Vostok Amphibia SE 020678S

Happy New Year! I thought it was about time for a new blog post, the first one of 2017. This very nice Vostok Amphibia special edition arrived from Meranom in November last year. I get rather busy with work (selling wine) in November and December, so I didn’t really have a chance to blog about this back when it arrived.

The Vostok SE 020 series (which sold out very quickly – you really can’t procrastinate when these special editions become available), consists of the 020674S, 020675S, 020677s and the 0207678s models. These are the same watch with either a red, black, blue or green dial, bezel and matching strap combos. I opted for the 020678S, the green model, mainly because I don’t really have any Vostok Amphibias which are predominantly green!

Vostok Amphibia SE 020678S

 The Vostok SE 020 series is approximately 41 mms wide, 48 mms lug to lug and has a depth of 15 mms. The lug width is 20mm. The case is polished stainless steel with a rounded, curved shape, slightly curved edges and concave lines leading to the turned down lugs. It seems to most closely resemble the old Komandirskie 34x case shape but without the crown guards. Or perhaps a less angular version of the 670 SE. Interestingly the 020 designation seems to have been used for what is now the 420 case shape in the 1990s. However, the new 020 SE and the old 020 shape don’t particularly share any similarities. I wonder why they re-used it. So it would seem that this is a new case shape. I believe the brushed display case back is a new design too. It features a mineral glass “porthole” approximately 20 mms across. The case back is a little deeper than a standard case, so the watch sits a little higher on the wrist than normal, but not too high (for me at least). The case back features various words in Cyrillic including Chistopol Watch Factory, stainless steel, special edition and 200m (as in waterproof to 200 metres). The crown is stainless steel and signed with the Vostok “B” logo.

The dial of the Vostok Amphibia SE 020678S is a rather pretty green colour (it reminds me of a darkish leaf colour, bay leaf green perhaps) and has an eye-catching sunburst finish. The are no numerals on the dial. Around the edge of the dial there are 60 minute intervals and the lumed hour marker indices are slightly raised which distinguishes it from standard Vostok Amphibia dials. The dial features the Cyrillic words “Boctok”below the 12 o’clock marker and 31 jewels, automatic and 200m above the 6 o’clock marker. There is a date window at 3 o’clock and the date wheel has black numerals on a white background. The hands are unusual for an Amphibia. They normally sport the typical arrow tipped hands (or thick batons for some of the SEs). The hands on this watch are quite narrow, military style lumed batons and the seconds hand is a plain stainless steel needle. I think these lend the watch a slightly dressier look than the normal Vostok Amphibia hands. The lume is adequate (Amphibia owners, will know what I mean!).

The movement is Vostok’s 2416b 31 jewel automatic movement. The watch has a decorated rotor, with a milled striped pattern to it, which is a nice touch. This isn’t the only upgrade to the movement. I haven’t taken the back off to have a look but I can see that most of the screws, the reversing wheels and the regulating arm all seem to be polished. I think this is the first time that Vostok have done this to an Amphibia movement, it certainly looks smarter than usual.

Lastly the bezel. The bezel is a stainless steel uni-directional bezel (I think that this another first on an Amphibia) and has an anodised stainless steel bezel insert, with a slight downward bevel and a lume pip at 12 o’clock. Rather annoyingly the bezel’s lume pip doesn’t quite match up with the 12 o’clock point of the dial. If you read the this thread at Watchuseek F10, this seems to be quite a common complaint. It doesn’t bother me too much but it would be nice if it did line up correctly. There are some very useful instructions about how to remove the bezel using some pure silicone lubricant spray at this thread. I think I might have to give this a go, because the misalignment is noticeable. If I get round to re-aligning it I will have to check and see if other bezel inserts fit this style of bezel (although I’m not sure I would want to swap the bezel out on this watch, it looks pretty good as is). There seems to have been a few quality control issues with the 020 SE range. As well as the bezel misalignment some purchasers were unlucky to have problems with the dial’s hour indices not being straight. That can’t really be fixed easily (certainly beyond me) and it seems that Meranom sent out replacement dials.

So. There you have it. Misaligned bezel or not, I think the Vostok Amphibia SE 020678S is still a very cool looking watch. As mentioned, I had a hankering for a green watch and the sunburst dial catches the light in a very nice way. I think the black model looks very good too. I will try and re-fit the bezel insert when I get a moment but, for now, I think what I really need to do is find a new strap. It comes with a Vostok green silicon diver’s strap with signed buckle (one of Vostok’s better straps) but I think it would look great on a nice, brown, leather strap. I’ll post some pictures when I get round to it!

What next? I really like the look of the Komandirskie K39 390635.