Description
1950s vintage Soviet table clock by the Zlatoust Watch Factory, in an Art Deco arched body
MADE IN USSR!
The dial is signed “Златоустовский часовой завод” — the Zlatoust Watch Factory, which came into being when the First State Watch Factory was evacuated from Moscow to the Urals in the autumn of 1941. Zlatoust mastered table clock production in 1948 with a first batch of just 100 pieces, and once part of its equipment had gone on to Chelyabinsk these interior clocks became the mainstay of the plant — the 500,000th left the line in 1964 and the millionth in 1969.
The back plate is stamped ГОСТ 3309-51 and КЛАСС I: Soviet state standard 3309 in its 1951 edition, which covered balance-wheel table clocks, at the top accuracy class. That edition stayed in force until GOST 3309-58 replaced it, and the dial still carries the factory’s own name rather than “Агат” — the single brand all Zlatoust output moved to in 1964. Both marks place this clock in the 1950s.
A frosted cream panel is suspended between two chrome posts on a curved chrome base — the low, streamlined arch that Soviet interior design borrowed from Art Deco and kept well into the fifties. The two-tone dial sets black Arabic numerals and a railway minute track on a cream chapter ring against a grey silvered centre, with a subsidiary seconds dial at 6 o’clock.
The clock is mechanical and does not need batteries to operate.
Balance-wheel movement with manual winding. The winding square and the hand-setting shaft are both on the back, beside a regulator arrow marked ПРИБАВИТЬ / УБАВИТЬ — “faster / slower”.
DIMENSIONS
HEIGHT 115mm (4.53 inches)
WIDTH 170mm (6.69 inches)
DEPTH 50mm (1.97 inches)
DIAL DIAMETER 80mm (3.15 inches)
YEARS 1950s
TYPE Mechanical
FUNCTIONS Hours, Minutes, Seconds
CONDITION
Very good for its age. The chrome base, posts and bezel ring are bright, with only light handling marks. The cream panel has picked up some honest discolouration where it meets the metal — a little browning around the post collars and along the lower edge — and the dial shows faint age spotting with a few fine marks in the grey centre. It is all shown close up in the photographs.
This clock has recently been serviced by a professional watchmaker and keeps good time.
This watch ships from 🇺🇦 Ukraine with tracking number
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About the watch factory
Zlatoust Watch Factory (ЗЧЗ)
As a result of the escalating military situation, on October 22, 1941, work was stopped at the First State Watch Factory. A mandate ordered the evacuation of the factory to Zlatoust, a city east of the Ural mountains some 1600 kilometers from Moscow. This was not unusual; as a result of advancing German troops, some 1500 factories were relocated, in over 1800 trains, to safety behind the Urals.
On November 26th, the People’s Commissariat of General Engineering (the organization overseeing all watch production) was transformed into the People’s Commissariat for Mortar Weapons. A new focus was clear. By November 28, 1941, the complete evacuation of the First State Watch Factory was underway. In total, some 1260 pieces of equipment were moved, including machinery, materials, assets, and inventory. Together with the equipment, 296 watchmakers and technicians were evacuated to Zlatoust.
The Zlatoust Watch Factory first opened on December 25, 1941, with the manufacture of ammunition for the war effort. Despite a new operating environment, harsh production conditions, and inexperienced personnel, the factory was quite productive, manufacturing more than 14 million ammunition timers and over 300,000 timepieces. During the war, 92% of Soviet tanks and 98% of Soviet aircraft were fitted with clocks running on pocket-watch movements made at the Zlatoust Watch Factory. Every third aircraft had an aviation chronometer (АЧХО) made at Zlatoust. Unlike those produced at the First State Watch Factory, early Zlatoust-made watch movements lacked any movement decorations or stamps aside from a serial number. Evidently, at the height of the war, cosmetic considerations were not a priority. Like other factories, during the war years, Zlatoust was referred to by its government-assigned number: Factory 834.
After the war, the Zlatoust Watch Factory continued producing products for civilian and military use. These included pocket watches (including special varieties for the blind), wristwatches (including a unique oversized design intended for Soviet hardhat divers, the 191-ЧС ВМФ), car clocks, timer switches, and opisometers. Around 1962, Zlatoust began focusing heavily on stopwatch production. Domestically, these were marketed under the brand Agat, but such stopwatches were also widely exported abroad to at least 12 countries. Around this time, the factory also changed its name to the Agat Watch Factory.
Over the next five decades, the Agat Watch Factory continued to be an industrial powerhouse, producing timers, switches, clocks, electronic stopwatches, and of course watches.
source – https://mroatman.wixsite.com/watches-of-the-ussr/first-watch-factory
