Vostok Komandirskie K-28

The Vostok Komandirksie K-28 first appeared in the Summer of 2019. It sits in the Vostok classic Komandirskie range alongside other watches such as the K-35, K-39 etc.

The Komandirskie K-28 was released in four different configurations:

280684 – Navy blue dial, white marking with an anchor logo at 6 o’clock, white seconds hand, date window at 3 o’clock, and blue markings on the bezel.

280683 – Black dial with white and yellow numerals with yellow seconds hand, date window at 3 o’clock and black markings on the bezel. Reviewed here.

280680 – classis Komandirskie dial design, white marking on black dial, red seconds hand, no date window and black markings on the bezel.

280681 – A dark blue version of the classic dial in the 280680, red seconds hand, no date window and black markings on the bezel – the watch reviewed here.

The cases and bezels for all 4 models are a matt dark grey coloured stainless steel. The case has a very substantial, chunky look. If I had to describe the K-28 case I would say it looks like a more muscular big brother to the Vostok Amphibia 060 (see image below). The case has a diameter of 44 mm including the crown (the crown guards are quite prominent protecting the crown), lug to lug it is 50 mm and it is 13 mm deep. The lug width is 20 mm. Someone at Meranom’s website asked if this the case and bezel was made in China, the response was, “No. 100% made in Chistopolcity”, which is good to hear. The movement is Vostok’s 2409, 17 jewel hand-winding movement. The screw-down case back features an etched Komandirskie logo and specifies that the watch is water resistant to 100 metres.

Having done a little further research into the K-28 case design to my eye it looks very similar to the cases and bezels of the second generation of “civilian” Vostok Design Ratnik watches. The Ratnik has the crown on the left hand side, the K-28 on the right, at 3 o’clock. The designs look like mirror images. There is a video review of the watch I mean here and some great pictures of various Ratniks, including the second generation style I am talking about at www.russian-watch.it. I don’t own a Ratnik (yet!), so I can’t compare these in the flesh.

The biggest upgrades to the design, I would say, are the bezel and the lugs. The watch has a convex, plastic style crystal, similar to those found in a Vostok Amphibia, but the large new bezel, which has a depth of approximately 6 mm, is raised above the top of the crystal offering a significant improved level of protection to crystal over shallower styles of bezels. The bezel is bi-directional and has quite nicely grippy edges. As mentioned above, the bezel has engraved markings which are filled black. I wonder if these bezels would fit a standard Vostok Amphibia?

The lugs are drilled out and the spring bar is fitted using two small slot type screws, one on either side of the case, side view picture shows this. I haven’t taken these apart yet, but I assume they would be easy enough to replace if need be. I haven’t seen drilled out lugs on a Vostok before. The crown is stainless steel (matt dark grey, matching the case and bezel) and appears to be a standard Vostok Amphibia crown.

The dial has a attractive navy blue colour with a slight pearlescent finish. The dial design for the 280681 (and the 280680) is a classic old Komandirskie design which I recognise from some old vintage Vostok watches. It can be seen in the Vostok Komandirskie Chistopol reference 783430 at this page, for example. There is a silver chapter ring surrounding the dial. The dial features the “squared off” numerals at hour markers 12, 3, 6 and 9 with simple white bars for the other hour markers. There 60 simple white second markers around the outside of the dial with a good pip of lume outside of the hour markers. The dial features the the Cyrillic inscriptions “Komandirskie” below the 12 o’clock, a red star logo with “17 jewels” above the 6 o’clock and “Made in Russia” at the very bottom of the dial. The hands are the classic Vostok Komandirskie hands, silver baton style hour and minutes hands with pointed ends and a good application of lume down the centre. The seconds hand is a red style needle hand which stretches nicely to the edge of the dial to meet the seconds markers.

The Vostok Komandirskie K-28 is supplied with a five ring zulu type strap. The strap with the 280681 is a nice, navy blue with matt dark grey rings which the dial and case very well.

The Vostok Komandirskie K-28 sits well on my seven and a half inch wrist, I don’t think it looks overly large. I like the design of the bezel and case with the matt, dark grey colour. It looks pretty smart, if these had a polished finish I have a feeling the watch would look bigger and more than a little indiscrete. The deeper style of bezel and the fact that is does offer more protection to the crystal is a good thing, however the extra height and the zulu strap does make the watch sit quite high. I might be tempted to fit a two part strap so that it sits a little lower. All in all, this is a fairly brutish looking Vostok, not in a bad way. It makes me want to seek out one of those second generation Ratniks.

The watch cost the equivalent of around £43 in May 2019. Purchased from www.komandirskie.com. A pretty sharp price, I think you’ll agree.