Vostok Komandirskie K-28 280683

I really have been enjoying the Vostok Komandirskie k-28 280681 that I recently acquired, so much so that I decide to pick up another, the Vostok Komandirskie 280683. Whilst the 280681 has a blue dial, a classic dial design that it is very similar to dials that can be found in some of the older Vostok 2234s, this watch has a black classic field watch dial. It is very similar to dials that can be found in all sorts of field style watches like the Hamilton Khaki, Marathon GSAR or Timex Expedition. There is no hard and fast definition of a field watch, but I think it is safe to say that a field watch should be a rugged, military inspired watch with a relatively clean dial for ease of reading. The dials are often fairly plain black with white or yellow markings for this reason.

I am more of a fan of the Vostok Amphibia than I am of the Komandirskie, however I do have a few Komandirskies in my collection eschewing the myriad of classic “old school” Komandirskie watches for some of the more recent designs like the Vostok Komandirskie K-34 GMT Automatic , Vostok Komandirskie 350353 and Vostok Komandirskie Classic 650539. Whilst the Amphibia is essentially a diver’s watch the Komandirskie range is the military option and the dials often feature more military style logos and images.

The basic description (case size, movement etc.) of the Vostok Komandirskie K-28 280683 can be found in my previous review of the Vostok Komandirskie 280681 from the same range, so really I am just going to talk about the dial. As mentioned above, the dial here is a classic field watch style. This watch features a matt black dial with white and yellow markings. The dial is surrounded by a silver chapter ring. Inside this at the outside of the dial are sixty simple white minute markers, each of these is also split into three with smaller markers. There are lume pips at the 12 hour markers. The hour markers are marked with simple numerals (1 through to 12). The numerals are in a fairly simple font although there is a bit of design flair in the shapes of 4 and 7, for example. Inside the large white hour marker numerals there are a set of smaller yellow numerals. These start with 13 inside the 1 through to 23 inside the 11 (there is an inverted triangle under the 12). Military forces tend to work with the 24 hour clock and I suppose these extra numerals make it a little bit easier to work with the 24 hour clock, although, in practice, I think most people brains wouldn’t need this extra prompting. This dial layout is common in field style watches. There is a date window at 3 o’clock with white numerals on a black background, which blends nicely in with the black dial.

The Vostok Komandirskie 280683 dial features the worded “Komandirskie” logo beneath the 12 o’clock, “17 jewels” above 6 o’clock and “Made in Russia” (сделано в России) at the bottom of the dial. The hour and minute hands are the standard straight Komandiskie style and the seconds hand is a yellow needle style which matches the yellow of the 24 hour numerals. The hands are all a good length and reach the outside of dial nicely, or to the inside of the hour markers in the case of the hour hand, all of which makes reading the time easier. The lume pips and the hour and minute hands are all well lumed. If I have one criticism it is that it would have been nice for the second hand, the numerals or, at very least, the inverted triangle under 12 o’clock to be lumed too. This would greatly enhance the readability of the dial in dark conditions.

This watch and the 280683 have been getting a fair bit of wrist time recently. They both came with pretty good quality zulu style straps, a nice military green one in this case. However, I am not the biggest fan of the zulu strap, I think there are too many rings, and I have been trying out both watches on various Nato straps. Whilst the drilled out lugs and screw in bars are a nice touch, it is a bit more fiddly changing straps if one wants to swap over to a standard spring bar type watch strap. I fancy something leather on this one. Now, where did I put my little screwdriver?

Purchased for approximately £43 from komandirskie.com in October 2019 (which I think is ridiculously cheap!).