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About Poljot
Poljot History
Bolshevik
Revolution
The Formative
Years
Aviation and
WWII
Gagarin and
Space
The 50s and
60s
The 70s and
80s
The Famous
3133
Today
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Yuri Gagarin & The Shturmanskie
Chronograph
Yuri Gagarin was born near Moscow on March 9, 1934.
He joined the Soviet Air Force in 1955 and by 1959,
he was training to become a cosmonaut. In 1961 Yuri
became the first man to orbit the Earth. He
wore the Shturmanskie watch on his wrist during the
flight, making Shturmanskie the first wristwatch to
go into Space. His flight in Vostok 1
spacecraft lasted 108 minutes.
Yuri's life tragically ended on March 27, 1968 in a
plane crash. |
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| Bolshevik
Revolution |
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Watch industry in the Czar Russia
consisted just of several small workshops and
enterprises. They usually assembled watches using
watch parts made abroad. After the 1917 Bolshevik
revolution, the entire watch industry became a part
of the “Trust of Precision Mechanics”.
These were mainly production facilities, work shops,
and warehouses of watch parts and half-finished
products which belonged to famous manufacturers such
as P. Bure, G. Mozer, Reinin, Dmitriev, and others
before the revolution.
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| The
Formative Years |
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By 1926, the supply of watches and
watch parts had run out, but the demand for watches
by the army, the navy, the railways and ordinary
people was on the increase. To meet the demand, the
USSR started to buy watches and watch parts from
abroad paying in gold. To further correct the
shortage of watches, on December 20th 1927 the Soviet
government made a decision to establish and develop a
watch industry. On December 21st, the Council of
Labor and Defense passed a resolution “About
How to Organize Watch Production in the
USSR.”
At the same time an offer to buy an ailing Duber
Hempton watch factories was received from the United
States. On April 26th 1929 two purchase contracts
were signed. The first one was for the $325,000
purchase of the watch factory with an output of 200
to 250 thousand watches per year. The second,
$135,000 contract was for the purchase of spare parts
and the half-finished products. After the deal was
sealed, a steamboat with American equipment left for
Russia in April 1930. Simultaneously, construction of
the factory’s main block was already in
progress on the previous location of the Krasnaja
Zvevda (Red Star) Tobacco Factory on the
Voronczovskaja street in Moscow. The factory’s
main block was finished within a dramatically short
period of time. The work started in February 1930
from digging a foundation pit and finished in June
1930 with the main block construction completed.
Installation of main equipment was finished by
September 15th of the same year. The factory was
named the First State Watch Factory or the 1st SWF
(1ый ГЧЗ). Later it was
called the First Moscow Watch Factory or the 1st MWF
(1ый МЧЗ). Thus, even
some of the Poljot watches produced today are sold
under the 1st MWF mark.
To start production, four types of watches were
chosen: a man’s pocket watch with 15 jewels for
the enterprises of the Narkomat (Ministry) of Means
of Communications, a man’s wristwatch with 7
jewels for the Red Army; a man’s pocket watch
with 7 jewels and a ladies wristwatch with 15 jewels
to be sold in the market. The first creation of this
new factory were pocket watches called “the 1st
type” or K43 with a side seconds hand.
Although at the start, the factory needed some
technical help from the American and the German
specialists, after two years, it was able to resolve
most of the technical issues and continued to develop
independently. Almost from the beginning the 1st SWF
exported its watches and soon after launch, new
production development was started. According to the
order of the Chief Military Aviation Administration,
airplane board clocks were produced, and in June 1932
a decision to organize stopwatches production was
made.
In the same year technical renovation and production
line upgrades were started. In 1935 – 36 the
factory received over 120 new machining tools from
several world’s leading companies and some
equipment was made by the factory itself. By 1936 the
number of machining tools had increased by 1.5 times.
On December 16th 1935, Mr. M. Kalinin signed a
resolution to award the name of Sergey Mironovich
Kirov to the 1st SWF. From 1935 until 1941, the 1st
SWF Kirova produced about 2.7 million of the
“1st type” pocket and wristwatches.
Today, a line of Aviator and Buran watches is sold
under the “1st MWF Kirova”
trademark.
