Founded in 1930 under orders from Joseph Stalin, the First State Watch Factory was the first large scale Soviet watch and mechanical movement manufacturer. Via its USA-based trading company ‘Amtorg’ the Soviet government bought the defunct 'Ansonia Clock Company' of Brooklyn, New York in 1929, and the Dueber-Hampden Watch Company of Canton Ohio. It moved twenty-eight freight cars full of machinery and parts from the USA to Moscow in order to establish the factory. Twenty-one former Dueber-Hampden watchmakers, engravers and various other technicians helped to train the Russian workers in the art of watch making as part of the Soviet's First Five-Year Plan.. The movements of very-early products were still stamped "Dueber-Hampden, Canton, Ohio, USA" (examples of these watches are very collectible today As the Germans closed in on Moscow in 1941, the factory was hurriedly evacuated to Zlatoust. By 1943 the Germans were in retreat, and the factory moved back to Moscow, adopting the "First Moscow Watch Factory" name (Russian: Первый Московский Часовой Завод - 1МЧЗ). In 1947 the first wrist watches under the brand name "Pobeda" and the first Marine Chronometers and Deck watches were produced. By 1951 the production of wrist watches had increased to 1.1 million. In 1975 new machinery and equipment for manufacturing complex watches was imported from Switzerland. The first chronograph "Okean" (caliber 3133) was produced for the space station "Sojuz-23." The Poljot/πωλετ brand was established in 1961 in the Soviet Union, with watches from the First Moscow Watch Factory becoming very popular there. Among the output of the company was the watch of Soviet military aviator and cosmonaut, Yuri Gagarin, who wore a "Sturmanskije" during his flight. In late 2003, rumors predicting the demise of the Poljot brand circulated on the Internet. According to the rumors, the First Moscow Watch Factory was to cease producing their own models and become a source of inexpensive movements for other European watch brands. These rumors never came to fruition. Comments are closed.
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Old Time WatchesI enjoy collecting mechanical (manual wind and automatic) and early electric and quartz timepieces. I take great pleasure in researching and writing about the companies and people that created these beautiful watches. PF
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September 2018
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