The Last Bargain: NOS Poljot 3133 Chronograph Review

Let me begin by stating that the title of this review is a bit misleading. The watch you see above is probably not the very last inexpensive new old stock (NOS) Poljot chronograph floating around on the world wide tag sale. If you are patient and look hard enough, others can be probably be found. That being said, however, inexpensive Poljot 3133s are nowhere near as common as the were a few years back. Frankly, you are far more likely to find a new Volmax with this movement (or one derived from it) on the high side of $500 nowadays. It's a shame that truly cheap 3133 powered chronographs are becoming scarce but I suppose the party had to end sooner or later. With the dollar as weak as it is now (circa 2011) and the reality that the 3133 is a terrific movement that is really worth a fair price, I'm really quite happy that I found this one for only $159.00.

The watch arrived, new in the box, with the tag still on and without a band. To be honest, the lack of a band didn't bother me as Russian leather bands have generally been a disappointment every time I've encountered them. The example you see above currently resides on a beautiful Hirsch Trapper that I picked up from Watchprince a few years back. It's a nice soft padded leather band that, I think, compliments the watch nicely. The watchcase itself measures 39 mm in width (42mm with the crown) 45mm lug to lug, has an 18mm band lug width and is 12mm in thickness. It appears to be made of chrome-plated brass with a snap-on stainless steel case back. The crystal is a domed type made of acrylic. Water resistance is not stated so I would assume little to none in this category. Lastly, there is no lume whatsoever on the hands or watch face. That's ok with me as this is clearly a dress style watch. This particular example was produced after the wall came down. The included paperwork states that the watch was manufactured in 1996. That is consistent with the "Made in Russia" mark at the six o'clock point on the dial. Earlier models would have been marked CCCP.

Internally, this Poljot is powered by a 23 jewel model 3133 hand-wound movement. The 3133 is based on the Swiss Valjoux 7734. Back in the seventies, the Russians purchased the tooling from the Swiss for the 7734, made a few modifications, and produced the 3133. (The Russians raised the jewel count from 17 to 23 and increased the bph (beats per hour) from 18000 to 21600 among other things.) The 3133 is a well regarded movement that is known for it's long power reserve per wind and relative ruggedness as mechanical chronographs go. Despite the age of the design, it is still in production today and is often found in watches that cost many times what the model above ran me.

The watch itself works flawlessly. The winding mechanism is very smooth and the chronograph starts, stops and resets to zero perfectly. (On a 3133, you start and stop the chronograph with the two o'clock button and reset the hands with the 4 o'clock button. Do not press the 4 o'clock button while the chronograph hands are running. You can damage the movement that way.) The watch is not considered very large by today's standard but, for a dress watch, that's good in my opinion. The combination of the shiny chrome plated case and the silver finished hands produce an elegant and classic look, I think, that goes well with a suit or in an office environment.

If you are interested in acquiring an inexpensive mechanical chronograph, I highly recommend these Poljot 3133s. The movement itself has withstood the test of time nicely and remains a popular little engine today. That new examples now command fairly high prices is a testament to the quality of the design. Better still, if you can locate an inexpensive new old stock model like the one above, you'll be getting a bargain to boot. Don't wait too long if you want one of these though. There really aren't that many low priced examples out there anymore.

Finally got this old 2409 together

The movement in this Vostok case, a 2409 stemwinder, has resided in an old tonneau case that I had lying around. It looked good but the build wasn't correct. The tonneau case was generally built with the older 2209 movement, not the more modern 2409. The setup you see above is what it should look like. The watch case outwardly resembles a modern Vostok Amphibia but, on closer examination, you might notice it is thinner and has a flatter case back. That's because this was an earlier breed of Amphibia that was designed to use the 2409 manual wind movement, not today's 2416b automatic that is found in the current Amphibias. The dial case combination above is correct to the best of my knowledge. I have seen two other examples of this style for sale on the world wide tag sale which lends credence to the notion that it should look this way. Irrespective, the finished result is very handsome in my opinion and keeps time flawlessly. I may even treat this one to a re-lume job one of these days.

