Watches from Eastern Europe

Watches from Eastern Europe - Raketa

Raketa have apparently gone out of business - although I have heard that they have restarted? (See also Michael Abraham's Raketa Conspiracy web page!) I suspect they made a lot of normal watches, but what you can find of theirs on the Internet these days is 24 hour watches, and an unusual perpetual calendar watch.

Here's a link to a review.

Luch in Belarus are making something that looks basically the same but with a quartz movement.

For a review of the Luch and Raketa perpetual calendars, see Michael Abraham's calendar watch reviews.

I know someone who lived in Pakistan for some years. He says that they got a lot of Raketas there - but they didn't last long. After a couple of years the crown didn't wind the watch, as if it was somehow disconnected inside (I wonder if the mainspring was broken?)
I also know someone from Russia who says that those watches were quite possibly cheap copies from China.... hmm...

Here's a 24 hour watch with world cities and antarctic bases on a rotating ring around the edge.