Please
Note: All of my vintage Soviet watches
are serviced and restored by professionals in The Ukraine. Their shops are now
shuttered during the conflict there. We
hope that peace is restored soon and that we can, once again, offer their
products to you.
On April 12, 1961, Yuri
Gagarin made the
first manned flight in outer space on the rocket, Vostok
1. In honor of this achievement, the Petrodvorets Watch
Factory named its watches "Rocket"; Raketa in Russian. At the height of the Cold
War, however, the name "Raketa" was perceived
negatively in the West, as the word was associated with the latest generation of
Soviet intercontinental ballistic missiles, the R-16. During Soviet times it became one of the most produced
watch brands in the world. In the 1970s the factory produced about five million
mechanical watches per year.
Over the years, the
Petrodvorets Watch Factory has produced more than two dozen versions of Raketa
movements. Some have been equipped with features such as automatic winding,
calendars, 24-hour models for polar explorers, anti-magnetic watches (for use
in case of nuclear attack), as well as watches for the military. Mechanical
Raketa watches were exported to many Eastern Bloc and communist countries and
are considered one of the most durable and reliable movements in the world. By
the 1980s Raketa was producing five million watches a year.
The Petrodvorets Watchmaking School
Being one of the few
watch brands in the world producing its own movements, the factory has created
its own watchmaking school, the Petrodvorets Watchmaking School, to ensure the
transmission of watchmaking expertise to future generations. The
only one left in the schooling program has been established in collaboration
with the Saint Petersburg
Technical institute.
Hairsprings and Escapements
The Petrodvorets Watch
Factory Raketa, is one of only five watch brands in the world producing their
movements in-house from start to finish, including hairsprings and escapements.
Most watch brands globally do not produce their own hairsprings, they generally
order them from Nivarox, a subsidiary of Swatch Group. This enables the Russian
military industry to be independent from western suppliers, especially for
producing hairsprings needed in the military aviation industry.
The Petrodvorets Watch
Factory
Raketa is only one of
the brands produced by the Petrodvorets Watch Factory, albeit
probably its most famous brand. Other Petrodvorets brands include Pobeda and
Talberg among others. Before the Russian Revolution (1917), the factory also
produced objects made of precious and semi-precious stones
for the Tsar and his family. Later, it began to produce goods for military
manufacturers as well as "jewels" for the watch industry. In 1949,
the factory released the first wristwatches under the names Zvezda ("Звезда",
star) and Pobeda ("Победа", victory). The
factory's own watches, sold under the brand name Raketa, first appeared in
1961.
We offer free, first class domestic shipping and ship worldwide Priority Mail to insure safe, swift, and reliable shipping to our international customers for a flat fee of $34.00. (Canada may be slightly less)
Please note, we offer our items on multiple sites and will not be
removed from other sites until payment has been received and rarely may mean
that your selection may be sold out prior to your payment has posted.
We do our best to accurately describe items on our site and, if for any reason, you are disappointed in your purchase we will provide a swift and satisfactory resolution to your concern.