Vostok Buran Polar Bear Franken No 1

So what is a Franken watch?

As you might suspect the name derives from Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein, in which a science student, Viktor Frankenstein, creates a sentient humanoid being from all sorts of bits and pieces. So put simply a Franken watch is a watch that is together from any bits and pieces that are non-original. I only going speak mainly about my Russian watches, and probably mostly about Vostok watches but there is an interesting thread about Omega Franken watches at Watchuseek.

Put most simply I suppose you could say a Franken watch is a watch that has been put together using some parts or pieces in a configuration not originally supplied by manufacturer.

But where does that leave modding? After all many people spend ages modding their watches with aftermarket parts which are quite readily available (especially for Seiko divers), and there are more aftermarket parts becoming available for Vostoks. There are plenty of alternative bezels, bezel inserts, spare dials and, hopefully soon, Vostok aftermarket hands to be found. This combined with the modular nature of a lot of Vostok Amphibias and Komandirskie watches means that anyone with a little knowledge, and most of it can be found on YouTube, can put together the particular Vostok configuration they want. I certainly don’t see a refurbished or modded watch as a Franken watch…. as long as all concerned parties know about it and it is not sold as authentic.

So perhaps a better description of a Franken watch would a modded watch that is passed off as something original or authentic and, let’s face it, perhaps that is when terms like counterfeit or fraudulent might be more appropriate.

Doing some research about Franken watched I see that there is plenty of discussion about  Franken watches in various forums, not just with Russian watches, but also with Omegas, Rolexes etc. etc. I also found an interesting article from 2014 about muscian John Mayer sueing a watch dealer to the stars in Hollywood for selling him Rolex Franken watches.

Which leads me to my little Franken. I call this Vostok Buran Polar Bear Franken No 1. I have another Vostok / Buran Franken with a polar bear dial which I will post about shortly (link to follow).

Vostok Buran Polar Bear Dial Franken No 1

This interesting watch has the crown positioned at the 12 o’clock point. I puchased this on Ebay and was 100% sure that it was a Franken watch but I had not seen one quite like this before. The thing that caught my eye was the unusual crown position and I wanted it for the novelty value. Of course buying Russian watches for a bit of spare change is much less of an investment / risk than the tens of thousands that it costs to buy a rare Rolex or Patek Philippe so I was happy to take a punt.

The dial is a light beige / cream colour with black Arabic hour numerals. There is also an outer black minutes ring with 13 to 24 hours marked in red. The dial also features a black line drawing of a polar bear, the name Buran in cyrillic (Буран) and a couple of words in cyrillic at the bottom including a smudged CCCP ( a clue to a home-printed dial maybe).

The hands are black with “moon” type markers on the hour and minutes hands and a black needle seconds hand. The case back features a pretty floral design consisting of a flower and three leaves. The watch is fitted with the Vostok 2409A 17 jewel hand-winding movement. A workhorse movement that is still used by Vostok. The watch case diameter is 39mm, about 42mm with crown and it is about 12mm thick.

So what is this Franken Watch?

I didn’t know to start of with, so I asked around on a couple of Facebook groups and at the Watchuseek F10 forum and it seems that the hand and the caseback were the major giveaways. It is certainly not a Buran. It is, in fact, a Vostok pocket work conversion. At some point someone has a attached (brazed?) the two one piece lugs to the watch case and removed the small guards that would have been around the crown. They have done a pretty tidy job. Pocket watch conversions are not rare, Molnija pocket watch conversions are very common, but this is the first time I have seen a Vostok pocket watch conversion and I like it. The dial still bothers me… and the crown. I have not seen this dial before and it is possible it is not a real Buran dial. Maybe it is homeprinted and smudged. Maybe the smudge is damage from when the dial was transferred from a donor watch. The crown is positioned so that it is very difficult to get at with one’s fingers, almost impossible.

So, there it is, a Franken watch. Or a pocket watch conversion. The first of only two I (knowingly) own. More on the other later. I think I might try and source an original Vostok pocket watch and switch an original dial from that into this conversion. After all, I think the watch looks pretty good on the zulu strap. That might just have to be one of my next projects.

A few wrist shots on a tan leather 5 ring zulu watch strap.