Vostok Amphibia SE 670370S

As you probably know I am sucker for the Special Edition Vostok Amphibia watches which pop up from time to time at Meranom. I was having a look at the website the other day and I noticed a Special Edition (SE) that I had not seen before, in a new case shape, the 670SE. By the time I got round to buying the Vostok Amphibia SE 670370S, my first choice, which would have probably been the SE 670454S (24 hour movement) had already sold out.

There appear to be three options, all shown on blue (or perhaps black) silicon straps, although I note there is an option to purchase with a red, black, green or mesh strap.

SE 670333S – military type, 12 hour dial with a black bezel insert, 2416B movement

SE 670370S  – I always called this the “sniper” type dial, more below (what does everyone else call it?) – with a more standard Amphibia bezel, 2416B movment

SE 670454S – military type, 24 hour dial, 24 hour movement (2431) with a black bezel insert

Vostok Amphibia SE 670370S

The 670Se case is, of course, stainless steel. It is a quite angular octagonal shape and is, as far as I can work out, an homage to the Vostok Amphibia 470 case type – you can see some great photographs of examples of the Vostok Amphibia 470 in this thread at the Watchuseek Russian Watch Forum and www.foroderelojes.es (a Spanish forum).

Here is a picture of it up against one of my Albatross watches. The 670 case is a little bit larger than the 470.

As mentioned, this is more commonly known as the Albatross case and the watches feature an antimagnetic shield. Interesingly both the SE 670333S and SE 670454S feature the word “Антимагнитные” meaning antimagnetic on their dial and I am led to believe they have an antimagnetic shield. The Se 670370s does not feature this on the dial.

As mentioned the 670SE case is octagonal in shape. The dimensions are case width 41mms, 49mms lug to lug, approximately 15mms deep and it has a 20mm lug width, which is good because I sometimes feel the standard 18mm lug width is a bit weedy.

The Vostok Amphibia SE 670370S comes with what I have recently seen described as the “sniper” dial, as I suppose it is reminiscent (intentionally or not, I don’t know) of a sniper sight. The dial itself is matt black and features the large numerals 12 and 6 at the 12 and 6 o’clock points. The other indices are raised lumed bars. There is a chapter ring with 60 minute gradations on it. The dial also features 5 horizontal white lines, the “sniper sights”, the old Boctok logo and the word “Автоподзавод” in cyrillic (meaning automatic). This watch also has a date window at 3 o’clock which displays white numbers on a black background, which looks smart with the black dial. I know that most Amphibia purists will probably prefer the more traditional dial of the SE 670333S but I have always had a soft spot for this dial, it has a rather funky, retro, 1970s feel to it. I have this dial in orange in this Amphibia SE 090 too. The hands are the baton type hands with a small point and the second hand is orange with a lume dot towards the tip. The crown is stainless steel with the Vostok logo.  The bezel is the one described as the 090 bezel by Meronom and has a lume dot at 12 o’clock. The watch features Vostok’s workhorse 2416B movement, an automatic / self-winding movement with a 31 hour power reserve. The watch is waterproof to 200 – read more about the ingenious waterproofing design here.

The back of the watch has the Boctok Scubadude. I took the back off to have a look and it seems that this case back is lined with some extra metal (I guess some antimagnetic) and it is also heavier and a bit deeper than the standard caseback.

For Vostok, this watch also comes on a pretty nice strap, a good quality silicon diver’s strap with the Vostok “B” type logo on the buckle.

The shape of the 670SE case type. is very nice. I like the way that it evokes the design of the old Vostok Amphibia 470 case shape (I now realise I need to pick one of these up for my collection). The watch sits well on my (nearly) 8 inch wrist and looks a decent size, similar to the dimensions of the 110 case type. It is a very nice addition to the collection and it will be interesting to see if any standard 670 model ever appear. I will most likely try out a few bezels with this in due course, but I rather like the look, and low profile, of the 090 bezel. If I do change anything I think I might put this on a dark brown leather strap for something a bit more smart casual. For me, the 670 SE is an instant favourite.