Vostok Generalskie Desert Shield edition

The Desert Shield Generalskie represents a fascinating piece of history between the United States and the Soviet Union. Here is a Russian made Vostok watch, the standard supplier to the Red Army, building a watch for the U. S. Army during Operation Desert Shield. As I understand it, some 200,000 pieces were ordered for sale. The watches were advertised in Stars & Stripes, the U.S. military's newspaper, at $99 for service personnel or $149 for everyone else. The distributor reportedly presented one of these watches to then President Bush and another to Senator Kerry. Several different cases and movements were employed by this series of watch. To the best of my knowledge, there was the Generalskie model you see above, an Amphibia, a Komandirskie and a mini Komandirskie. Movements apparently varied from the old 21 jewel 2416b to the 2409 and the 2414a, I believe. For more information, see this excellent post at the Military Watch Forum.

The Generalskie model above uses a case style that has unfortunately been discontinued by Vostok. It outwardly appears similar to Komandirskie models of the period except that the case is significantly larger than the bezel. Like the Komandirskie, the case is made of chrome plated brass and features Vostok's signature acrylic crystal and wobbly screw-down crown. This particular example came to me by way of eBay. It was advertised as being new old stock (NOS) but in fact had a scratched bezel and lug. I fortunately had another bezel of the same design to replace the damaged one and a little of my wife's clear nail polish should protect the exposed base metal on the lug hopefully. Such is life when shopping on the bay. Caveat emptor.

Aside from these issues, the watch appears to be running fine. Accuracy seems to be in the typical Vostok range of 20 seconds or so deviation per day. Not bad for a 20 yr old mechanical watch in my opinion. The old style Generalskie case goes well with today's large watch trend. It measures 45mm in width (including the crown), 48mm lug to lug and uses Vostok's standard 18mm band lug width. The stock leather band had dried out and become quite brittle so I replaced it with a padded leather Hirsch band that suits it quite nicely.

I am quite happy to own this historically interesting watch. It represents a brief moment in time when two old enemies found some common ground between them. It would have been most interesting indeed if the cooperation that this watch represents could have continued and strengthened over time. Who knows what sort of world we would be living in now?

The Vostok Komandirskie Revisited

On the Brown leather replacement band

Freshly unwrapped on the original black band



It's been a few years since I did a review of a new Vostok Komandirskie. I was curious to see if much had changed since the last time I picked up one of these. When this one became available, I took the plunge so to speak. (For what it's worth, buying a Vostok is never much of a plunge, financially that is. This model appears on Zenitar's ebay store from time to time for less than $50). The example above has the insignia of the Russian Space Forces launch crew as I understand it. There are pictures of it aboard the International Space Station which was enough to get me interested. I'm pleased to see that the Komandirskie is still a solidly made mechanical watch that sells for a bargain price.

The Komandirskie these days is still powered by Vostok's 2414A 17 jewel stemwinder movement with a date display and a screw-down crown. The 2414A has an excellent track record for durability and acceptable accuracy. The case is still made from chrome plated brass and the caseback is still the Vostok 2 piece stainless steel water resistant design. (Note-Water resistant means washing your hands, rain and maybe immersion to a depth of one or two meters. For diving, go with a Vostok Amphibia. It is rated at 200 meters water resistance and is more robustly made. For a good article describing the differences between the Komandirskie and the Amphibia see this post at Watchuseek.com Another terrific Vostok article can be found here). In common Vostok fashion, the caseback is intricately decorated, this model sports the Imperial Russian 2 headed Eagle (Symbolizing the Tzar's role as head of church and state I believe).

The Komandirskie still uses a domed acrylic crystal. The choice of acrylic has the disadvantage in that it can scratch fairly easily. However, unlike glass, it is very shatter resistant and scratches can be polished out with a cotton ball and a little toothpaste from time to time as needed. (There are proper watch crystal polishes available that do a better job if you are interested. Crystal Clear and Polywatch work very well).

