Vintage Soviet Chaika ladies’ mechanical watch – red dial, rectangular case, steel mesh bracelet

Chaika ladies’ mechanical wrist watch – 17 jewels
MADE IN USSR!

The name Chaika (Чайка, “seagull”) was the call sign of Valentina Tereshkova, the first woman in space, and in 1963 the Uglich Watch Factory took the name in her honour.

Manufactured at the Chaika (Uglich) watch factory, USSR

A bold piece of Soviet ladies’ design: a rectangular chrome-plated case with a fine sunburst-engraved face, and a small round window set off-centre in its upper half. Inside the window sits a bright red dial with large pale-pink Arabic numerals, gilt hands, ЧАЙКА below 12 and «17 КАМНЕЙ / СДЕЛАНО В СССР» in the lower half. The acrylic crystal has a faceted, diamond-cut edge that throws light around the dial. It shows hours and minutes only — there is no seconds hand.

Inside is a compact Uglich hand-wound movement of the 1601 family with 17 jewels, the standard Chaika ladies’ calibre, held in a spacer ring within the case. The case closes with a plain snap-on case back, so the watch carries no production date.

The watch is mechanical and does not need batteries to operate.

CASE SIZE 35x21mm (with crown)

THICKNESS 9.5mm

LUG WIDTH 14mm

CRYSTAL Acrylic, faceted edge

TYPE Mechanical

MOVEMENT Chaika (Uglich) 1601-series, 17 jewels, manual winding

FUNCTIONS Hours, Minutes

Condition: good vintage condition. The red dial is bright and the numerals are clean, with a few tiny specks visible close up. The faceted acrylic crystal shows light surface marks. The case face has light scratches and handling marks from use, and the case back shows fine circular scratches. The mesh bracelet shows some yellowish discolouration in places, mostly near the clasp. See photos for cosmetics.

This watch has recently been serviced by a professional watchmaker and keeps good time.

Comes complete with vintage steel mesh bracelet with an adjustable sliding clasp, shown fitting a wrist of approx. 16.5 cm (6.5 in).

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Chaika / Чайка

In December, 1937, the Council of People’s Commissars ordered a factory to be built in the town of Uglich, 120 km north of Moscow. This factory, named the Second State Precision Jewel Factory (ТТК-2), was constructed from 1938 until 1942. Initially, the factory produced semi-precious and precious stones for the technical industry (such as ruby jewels to be used in watch movements).

In 1950, the plant was renamed Uglich Watch Factory and began focusing on wristwatch production, first manufacturing Zvezda timepieces, and in 1959, expanding to Volga watches. But throughout the 1950s, the Uglich Watch Factory did not expand beyond ladies calibers.

Meanwhile, at the Chistopol Watch Factory, the 1950s were a period of intense focus on men’s wristwatch production. Around 1960, Chaika (Чайка, meaning “seagull”) was chosen as the name for one of the many Chistopol brands produced in this era. These watches featured a 17-jewel caliber 2605 with date complication. The Chistopol Watch Factory would terminate production of Chaika-branded watches around 1964, when the factory underwent a major rebranding. These were the last and only Chaikas to ever leave Chistopol’s factory walls.

Back in Uglich, things were changing quickly. In 1963, after cosmonaut Valentina Tereshkova became the first woman in Space, the Uglich Watch Factory was renamed Chaika Watch Factory. (Chaika was the callsign Tereshkova used during her historic flight on board Vostok 6.) Shortly thereafter, the factory released the smallest caliber ever produced in the USSR, measuring just 6 x 9 millimeters in size: the Chaika 1200. This tiny caliber would go on to win a gold medal at the Leipzig World Fair in fall of 1966.

The Chaika Watch Factory lived on for decades, producing a wide array of different watches for both women and men, including automatic calibers, dive watches, ladies watches, and the first quartz resonator ever produced in the Soviet Union. These watches were also in high demand abroad and were exported to some 50 countries worldwide.

In 2006, the firm suspended mass production of wristwatches, and in 2009, the plant officially filed for bankruptcy.