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| Aviation and
WWII |
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 The history of the First Moscow Watch
Factory is indissolubly connected with the history of
Russian and Soviet aviation. All Soviet battle
airplanes of that period were equipped with the
airborne clocks made by the 1st MWF Kirova. The Red
Air Force pilots and navigators flew with watches on
their wrists with the “The 1st MWF
Kirova” and later the “Poljot”
trademarks. Before WWII aviation clocks, stopwatches,
navigator wristwatches, automobile mechanical and
electric charging watches, navy chronometers, ship
deck watches and other watch movements were put into
production for the benefit of the national
economy.
During the Second World War production defense such
as ammunition, aviation glass, aviation clocks, navy
and aviation chronometers and some parts for the
first Katyusha (lorry-mounted multiple rocket
launcher) was organized in the factory.
The War had not yet ended when the factory started
peaceful production: in 1943 it started to make
machining tools for the watch industry again, and in
1944 – fire-place, table and automobile clocks
were produced. In April 1945 the factory stopped
ammunition production and started preparation for a
new K26 Pobeda (Victory) watch model. Production of
the Pobeda with a side seconds hand started in 1946.
Josef Stalin approved the name, design and
specifications of this watch personally. The watch
became very popular, as the 1st MWF was making the
K26 model until 1953; and today, it is still in
production in other factories around the
country.
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| Gagarin and
Space |
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 In 1949, the Shturmanskie
(Navigator’s) watches were put into production.
They were specially designed for the military
aviation and were not available in the general
market. The Shturmanskie watch made history on April
12 1961 when the Soviet Union launched the first
successful manned space flight. Yury Gagarin, the
first man in space, wore Shturmanskie watch on his
wrist during that celebrated flight. The watch
operated without any problems in weightlessness and
became the first watch ever to go into cosmos. Later,
this legendary watch was given to the factory museum.
You can see wristwatches dedicated to the Yuri
Gagarin’s flight here.
Poljot watches were taken to space flights by
astronauts from France, Russia, Germany, and the
Ukraine. The 3133 chronograph set a record in longest
duration of a space flight by cosmonaut V.V.
Poljakov.
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| The 50s and
60s |
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 By 1955, 1.1 million mechanical wristwatches
were made by the 1st MWF. In 1956 production of the
first automatic movement watches under the Rodina
(Fatherland) brand started. The Rodina watch opened a
new line of watch movements with the 24 mm caliber.
They have a central second hand. The height of the
movement was 6.3 mm, with 22 jewels.
In 1957, according to a special government order, an
elite Antarktida (Antarctic) watch for the
participants of the first Soviet expedition to the
South Pole was developed. These watches were magnet
proof, with a 24-hour dial and the watch movement was
based on the Pobeda (Victory) watch movement. A
special shield protected it against strong magnetic
fields.
In October 1957, the Soviet Union launched the first
artificial satellite into space. The whole world
peered to a slightly flashing small star in the night
sky. To mark this event, the Sputnik (Satellite)
watch, based on a Pobeda model was produced. Watches
were made in two variations: with a central second
hand and with a transparent dial, which had a
satellite mark instead of a second hand. At the
moment, the Antarktida and the Sputnik watches are a
collection rarity, because they were in production
just for one year.
On October 2nd 1959, the government of the USSR
designed the 1st MWF as a leading enterprise in watch
exports. Export production share increased from 42%
in 1959 to 80% in the 90s. Watches were exported to
70 different countries, including USA, England,
Belgian, Italy, West Germany, Hong Kong, Greece, and
many others.
In 1959 the first Soviet Signal 2612 alarm wristwatch
was developed. In the same year, the Strela (Arrow)
3017 watch was put into production. The Strela was a
wrist chronograph with a stopwatch function and a
45-minute counter of minutes. The dial had additional
telemetric and tachometer scales. The watch was
exclusively designed for the officers of the Air
Force and was produced according to strict military
specifications. Cosmonauts Pavel Beliaev and Aleksej
Leonov also used these watches when they became the
first in the world to enter into the open space.
During the next 20 years 100,000 of the 3017 watches
were made.
In 1960, the first Poljot (Flight) brand watch with
2414 caliber appeared. On April 12th 1961, Yuri
Gagarin’s flight opened the era of space travel
in the human history. The first cosmonaut took Shturmanskije watch made in 1st MWF into space.
