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Vostok |
I had three watches from the GDR, before it was rejoined with West Germany. They were all branded 'Saxon'. 'Saxon' was apparently an export brand for the nationalised GDR (East German) company Ruhla. A watchmaker has told me that these days former East German brands have gone upmarket in quality and price. I've never even seen a newer Eastern German watch, let alone held one, but by all accounts they are among the finest watches available. (And they deservedly fit with the general aura of 'German quality'. The Russian watches have a much harder time with image building, because no matter how good the watch, the reputation of Russian manufacturing is not so good. But from the watches I have seen (admittedly only from the outside), I'm hoping that reputation will improve)). They are basic mechanical wind-up watches, and have a basic, utilitarian appearance. Click on the picture if you'd like a bigger view Only one of mine was working. It lost a minute and a few seconds each day, but I expect it could be adjusted to be more accurate. A watchmaker who worked on a non-working one said that it was a 'pin pallet' design, as opposed to most watches which are 'Swiss lever'. As such it has no jewels in the mechanism. Apparently it is more like a full size clock, scaled down. The back says 'Electronically Timed'. As I understand it, this isn't referring to anything inside the watch, but rather before it left the factory it was timed against something else, for accuracy. |