Vostok Amphibia 1967 196500

The Vostok Amphibia 1967 196500 is a limited edition Vostok Amphibia that was released in summer 2017 to celebrate the 50th anniversary of the beginning of production of the Vostok Amphibia model. 2017 also coincides with the 75th anniversary of the foundation the Vostok Watch Inc. factory at Chistopol.

As anyone who has read my blog will already know, I am a massive Vostok Amphibia fan and as soon as this was put on sale at Meranom’s website, I logged in an tried to buy one. Mild panic ensued as the website crashed, I couldn’t place an order. It had been trailed a few weeks in advance and I guess everyone else was trying to do the same. To make matters worse I was at work and couldn’t stay at the computer to keep retrying. Luckily, I managed to try few more times and managed to snag this beauty, number 48 out of a run of 200 limited edition watches.

Vostok 1967 Limited Edition

In early 2008 Vostok released another limited edition Vostok Amphibia 1967 to celebrate the Amphibia’s 40th anniversary. There were two models available the Amfibia 1967 2415/190465 on a rubber strap and the Amfibia 1967 2415/190476 on a steel bracelet. If you follow the links you can see the specifications for these. At the time these were being sold for around $216 and $235 respectively. I was really only just getting into Russian watches 10 years ago and didn’t really know enough about Vostok watches and, at the time, I wouldn’t have dreamed of spending that much on a Russian watch (how times change). The 2008 releases appear to have the same case dimensions as the new release, the Vostok Amphiba 1967 196500, but the cases were made from stainless steel. They also had rather funky all white paddle hands. I still haven’t seen one in the flesh and would like to pick one up sometime. I have recently seen them being offered for sale, second hand, for around $800 to $900, which might just be a little rich for me.

Vostok Amphibia 1967 196500

Limited Edition of 200 watches. Waterproof to 200m.

The Case

The first thing I noticed about the new 1967 is it’s weight, it feels pretty heavy. So, I had to weight it! With the strap (I’m not going to fiddle with that just yet) it weighs around 139g. I weighed one of my other Amphibias in an 090 case and that in weighed 89g. So there is quite a big weight difference. The 1967 case is a lot thicker and more solid all around. The standard 090 case is 41mm wide excluding crown, 48 mms lug to lug, 15mm deep and has 22mm lugs. The 1967 196500 is approximately 42 x 50.2 x 15mm with 22mm lugs but it feels much chunkier. The depth of the standard 090 includes about 2mm of the domed plastic crystal. The 1967 has a flat crystal so that extra 2mm is all there in the case somewhere – hopefully the pictures will explain.

The Vostok Amphiba 1967 196500 is made from a bronze listed by Meranom as CuSn8. This is a type of phosphor bronze alloy with an 8% tin component. As anyone who studied chemistry will tell you Cu = copper and Sn = tin and, I guess, the 8 refers to the 8%. I had to do a bit of Google-ing but, apparently CuSn8 is the strongest of all the commonly used phosphor bronze alloys and has good corrosion resistance to sea water, it is considered a marine grade alloy, which is pretty handy in a diver’s watch. Bronze watch cases are not new, but they seem to have grown in popularity in recent years. Brands that I have discovered which made CuSn8 Bronze cases include big names, like Panerai and IWC, and a whole host of smaller brands including Archimede, Borealis, Ancon, Steinhart, Magrette, Helson and Benarus. Over time bronze develop a natural patina and apparently CuSn8 develops a deep, dark brown patina. The case is brushed with a radial pattern on top and vertical brushing down the sides.

The Bezel & Crystal

The bronze bezel has one of the classic 090 Amphibia bezel patterns with black and red markings and good-sized dot of Super-Luminova lume at 12. It is a unidirectional bezel with a nice, solid feel, 60 clicks around and has a depth of approximately 5mm. As with the case, it feels solid and well-built. Whereas the case has a brushed pattern to it, the bezel has more of a matt look to it. The crystal is made from sapphire glass with an anti-reflective coating. It is a flat crystal and it is inline with the bezel (unlike the more usual domed plexiglass crystal of a normal Amphibia).

The Dial

The watch has a sandwich type dial (which I have written about a little bit about before here) which was essentially a dial developed in the 1930s and 1940s in an effort to produce a more luminous dial for ease of reading. Panerai, tasked with producing watches for the Royal Italian Navy were one of the early developers of such dials. There is a very good article about sandwich dials, and their variants, at the Fratello Watches website here.

The result of the sandwich dial is that the hour markers and numerals appear slightly recessed. The dial features the numerals 12, 3, 6 and 9 and each has a smaller recessed lume dot outside it. The other hour markers are plain strips of lume. There are 60 second markers around the outside of the dial, on the dial, rather than recessed like the other markers and the dial is surrounded by a plain bronze chapter ring. The dial features the old “Boctok” logo beneath the 12 and a small “1967” above the 6. The lume is Super-Luminova. It is very bright, pretty persistant and appears to have a light greenish / white colour.

I initially thought the dial was black in colour, but it is actually a very dark brown. The finish of the dial surface has a slightly textured look to it, almost a slightly unpolished metallic look. Meranom describes it as “rock surface”.

The Hands

The hands are the classic Vostok “Paddle” type – because they look like paddles! Paddle hands seem to be pretty specific to Vostok watches. I can’t really think of any other brands that use this style. I suppose some Strela watches have a slightly more delicate version of these. The hands are bronze coloured but from most angles and, in most lights, the bronze appears almost black (you can probably see this in the photographs). The lollipop seconds hand is also bronze coloured. All with Super-Luminova lume.

The Caseback

The caseback and the tension ring that holds it in place appear to be stainless steel. The centre part of the caseback is matt and features the Boctok “B” logo, thw word Amphibia in Cyrillic script across the centre and “1967”. There is an outer ring of Russian words including 200m, 31 jewels and Boctok 2415 amongst others (please let me know what else it says). At the bottom of the caseback is a small “048/200” signifying my watch is number 48 of a limited run of 200 watches.

 

The Crown

The screw down crown is bronze, with a nice sharp, straight knurl. It is signed with the Vostok “B” type logo and measures about 8mm in diameter, a little larger than standard crowns.

The Movement

I am not going to take the back off to have a look at the movement (yet), I don’t want to scratch the case. The watch is equipped with Vostok’s automatic, self-winding 2415 movement with 31 jewels and a 31 hour power reserve. There are plenty of pictures of this around. I wonder if there are any surprises under the caseback?

The Strap

The strap is a pretty well made, light brown / tan leather Vostok strap. It is soft and supple and tapers from 22mm at the lug end to 20mm at the buckle end. The buckle itself is bronze and signed with the Boctok logo. The strap will probably be replaced for something a little nicer, and perhaps darker in colour, in the future, although I would also consider a black or coffee coloured Isofrane.

The Vostok Amphiba 1967 196500 is presented in a brown card watch box and comes with a small warranty leaflet which provides a little bit of history about the Vostok Amphibia and the watch specifications in both English and Russian.

The watch was originally on sale for $385. Some might think this is a lot of money for a Vostok, but the build and feel of this is of a far superior quality to the classic, and also other special edition, Amphibias. I think, on balance, the watch is worth the money. I have other dive watches from Seiko and Maranez that cost a little bit less, but the build quality of the Vostok 1967 seems better. It is pretty heavy and it is quite large on my 7 1/2 inch wrist but not overly so. I do hope the photographs do this justice. It is a really nice piece and I am very happy with it. It think would be great if Vostok would add a permanent 1967 model to their range, it would have to have a point of difference to the limited edition models, but I suspect there would be a demand for it.

Comments welcome!