Soyuz

Soyuz (“Union”) is the longest-serving crewed spacecraft ever built. It first flew in 1967, carried the Soviet Union through the station era, and — in continuously updated form — is still ferrying crews to orbit today, nearly sixty years later. No other spacecraft design comes close to that record.

The Raketa-Soyuz is the watch that celebrates it: a mechanical wristwatch from the Petrodvorets Watch Factory, the Raketa trademark on the dial, typically a 38.5 mm case, 11 mm thick on 18 mm lugs, running the workhorse hand-wound 2609.НА calibre. Straightforward, well-built and genuinely wearable — the same movement that powers most of the Raketa catalogue.

These were civilian commemoratives rather than issued equipment, which is why a piece of Soviet space iconography can still be had for a couple of hundred dollars. Every one below has been serviced by our watchmaker, tested, and photographed individually.

See also Buran, Baikonur, the full Raketa collection and our wider space-themed Soviet watches.