A vintage "cosmos" watch

The Russian cosmos missions

USSR developped its early astronautical projects with a very "controlled" public information, even for the civilian missions, unlike NASA who did them using the full media support. The advertising was however massive with successfull and popular missions capable to carry a very good image. Who forgot Yuri Gagarin, likely as famous as President Kennedy or USSR Premier Kroutchev. Gagarin stays in the 20th centry world popular memory, at a scale probably not gained by many other one? Just "google" his name to see...

"I see Earth. It's so beautifull" would have say Gagarin, first words from space of the first man who left Earth to the open cosmos on April 12, 1961. In the spaceship Vostok 1, Senior Lieutenant Yuri Alexeyevich Gagarin orbited earth one time at an altitude of 162,5 nautical miles (302 kilometers) for 108 minutes at 18,000 miles an hour. He was the first man to see that the earth was indeed round, indeed mostly water, and indeed magnificent.

Earth during the Apollo 17 mission (December 07-19, 1972, Apollo 17 CSM America and LM Challenger, Eugene A. Cernan "The Last Man on the Moon", Ronald E. Evans, Harrison H. "Jack" Schmitt)

Yes, so beautiful is the word. This sunlight diffusion phenomenon which gives the blue color of our living atmospher, the white clouds, something beautiful by instinct, a blue planet, "home, home" said E.T.

The culture of the secret in former USSR, the further way of History, does not render the merited reflect of the Russian space technology, that recently and strangely became the most reliable one for spaceships connexion to ISS.

The russian cosmos watches

Unlike NASA, many different types of watches were flown in the Russian missions (see for instance this link where cosmonauts sell their personnal objects). Even a French chrono YEMA did EVA's from the MIR space station ...:

(from this link)

Historicaly, in the 60's, the military flight pilot and cosmonauts used Russian watches manufactured in the OJSC "First Moscow Watch Factory", the factory's most known trademark "ПОЛЕТ" (POLJOT). Yuri Gagarin wore a "ШТУРМАНСКИЕ" (Sturmanskie, based on an French watch caliber, the Lip R26 see the very nice article by Strela, member of Watchuseek internet fora) during his initial flight to cosmos. This watch was not really a chronograph. Another wrist-watch chronograph used in the Russian Air Force was the Стрела (Strela) chrono, with a column-wheel caliber 3017 - 19 jewels, analogous to the Swiss Venus 150 movment. Such Strela is tought beeing on the wrist of Alexi Leonov during another historical event: the first "EVA" (Extra vehicular activity) in the open cosmos on March 18, 1965.

A 1.8 MB mpeg video of the historical Leonov EVA is available here , unfortunately it is impossible to see anything of his watch... .

Acquisition of the vintage Strela 3017

To complete my Russian watch family, I had in mind to acquire an exemplary of such vintage model. Brand-new and re-issued version of the Strela is also available from Poljot. These new models are also very nice. They are mounted with the Poljot 3133-23 jewels caliber used for the OKEAH chrono (see my post of August, 2005), that was the next generation of military chronos appeared in 1976.

Strela watches are not very common nowadays. They were produced between 1959 and 1979 with several hands and dial designs: white or black dial with or without tachymetre/telemeter scales, luminous-chromed or golden hands, under several brand name : Strela, Sekonda, Exacta Poljot, in Englisk or in Russian.Their case was very thin and made of 3 parts : the case chrome-plated, the case back in stainless steel and the crystal clipsed with a bezel. Strelas are neither shock nor water protected.

I've waiting for about one month before focusing on an eBay auction from German seller, on which I believed the watch affordable and the seller reliable. Unfortunately the history of Strela watch are more and more popular and I had to pay abit to much than I expected..Anyway the watch arrived safely a couple of day after.

The watch is a "Sekonda 19 Jewels" with the black dial. The caliber 3017 has the serial # 10900. The main chrono hand (chromed) with the red spot, and the other hands golden that looked quite new. The watch was monted on new black leather band that I substitute for a military black Nato strap 18 mm to fit the lug dimension.

Photographies use a Kane MK-6B dead reckoning navigation computer made of anodized aluminium (copyrighted by Kane Aero Co., St Paul, Minnesota, 1957).

This picture uses a leaflet map of Evansville airport, Indiana, (copyrighted by Airguide Publications Inc., Long Beach, California, 1986. Flight Guide, Airport Frequency Manual, Vol. II, Central & Eastern U.S.)