In typical Vostok fashion, the stock watch band is of so-so quality. I replaced it with one from Nilsen's ebay store (I recall that Randy Nilsen sadly passed away a few years ago. I believe his wife now runs the place). In the past, Vostoks were usually sold without bands in a plain plastic box. The buyer was expected to pick a band that suited them. I personally believe that Vostok hasn't quite gotten the stock watch band idea yet. They really should ship a better quality band. It would do a lot for their overall image.

Vostok's Komandirskie line is something of a design classic these days. It has been around since the 1960's, I believe, and is still largely made the same way. While the Komandirskie was originally marketed to the Soviet military, Vostoks are now popular in civilian markets as well. It is true that one could certainly quibble that chrome plated brass and acrylic crystals are not the latest or the greatest choices. That being said though, they are both quite durable and should last for years. Realistically, at the Komandirskie's price point, plastic cases and simple digital displays are more the norm. That Vostok can still produce a well made 17 jewel wristwatch for an affordable price is really quite remarkable. And that this example has a space program connection of sorts is just icing on the cake for me. Recommended.

Ode to the Seiko Diver

I�ve owned quite a few watches through the years. I�ve had dress watches, mechanical chronographs, Swiss automatics, quartz watches with amazing features, solar charged watches, digital watches, military watches and divers. In almost every case, I found something to like. A few days ago though, I realized that of all the watches I own, there were a few �go to� pieces that seemed to get the most wrist time. Those would be the Seiko divers.

I thought about why these particular models were so often the choice of the day and a few observations came to me. First and foremost, they are very tough watches. You don�t really have to think about what you are doing when wearing a Seiko diver. Between their water resistance and the overall ruggedness of their build, it isn�t easy to hurt one of these. When a day out with the kids turns into a day at the pool or beach, a Seiko diver is always game. The reality that you don�t have to baby these watches makes the choice to put one on a no-brainer.

Beyond their ruggedness though, a Seiko diver has a particular look and feel to it. The models I have owned have all exuded a quality that belies their relatively low price. Throughout several of the Seiko reviews that I have written, the comment that they seem more expensive than they are keeps popping up. There are many cheap things in this world that regularly scream at you how cheap they are. Especially as time with them passes. Seiko divers say exactly the opposite. They are an amazing value for the money and they age gracefully even when worn hard.

I can honestly say that if I could own only one watch, either the Monster, 007 or Tuna Can would be it. They are simply that well done.

Vostok Combos

One of the more entertaining (and at times, irritating) parts of collecting Russian watches is finding replacement bands for them. As those of us who collect Vostoks know, the factory bands and bracelets are, generally, pretty bad. The old bracelets were terrible hair pullers and the leather bands were of awful quality (if they were even made of leather at all). Lately, the stock bracelets have improved somewhat in quality but they are still nothing to write home about. The trick when looking for replacements though is to find an acceptable solution that doesn't cost more than the watch itself. Given that most Vostoks can be had for less that $70, this can be a bit of a challenge at times.


The three examples shown above illustrate a few of the solutions I have found. In the foreground, the blue Amphibia is shown on a tan nato. This is one of the most popular and affordable replacement solutions for a Vostok. Nato bands will fit virtually any size wrist, are inexpensive, and are pretty durable. The Ministry Amphibia and the Radio Room commemorative edition both sport inexpensive replacement bracelets from ebay. Each cost in the $10-$20 range if I recall correctly. Neither is a solid link design but their overall quality is considerably better than the factory models. I would rate them about equal to the folded link bracelets that Seiko uses on low end "5" models.

There are many possible ways to refit a Vostok with a decent band. Quality solid link designs are available on both ebay and from other sellers albeit at prices that generally exceed the price of the watch itself. That may be an acceptable compromise for some but, so far, I've avoided going that way. I recommend that Vostok collectors keep an open mind when searching for new band solutions. I've been pleasantly surprised more than once.

