These are the first wrist watch which have overcome terrestrial gravitation!

Very rare. 15jewels hacking Sturmanskie!

Especially reliable watch with function of a stop of a second-hand. Were issued only for pilots and navigators of military-air forces of the USSR. The watch did not go on free sale. Just in such watch on the sleeve overalls the Soviet cosmonaut Jury Gagarin has made the first piloted flight in space on April, 12th, 1961

Nearly half a century ago, on April 12, 1961, Russian Cosmonaut Yuri Gagarin aboard the spacecraft Vostok One blasted through the Earth's atmosphere to became the first man in space. The watch he wore and relied upon during that historic flight was a Sturmanskie (sometimes written "Shturmanskie"). Like the spacecraft, it too was made in Russia.

At the time, this watch represented the best of Russian timepieces and watch-making technology. The Russian Times, a collector's site with a focus on vintage Soviet watches, describes the watch as "a logical choice, due to the high quality of the movement and inherent accuracy."

The First Watch in Space

On April 12, 06:07 GMT, 1961 Juri Gagarin, at the controls of Vostok One, ushered in a new era, one of manned space flight, and the world was forever changed. The technology that put this man in space and brought him safely home, was some of the newest and most modern equipment available. Ironically, on his wrist was a technology that was already centuries old-- watch making. It may seem odd to us now in this time of extremely accurate quartz watches, but at the time, the mechanical wrist watch was an important piece of gear, and it’s accuracy and reliability were of paramount concern. In light of these concerns, the choice of watch Gagarin took with him would not have been a decision made in haste.

The STURMANSKIE, (Navigator's) which had been issued to new graduates of the prestigious Orenberg Flight School along with their diplomas since the late 1940’s, was a logical choice, due to the high quality of the movement and inherent accuracy of the watch. Gagarin would have been supplied with such a 1st Moscow Watch Factory

Based on an earlier French design, the Lip R26, from which the Soviets purchased the machinery to produce the watch. The SU had updated the design by adding a central seconds complication and a hacking feature that allowed the watch to be precisely stopped and synchronized with a given time signal. A critical detail on any military watch, but especially so on a Navigator’s watch, where often location would be ascertained by correctly estimating where the aircraft was by accurately measuring time to distance.

In adition to the SU putting the first man in space, the Soviets were also first in putting a women into space as well. On June 16, 1963, Valentina Tereshkova, on board Vostok 6, spent three days in space orbiting the earth 48 times before re-entering the atmosphere and parachuting safely to earth. Tereshkova, seen here in the photo, is wearing what appears to be a Sturmanskie.