Later, production of several models with space names
celebrated this flight: Orbita (Orbit) 2415 –
in 1962, Kosmos (Space) 2416 – in 1963. In
1961, the factory as first in the country started
production of particularly slim Vympel (Pennon)
watches with a second hand, caliber 2209 with 2.9 mm
height of the movement, 23 jewels, and the 1st
accuracy class. The total height of the watchcase was
only 5 mm. In 1963, during an international Fair in
Leipzig, the Vympel watch was awarded a Diploma and a
Gold medal. These watches were in production until
1975, later the technology was passed to the Minsk
Watch Factory.
Since 1964, Полёт or
POLJOT trademarks have marked the watches made in the
1st MWF. The factory trademarks are registered in 30
different countries and are famous around the
World.
In 1965, production of a super slim Poljot 2200 watch
with 1.85 mm movement height started. This product
confirmed the highest level of skills of the
factory’s designers and technologists once
again. The height of the watch-case depending on its
variation was from 3.5 mm to 4.5 mm.
In 1966, the factory started production of a new
basic movement model, a 26 series caliber with
anti-shock capability, screw-less balance wheel and
flat spiral, and different accessories. New movements
were distinguished by small height and long run
time.
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| The 70s and
80s |
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In 1971, the factory produced 2.5
million wristwatches, and 1.6 million were exported
to 63 different countries. In 1972, the factory
increased production of wrist mechanical watches up
to 2.7 million. Since up to 70% of the production was
sold on the export market, the factory decided to
design and to put into production a number of new
watch movements which could satisfy the requirements
of exacting foreign customers and would be useable
for automatic technological processes. As a result,
in 1972 new designs of watches with the 26 series
caliber movement were developed and had a distinct
mark of a letter “H”: 2609H, 2614H,
2616H, etc. The factory’s designers,
technologists and stylists paid particular attention
to its reliability, technological aspects and
reparability.
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| The Famous
3133 |
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 In 1976, the factory started production of
new wristwatches with a stopwatch function:
chronograph model number 3133. For this development,
the factory staff was awarded with a State Bonus
Reward. At the beginning, watches were intended for
the Navy officers and were produced under the Okean
(Ocean) brand name. Later, the factory started to
make modifications intended for the Air Force, with a
Shturmanskie brand name (model 31659, a watch with a
second hand arrester and pointer of time zones) and
another Shturmanskie watch with a pointer of time
zones (model 3133). The production of these watches
was limited and subjected to strict military
inspections. Only nine years later, in 1983, watches
with a 3133 movement were made available to the
public. You can see a line of the Shturmanskie and
Ocean watches here.
At the end of the 70-ies and the beginning of the
80-ies, the factory put into production the quartz 30
series calibers watches, and later - 24 and 16
calibers. The quartz movements were mainly exported
to Southeast Asian countries: Hong Kong and
Singapore. In some years, export achieved up to 3
– 4 million pieces per year.
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| Today |
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During the 70 year history, the
First Watch Factory kept leading position in the area
of man’s wrist mechanical watch production.
Today the 1st Moscow Watch Factory also remains the
first. Extensive experience, strong design
capabilities, enormous technological potential, and
spirit of innovation helped the factory to survive
during a difficult periods and allow it to face the
future with confidence. Today “Poljot” is
a leader among the producers of high-class
man’s wrist watches, a producer of unique
movements, such as the chronographic movement 3133,
the alarm movement “Signal” 2612, and the
factory’s pride a 6MX marine chronometer.
Furthermore, mechanical chronographs and
“Signal” analogues today are in
production only in several factories in
Switzerland.
The high level of technological development, design
and the high quality of “Poljot”
production are also confirmed by the fact that the
administration of the President of Russia has chosen
a “Poljot” 3133 watch as an official
government award “From President of
Russia”!
Last year, some new movements, such as chronograph
with a moon-phase calendar, modifications with
different additional scales and calendars were
developed and put into production. Over 20% of
“Poljot” watchcases are redesigned each
quarter. The new designs set pace for the latest
trends and tendencies in the fashion world of watch
production.
With a slogan “To be the first” the
factory meets a new decade. |
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