The Poor Man's Marinemaster aka SKX007 w/WJean Super Oyster Bracelet

Welcome to the latest episode of the Recession Watch. While we all hoped this would be titled the Recovery Watch, lets face it, we're not there yet. So, the real Marinemaster will have to wait a while longer. That being said though, I really love the look and feel of a high end Seiko diver. Fortunately for us wallet challenged folks, there is a solution these days. The short answer is to get a Seiko SKX007 (or 009 if the Pepsi bezel is more your thing) and do a bracelet transplant. Now before I continue, Seiko does sell these models on stainless steel bracelets. I even reviewed one about five years ago . I wound up gifting that 009 to my brother-in-law because I just didn't like the bracelet. Don't get me wrong, the stock bracelet is ok. It is a solid link design with hollow end links. It worked just fine but it felt too light to balance the heavy 009 on my wrist comfortably. Thanks to developments in aftermarket bracelets, this issue has been addressed to my liking.


If you sniff around at the Seiko Citizen Watch Forum or on the Watchuseek Seiko Citizen forum, you will find many mentions of a "Super Oyster" bracelet for Seiko diver watches. The bracelet you see pictured above is one of them. WJean btw is short for ebay seller wjean28, from whom I got this one. As to what makes the super oyster bracelet such an improvement, here's the deal. The whole thing is much more heavily built than the stock model and the end links are thankfully solid. The bracelet employs thick screw pins (instead of split pins) and a flip lock clasp. The net result is a much beefier and less tinny package. Additionally, those solid end links will not warp over time as the hollow models I had on my 009 eventually did. WJean even included a set of extra thick spring bars (If you have seen the Seiko spring bars that the Monster or the Tuna come with, the replacements are like them). It should be noted that there are super oyster bracelets with hollow end links out there too. I believe that WJean sells them as well. I think that the links are still better than the stock bracelet but the end links are substantially the same. They cost less than the solid end link models though so that is something to consider too.

For what seems like a small cosmetic change, the super oyster bracelet really changes the character of the SKX007. What started out looking and feeling like a mid-range diver now feels like a much more expensive piece altogether. The new bracelet even includes a Seiko signed clasp although there is no diver's extension (not that I ever used the ones I have on other models).

The SKX007 itself is a terrific watch incidentally, super oyster or no. It's stainless steel case meassures 42mm in width (not including the 4 o'clock crown), 13mm in height, 47mm lug to lug and has a 22mm band lug width. Internally it is powered by Seiko's durable 7s26 automatic movement. The watch does not hack or hand wind if that matters to you (hey it has to be different from a Marinemaster somewhere, right). That being said, a quick shake will power the watch up immediately and the power reserve after a day's wear seems to be at least 35-40 hours. The crown screws down and the water resistance is rated at 200 meters. Seiko's lume is generally very good and the 007 is no exception. It isn't quite in a Monster's league but it's no slouch either. The bezel is counter-rotating with a firm action and it includes an embedded luminous marker of it's own. The crystal is made of Seiko's proprietary Hardlex, a hardened glass that sort off splits the difference in scratch resistance between sapphire (great) and conventional glass (eh). As sports watches go, the 007 is well designed to handle the abuse that diving/water sports dish out and looks terrific to my eye as well.

The bottom line (and that is the whole point of this review) is that for about $230, I now have a Seiko automatic diver that looks and feels like a watch that costs at least double that price. It's so good in fact that I personally think that Seiko should really consider doing its customers a favor and either contract with folks like WJean to offer this option or just release it themselves. Until that happens though, head over to the global tag sale and ring up a super oyster of your own for a 007/009. Frankly, even if you are flush with cash, it's still worth doing. P.S. I picked up this 007 here on a rubber strap in contemplation of getting this bracelet for it. I couldn't be more pleased with the result.