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1st State Watch Factory
from parts obtained with the purchase of the Dueber Hampden Watch Factory
Type-2
(19 jewels)
- Belomorstroy was the name of the Belomor canal construction project, which connects the White Sea with Lake Onega, which is further connected to the Baltic Sea. The canal was opened to traffic on 02 August 1933 & until 1961 it was called the ‘Stalin White Sea – Baltic Sea Canal’.
- The workforce that built the Canal was supplied by the Belbaltlag camp directorate (White Sea Baltic Corrective Labor Camp Directorate, WSBC) of the OGPU GULAG.
- During construction more than 8,000 laborers, mostly political prisoners, died.
- OGPU – ‘State Political Directorate’ was the name of the secret police in the Soviet Union from 1922 until 1934.
- Gulag – 'Chief Administration of Corrective Labour Camps & Colonies' was the agency that administered the Soviet forced labor camp system.
- Very unusual Cyrillic signed strap lugs: Р.Борец москва. This can translate as 'Fighter for revolution- Moscow'; probably the name of the factory where the strap was made (an artel with this name existed at the time).
- Either this watch came over as a finished piece in 1930, when the Soviet’s purchased the Dueber Hampden factory & its complete inventory of finished goods and parts, or it was assembled in Moscow in the earliest 1930s from parts that came over with the Dueber Hampden purchase. The inscription on the metal strap lugs corroborates this.
- See #0660 for another GULAG watch.
Movement
1st Moscow Watch Factory
(17 jewels)
(17 jewels)
Kirov
Shop of Consumer Goods
цех ширпотреба
(Q-1)
(15 jewels)
- Dialed signed "1st Moscow Watch Factory Kirov - Shop of Consumer Goods".
- See also number 0068.
Vsekopromsoveta
сборка всекопромсовета
Congress of General Ministry
of Industry
(Q-4)
(7 jewels)
(Q-3)
(7 jewels)
- Logo obliterated with a die punch that reads ‘несорт сют'.
- Unusual die-mark stamping near balance wheel reads 'несорт'.
- 'несорт' can be translated as 'unadjusted'.
- 'сют' been described to me as indicating production by a 'Станция юных техников', roughly translated as 'Young technician station', a type of vocational training institution.
- 15-jewel mark over punched with ‘7’.
- See numbers 0488, 0555 & 1144 for similarly marked movements.
- See Altmeppen, page 18, Uhrenaustellung Russland International.
(on mov’t)
148364
(on caseback)
- Hand inscribed number on movement: 279514 (or possibly 2795L4).
- Manufactured in Switzerland under contract for USSR military.
- Radium dial.
- This Jaeger caliber is the grandfather of all the aircraft chronographs produced in Russia since 1939. Soviet horologists refined & adapted the caliber continuously from 1941 through the 1980s to produce a large family of clocks for air & naval use.
- See also No. 0294.
(17 jewels)
- Solid gold .583 (14k) case w/Soviet hallmarks.
- Solid metal construction.
- Same movement and case design as No. 1476.