CCCP by Poljot International
I don’t often buy watches from Ebay unless it is from a seller that I know with a good reputation. However, I broke my own rules a few weeks ago and picked up a CCCP Special Edition by Poljot International from a seller here in the UK. Normally I do a bit more research before I pull the trigger, but this was going pretty cheap, so I thought, caution be damned! There is a bit of a shortage of slightly slimmer, dressier watches in my collection, so took a chance. Probably the only similar style watch i have is the Vostok Komandirskie 1965 Special Edition.
After it arrived, I thought I would look into CCCP and Poljot International a little more. Completely the wrong way round, I know. It would seem that the history of Poljot, Poljot International and the diversification of Poljot International brands is a little complicated.
So, whilst this might not be a Russian watch in the strictest sense of the word, it looks as if it has a Russian movement albeit if the watch is designed and put together in Germany, but it has a Russian feel and some Russian heritage. Thus I include this review much like I did my recent Buyalov Radioroom review.
A little history…
Poljot and Poljot International
It would seem that Poljot International was originally set up as a company to import and market Russian watches in Germany. The company, Poljot-V GmBH, was initially founded in Frankfurt, Germany in 1992. The company’s director, Russian emigré, Alexander Shorokhoff, launched the Poljot International brand in 1994 with the aim of producing German designed and manufactured, high quality watches using Russian watch movements from Poljot, independent of Poljot itself, but with designs that reflect and pay homage to the original Russian heart and soul of the original Poljot watches.
The original Poljot watches were made at the First Moscow Watch Factory. The factory began producing watches in 1930, and started using the Poljot brand name in 1961. The First Moscow Watch Factory effectively ceased production on the late 2000s when it was bought by Russian businessman Sergeï Pugachev. Some ex Poljot employees bought the production line machinery and reconvened under the name Volmax (making brands such as Aviatior, Buran and Shturmanskie) using Russian movements made by Maktime. Maktime went bankrupt around 2012 and Volmax has since relocated to Switzerland where they make watches using various movements including Swiss quartz movements by Ronda.
Today all Poljot International watches are made in Germany using a variety of movements. Alexander Shorokhoff not only owns Poljot International but also produces a number of other watch brands. He founded Alexander Shorokhoff in 2003 in Alzenau, Bavaria, sa a premium, expensive range of watches with some very playful and artistic designs, particularly in the Avantgarde range, as well as the “Traditional” range made using vintage Russian and Swiss movements. There is also the CCCP by Poljot International range, a range of slight more affordable watches made with, according to their website “Restored Russian Slava Watch Movements”. There is also various other brands including Basilika, Moscow Nights and Nights of St Petersburg.
As I think you’ll agree, it is a bit of a convoluted story and the network of brands is actually not very clear, at least not to me!
CCCP by Poljot International
This watch is a decent size for my 7 and a half inch wrist, although a little smaller than I am used to wearing Vostok Amphibias most of the time. This CCCP watch measures 38mm in diameter (42 with crown), 45mm lug to lug, depth is approximately 9/10mm and it has a lug width of 20mm. The movement appears to be an unsigned Slava 2414 movement, a hand-winding compact movement. As with other Slava movements, like the 2428 in the Slava “Watermelon”, the 2414 feature two mainspring barrels coupled together with an idler gear. As it appears unsigned, I am not sure if it is a genuine Slava movement, it is possible it could be a copy of some sort. I am not keen on the plastic movement holder, but I guess it is not that surprising on a cheap-ish watch. The most similar current models at the CCCP website seem to be the “Heritage” line. They seem to- have Slava 2416 automatic movement and the finish and quality seems a little higher. I guess that this particular watch dates from some time in the 2000s.
The watch features a domed acrylic crystal. There is a screw down case back which includes the wording CCCP by Poljot International, Stainless Steel, Water Resistant 5 ATM as well as 9999, I assume the number produced. The centre of the case back has some images of various Russian-inspired images of basilika, church steeples etc. and “1922-1991”. The crown has a nice whorled, pattern to the edge and features a grid style etched pattern on the end.
I have seen various dials for this model, some with numerals and some with 12 hour markers. The dial of this watch is a little different. It is a matt black colour with 4 curved lines across the dial which I think are probably supposed to be reminiscent of the globe shape of the Sputnik 1 satellite. There are silver, double bar hour markers at 12, 3, 6, and 9. Unusually these are rotated through 180 degrees as to how one might normally expect watch indices to applied, pointing to the centre of the dial. The hands are simple slightly tapering baton style hands with a central application of lume (there is no lume on the dial). The seconds hand is a needle style hand with a circular shape at the non pointy end. The dial features a large “CCCP” in silver grey beneath the 12 o’clock mark with “Special Edition by Poljot- International” above the 6 o’clock point.
Overall, this is a fairly elegant, classic, simple watch. It is nice and slim and sits nicely under a jacket and shirt cuff. This watch came with a good quality Rios 1931 black leather strap. I do like the fact that this watch has a 20mm lug width, I think that anything less than 20mm can sometimes look a little bit weedy. I have had this watch a few weeks now and have worn it a few times, but I still can’t make up my mind whether I like it! I will have to see how it grows on me. At the very least I might keep it as a dress watch for the rare occasions I get the chance to wear black tie!
This CCCP watch was purchased from Ebay at a cost of £45 in early 2019.