Raketa “Art Deco” Watch

Following up on my last blog post about my Raketa Azimuth in which I mentioned my Raketa Art Deco watch, I thought I would dig it out and take some photographs. I call this the Raketa Art Deco because the numerals on the watch face remind me of an Art Deco type font or design. Please let me know if you have a name for this watch or if you have any other ideas for a more appropriate name! I think I have only ever seen one other example of this watch. Edit 28/01/19 Looking at the Watches of the USSR website it looks like this might be model Raketa / Paketa model number 518816 (body and hands) with the dial from 516816.

The stainless steel bodied Raketa Art Deco watch is 38mm in diameter, excluding the crown, and has a very gently domed acrylic crystal. The lugs are 18mm. This is about the smallest diameter I feel comfortable with on my wrist, anything else just looks a bit weedy on me. As you can see from the photograph below this watch houses the Raketa 2609 HA manual winding movement with 19 jewels. It was made at the Petrodvorets Watch Factory probably in the early to mid 1990s. The watch face is a dark brown colour with gold numerals. The brown seems to have a slight metallic irridescence to it, which is almost impossible to capture in a photograph (with my amateur skills anyway). Another feature I like are the 12 raised studs on the watch face which just gives the face a bit more character. This is currently only a black leather rally-style watch strap with red stitching which if, I recall correctly, came from Watchbandcenter.com in Germany. I have never really found a watch strap to make this watch “pop” but I have an 18mm Hirsch faux crocodile strap somewhere which I might just try out on it.

Looks like I might need to fill a few holes in my Raketa collection, I must track down a Big Zero, Copernicus and a Perpetual Calendar. Come to think of it I need a 24 hour watch too.