Description
Slim Vympel gold-plated mechanical watch from the early 1960s – 23 jewels
MADE IN USSR!
Beautiful vintage watch manufactured on 1st Moscow Watch Factory
After World War II, the First State Watch Factory focused heavily on wristwatch production. This lead to a proliferation of discrete brands in the 1950s, all powered by First Moscow Watch Factory movements. These brands included Antarktida, Kirovskie, Kosmos, Mayak, Moskva, Orbita, Pobeda, Poljus, Rodina, Signal, Sportivnie, Sputnik, Stolichnie, Strela, Sturmanskie, and Vympel.
The Vympel brand (Вымпел, meaning “pennant”) was first introduced in 1961. The most notable feature of this watch was the movement, an ultra-thin shock-resistant caliber 2209 with 23 jewels. At a mere 2.9mm thick, the caliber 2209 represented an enormous technical achievement as was one of the thinnest three-hand movements in the world. In 1963, the movement was awarded a gold medal at Leipzig Trade Fair. Even by today’s standards, the range of Vympel watches remain impressively thin, measuring just 6.5mm from crystal to case-back.
In 1964, the Vympel was retired, just three years after its inception. It was in this year that the First Moscow Watch Factory underwent major rebranding and began marketing all subsequently-produced wathces under the Poljot tradmark. While the Vympel was a short-lived brand, it helped inspire a long lineage of future dress watches produced by Poljot, Luch, Sekonda, and other foreign brands. The caliber 2209 continued to be manufactured in great numbers until the the fall of the USSR.
The watch is mechanical and does not need batteries to operate.
Original soviet “Vymple” has mechanical lever movement and manual winding.
YEARS early 1960s
CASE SIZE 42x37mm
THICKNESS 8mm
LUG WIDTH 18mm
TYPE Mechanical
MOVEMENT 2209
FUNCTIONS Hours, Minutes, Seconds
Mechanical lever movement
Manual winding
Watch has been fully serviced by a professional watchmaker and keeps good time.
Comes complete with NAGATA leather strap.
This watch ships out from🇺🇦 Ukraine with tracking number
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About the watch factory
1st Moscow Watch Factory – named “1.MWF “Kirov”” from 1935 till 1964(renamed to POLJOT afterwards) – the biggest and oldest of soviet watch factories.
Russian watches have a rich and interesting history dating back over 80 years with the creation of the First Moscow Watch Factory, which today manufactures Poljot watches.
A highlight of Russia’s watch history came in 1961 when cosmonaut Yuri Gagarin took the first ever flight into space with a watch from the First Moscow Watch Factory.
POLJOT Brand History
Watches branded ‘Kirovskie’ were among the first wristwatches produced at the famous 1st Moscow Watch Factory Kirov.
The early watches have the old factory mark around the 6: “1МЧЗ им Кирова”.
The 1MWF also manufactured early Pobeda watches, Sturmanskie (the first watch in space), Rodina, Sputnik, the first Komandirskies, and finally Poljot watches, for which they’re probably best known.
