War to design and build the Vostok watch factory. A strategic factory which was to constitute one of the largest vectors of propaganda for the USSR within the future post-war Warsaw Pact.

Hero of the Soviet Union. This famous decoration which is awarded for outstanding heroism is the highest distinction and the supreme honorary degree of the Soviet Union. Twelve thousand women and men received the gold star medal during the Second World War and for their contribution to victory. The most famous are the fighter pilot Alexander Pokrychkine, Marina Raskova or Ekaterina Zelenko a famous female SU-2 pilot of the 135th bomber regiment famous for being still to this day the only woman to have achieved an aerial victory by voluntary boarding.
A medal which today in Russia has kept its appearance and is called the medal of the Hero of the Russian Federation.

kommandirskie kgb submarine Gagarin watch soviet Russian watch

In 1941, the Axis forces broke through the Soviet defense lines in fierce and sudden assaults. Operation Barbarossa and its Blitzkrieg led to gigantic destruction and ravage the Eastern Front. The losses are estimated at more than thirty million people. The Soviet Union is on the edge of the precipice and only a massive leap in which the entire population would be engaged can balance the trend. One of the last options available in this terrible confrontation where all the material resources of the country are engaged is propaganda. A weapon that requires a vector and a symbol: The symbol is the hero's medal: materialized by the red star which recalls the supreme distinction, and which will be struck on the dial of Vostok watches, the new propaganda weapon of the NKVD, the People's Commissariat of Internal Affairs.

Vostok soviet Russian watches propaganda

The first Vostok watches will be highly coveted by the apparatchiks and will subsequently be a concrete and palpable symbol of the population's commitment to victory against the enemy of Rodina. Wearing a Vostok can be both a sign of participation in an important project for the Nation but also as a sign of rallying and support for the great patriotic cause. Just look at the dial to determine its affiliation: Rapidly Vostok will produce watches with personalized dials according to events or military and scientific units. One of the first variants will be the model to the glory of engineers designing bracings, which will have a bracing stamped on the left side of the dial. After 1950 The Ministry of Defense will order very large quantities to distribute them to military personnel (Poljot Watches, the technical equivalent of military equipment, being too expensive to produce in large series). In 1965, at the heart of the Cold War, Vostok will create the Komandirskie (Commander) model, this model will be sold exclusively to high-ranking military or scientific personnel or possibly distributed to foreign dignitaries during their visit or internship in the USSR. It is for this reason that many dials display different mentions or logos of armed forces or government.

Unknown in the West or extremely rare before Perestroika, many watches have been sold to collectors since the fall of the Iron Curtain and their very affordable price has encouraged their distribution in the 90s. Others, however, these watches are still in limited production in today's Russia and a sign of the times, their price on the second-hand market has more than quintupled over the past three years. The opportunity to be able to obtain it easily tends to end… notice to amateurs and informed collectors.