Vostok Retro 540HDR
The Vostok Retro 540HDR wa a 2017 special edition sold by Meranom. As I understand it there was an original run of 75 commissioned as a special order by the Spanish speaking watch forum Hablemos de Relojes (or HDR) – hence the name 540HDR. It seems that the idea behind the watch was to produce a watch to celebrate the 75th anniversary of Vostok factory. The Vostok Watch Makers Company was essentially founded when one of the Moscow-based factories of the First Moscow Watch Factory was evacuated to Chistopol in 1941, with production starting in 1942. It was then known as the Chistopol Watch Factory. From what I have read the run of 75 watches did not either quite sell out, or a few extras were made, which and Meranom decided to sell off. These spares watched were fitted with a plain case back instead of the special case back that was produced for the HDR forum watch. As far as I this is the only difference between this watch and the forum watch.
The watch is a an homage to Russian military watches of the Second World War, in particular the K43. This was originally poduced for Red Army officers was one of the first watches to be produced by the factory at Chistopol. There are some pictures of an original K43 in this French language based Russian Watch Forum. I believe the original K43s were Kirovskie pocket watches which eventually developed into wristwatches. I am no expert on these watches and there seems to be a great variation in designs, there is plenty written about these watches elsewhere.
The Vostok Retro 540HDR based on the Vostok Retro 2415 540 and 550 models, there is a great review at Worn & Wound of these watches. Both 540 and 550 variations came with either a white or a black dial. The 540 models feature a K43 on the dial just inside the 3 hour marker. Many times I nearly pulled the trigger one of these but never did and they are now sold out. There were only a few units of the The Vostok Retro 540HDR watch was available briefly at Meranom and they sold out very quickly, literally within few hours.
The Vostok Retro 540HDR has a brushed stainless steel body. The case is about 42 mm in diameter, approximately 47 mm across with the onion type signed crown. The onion crown is in keeping with the style of crowns on those original K43s. Lug to lug it is 50 mm with a lug width of 20 mm and a depth of 12 mm. The top 3 or 4 mms of the case has a coin edge type pattern to it, it sort of looks like a moveable bezel, but it isn’t. As mentioned before, the case back on this particular watch is plain with no markings. The HDR forum watch features a Soviet star with “rays of dawn” type pattern, the “B” Vostok logo, 1941 – 2016 and a serial number (out of 75). There is a picture of this case back here.
The movement is an automatic, 31 jewel movement. I didn’t take the case back off to have a look at it or photograph, because I didn’t want to scratch the case, please let me know if you can confirm the movement type. The crystal is silicate glass.
The dial is an off-white, pale cream (ivory, perhaps) colour surrounded by a plain, brushed steel chapter ring. The dial features arabic numerals 1 through to 12 which have a black outline encompassing a pale orangey-pink lume. This is intended to imitate the vintage type lume of the original K43 watches and it featured in the hands too. Outside of the hour numerals is a internal 24 hours scale in black with minute divisions and numerals 13 through to 24 on the hours points. The dial features a ЧЧЗ logo above the 6 o’clock marker. ЧЧЗ was originally stamped on movements made at the Chistopol factory. There is a small seconds sub-dial just inside of the 10 o’clock marker with a simple black design, small plain black second hand and 15, 30, 45 and 60 second markers. As always the pictures tell the full story.
The hour and minute hands a known as “cathedral” hands presumably because they are reminiscent of church window designs. However, as with many things horological, there seems to be some discussion about the name of this hand design. Some people call this hand type “squelette” or “skeleton” hands but most seem to call them cathedral hands. If you want to find out more there are some great posts here and here about various watch hand types. The watch came with a black leather strap with white stitching and buckle signed with the “B” type Vostok logo.
I really like this watch. It is a good homage to the K43 field watches of the Second World War with hints of vintage and the new. It is a good point of difference for me and quite a different style from the usual Vostok Amphibia divers styles that I normally wear. The watch is quite large on my wrist (7 1/2 inches) but sits well and, for me, it is quite a dressy watch. I have been thinking of changing the strap for something a little more military looking in brown leather. There are some really interesting vintage inspired field watch straps at Vintage Watch Straps, with some great customer pictures to drool over.
