Vostok Amphibia SE 710AN2 Watch Review

A little while ago I noticed a couple of new Vostok Amphibia special edition watches pop up for sale on Soviet Market. There are two models both commemorating the 50th anniversary of the launch of Vostok 1 12th April 1961, the first flight of the Russian Vostok space program. The Vostok 3KA space capsule was the first manned space flight and onboard was the legendary cosmonaut Yuri Gagarin. The two special editions feature design cues taken from the Vostok 1 space craft.

The Vostok Amphibia 710 case shape is also known as the “ministry case”. I am not going to go into any detail about the case design as I feel like I have done that enough in previous blog post. The case (22mm lug width) of the SE 710AN2 is polished stainless steel and houses Vostok’s 31 jewel 2416 automatic movement. Everything about the watch is pretty standard apart from the dial, bezel, bezel insert and hands. The crown and case back look to be standard Vostok Amphibia parts. I am slightly surprised that the standard case back has been used. Surely this would have been an ideal opportunity to use the Gagarin case back as used on the Vostok Amphibia SE 150520S? Perhaps the Gagarin case back is exclusive to Meranom.

Both the SE 710AN2 and the SE 710AH2 are the housed in Vostok watches 710 case shape and both designs essentially the same but with different bezel and dial colours. The model reviewed here, the SE 710AN2 has a central teal blue coloured dial with matching bezel insert. The SE 710AH2 has a beige coloured dial with a black bezel insert. I am not sure quite what the relevance of the teal blue colour is (it is reminiscent of the teal scuba dude model colour) but, according to Soviet Market, the beige colour is inspired by the colour that was used for the body of the Vostok 3KA space capsule.

As I mentioned above the dial to the SE 710AN2 is two tone. The outside of the dial is a brushed steel colour whilst the central part of the dial is teal blue . On the blue part of the dial, above the middle is the classic Vostok “Boctok” logo in black, beneath this in white script is “Vostok 1 1961” and under this is “200m” (the watch is waterproof to 200m). At the bottom of the dial inside the 8 o’clock marker there is black silhouette of the Vostok space capsule rising up over the world with land masses featured in a pale grey blue colour. I have tried to work out which countries are represented but I can’t! At the bottom of the dial it says “Made in Russia”. It would have been nice for this to have been in Cyrillic script (сделано в россии).

The dial features no numerals. There is a circular date window at 3 o’clock and the date wheel is white with black numerals. There are quite large circular markers at the 6, 9 and 12 o’clock marks. The markers are raised from the dial, lumed and feature a cross pattern. According to Soviet Market these represent the compressed gas cylinders which circle the body of the capsule (you can see them in the photograph of Vostok 3KA above). There are smaller, raised circular markers as the other hour markers. The larger markers appear beige, the smaller markers appear pale blue. These colours are reversed on the other model, the SE 710AN2 with the beige central dial. These markers all feature good quality Super Luminova lume. The dial has simple 60 minute markers around the edge of the dial. The first quarter (12 to 3 o’clock) are white, the rest are black. Additionally there are some white minute markers outside the first quarter of the blue part of the dial.

It is difficult to describe the hand shape. The are basically pointed baton hands but they are chunkier towards the centre. I wonder, are they perhaps suppose to be reminiscent of the shape of the Vostok-K carriers rockets that would have launched Vostok 1? The hour and minute hand are steel coloured with a central block of lume which is a pale blue colour. The pale blue lume of the hands matches the lume pip at the 12 o’clock mark on the bezel. The seconds hand is an unlumed pale yellow / beige needle. The hands all have nice length and reach out nicely to the appropriate markers for ease reading.

The bezel is a low profile, stainless steel bezel with a coin edge pattern. The bezel insert is the same teal blue as the main dial colour. There are numerals at 20, 30, 40 and 50 which are teal on a silver grey background as is the lumed pip at 12 o’clock and there are white minute markers for the first third of the bezel insert.

Soviet Market offered the watch with a standard Amphibia bracelet or a choice of Nato strap designs. I currently have mine on a black 5 ring zulu type strap. I am on the look out for a new strap for this watch, but I can’t quite make up my mind what yet. I was perhaps thinking of a NASA style velcro strap (if the whole Russian / American combination is not too incongruous) or perhaps a lighter coloured Marine National style strap.

It is good to see more retailers producing Vostok Amphibia special editions. I think the design has been well executed and that it is a pretty smart homage to that first Vostok flight. The dial quality is good. The the raised indices and printing seems well done. Additionally, it is always interesting to see a new unique hand set design. Let’s hope Soviet Market will be producing more Amphibia Special Editions in the future.

Purchased at $127, approximately £82 in March 2021. I had not bought from Soviet Market before, but their website mentions that they are an “Offical Vostok Dealer” and shipping from Russia to the UK was pretty quick, around 10 days, if I recall correctly. I have since noted these models for sale at komandirskie.com too.