I also tried a "galuchat" (stingray skin) band which is thin enouch to match the case design:

The dial is not also in very good shape. There is a misscentering and it looks that the second and the minute register hands rubbed the dial (however the watch fully works correctly!)... The lume marks were green but are now more grey than green...Two strange holes were done at 12 and 6 then masked by a point of black painting...white marks are missing or partially missing at 1,2 and 4...

I find the texture of this stingray (the poor!) skin very strange :

The chromed brass of the case is not corroded. There are a lot of small scratches...the closer you look, the worse it is. Tough life of this watch!

The crown is original and the pusher are very characteristic of the 1950-1960 Swiss chromnographs.

Discussing on the watchuseek Russian watch forum, I learned not surprizingly that the hands, excepted the chrono long one, are not the original hands corresponding correctly to this series. I was happy anyway thinking that this sort of situation is part of long life of this watch.

Restauration of correct hands

This is themiracle of internet and internet fora. Spontaneously, I discover in my personnal message on the watchuseek forum a message of Frank (thanks Frank) , another member from Germany offering a set of correct hands for my watch, just for sympathy.

The chromed hands are of a very special design :



They are very fragile, but they arrived safely through the post office.

OK. I don't have - unfortunately - the skill and the knowledge to do the hand replacement by myself. I asked the jewelery where I bought my Omega Speedmaster Professional (see this link) where they have a complete workshop with experienced watchmaker. I don't know if they are trained for many conflicting customers, but the responsible guy refused flat, arguing that it was too risky for them and for the watch! I left the shop with a mixed feeling. These guys clearly don't want to get some troubles. Is this addrees really good for my Omega too? ("A l'Heure Franco Suisse", rue Ferrandière, Lyon, 69002, France). We will see that later.

Let's try my neighbor watchmaker (rue Belford, at la Croix-Rousse). His shop is so nice. He does not have many new watches and he essentially repairs mechanical clocks, and wristwatches. He has everything necessary, an amazing workbench, pressure test machine, frequency meter...He was very amused and did the work safely for almost nothing!

The "bijouterie" (jewelery in French) of the Belford street at "la Croix Rousse" Lyon, France, who did the hand change of the Strela.

The only problem afterward (that I just solved by myself) was the small hand of the second register that slightly touched underneath the hour hand at about 8 o'clock (when it was tangent to the minute register). The watch then stopped ( ) . I opened very carefully the bezel with a knife (my God this was the first I did that! Be carefull not to scratch the whole mechanism upon opening!!) and adjusted a bit the hours hand with a piece of tooth pick. I checked then if the large minute hand passed over the hour one with no problems and it was OK. My first "repair"...

My Strela is flown to space again! (would better say to kosmos)

A further small restauration

Following another advice, the idea is to correct the nude brass visible on the dial at the periphery of the smal registers holes. These hole are larger than they should be indicating that this dial may have mounted to another watch, may be with a "alien" movment (a "Franken" watch in other words!). In a reduced models shop, I found some satin black painting. I re-opened the crystal bezel and with the smallest and the most thin brush I could find in the shop, I carefully deposited a bit of painting...I tested the painting before on different matters to train myself. The paint is very tainted and one coat is enough...

I did not succeed near the temeleter scale because the space available is really to small. I was afraid to touch the scale with the brush ( ). Better is to leave it like this, than to damage the dial! It would require to deposit the hands again, but no way for now!! I prefer to enjoy the fantastic Strela at the moment. It just returned today to its Nato strap.

Other combos

I tried also another sort of military band with a leather pad to protect the skin from the watch.

(The watch lies on a sectional aeronautical chart, Montreal, published at Washington D.C., US Department of Commerce, National Oceanographic and Atmospheric Admisnistration, 1991, and a Swiss Victorinox knife type Minichamp II).

It is of course possible to have a mixed combo: the galuchat skin plus the pad.



The watch here on another military Nato strap (so-called "James Bond" type...)





(The background illustration comes from a book entitled ”Five evenings with programmable calculator”. Printed in Moscow,1988, 109 pages).


Further possible restauration expected

I saw on ebay some kit for preparing new green lume and some new advice to deposit it on the dial. I may try to restore the green lume at 9 and 3 and may the spots at the hours positions.

The pictures presented here are also on my WUS posts .


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