In Soviet Russia...time tells YOU

[Guest]

Along with flip clocks, vintage audio and other things, I also collect (sort of), cold war-era ship's clocks. Today's example is one I have had for about 15 years. These things are ALL over Ebay these days and the model I have is actually not all that special. Very typical Soviet ship/submarine/merchant marine/cargo, etc. Built like it is meant to take a hit (and probably was made just for that), they are heavy, clunky, loud. They make very substantial "TICK, TICK, TICK" noises like a good mechanical clock should.

This example was made in the Tschistopol Watch Factory, Tschistopol Russia in March, 1988 so right around when the Soviets were exiting Afghanistan after a 10-year occupation. I have a friend who lives north of the region in Nhizny Novgorod and sent me this awesome timepiece. It weighs about 8 pounds.

Every couple of years I disassemble, clean and lubricate it. It's a very simple and tough movement.

March, 1988 stamp. They only stamped month/year.



Marque of the maker. Clock movement number 25733. Чистопольский часовой завод (ЧЧЗ)



Rubber seal around bezel. Still pliable!



Backplate. There is always some electrolysis (white powder residue) happening due to dissimilar metals and some electric current, possibly.



Solid cast magnesium. No opening in back to minimize moisture getting in.



Back



Movement. Showing the escapement setup, mainspring/spring barrel, etc.



Back together and telling pretty accurate time. It is adjustable plus/minus by a lever just above 12:00. Cyrillic words translate into "Made in USSR" .

[Mackey]

It's built like a tank.

[Jumblejeff]

Yes it looks like it’s built for battle. Lots of them on eBay. I never had heard of them before.

How often does it need winding?

[Guest]

Yeah, the market seems to have flooded with them in recent years. I was lucky to get mine the way I did as not many from this manufacturer are available anymore. Most have the general CCCP star logo under the 12 while the one I have has the individual factory logo. MANY have been retrofitted with new production faces with submarines on them or with maritime timing faces that have a 3 minute red area after every quarter hour. That designates a time for radio silence/listen-only in case of someone transmitting a distress call.

It is a 7 day clock so it gets wound every Sunday afternoon.

[Performa]

I've often thought about getting one of these, neat to see inside of one! Thank you!

[Guest]

Most still run pretty well as-is, but I would guess that the vast majority have not been cleaned and serviced. The old grease gets gummed up with a bit of old gear material sloughing off over the decades. Once cleaned they run quite well.

[cyb3rbyte]

What a great timepiece. Whats the accuracy like on those? I can imagine as a soviet product there is probably a "range" in which it's accurate lol.

[Guest]

Properly cleaned, adjusted and lubricated mine tends to be accurate to plus/minus 2-4 min a month. Not bad, honestly. I never fully wind it to the stop. I always wind until I feel the regular tension start to increase and then I do 1 more full turn. Still gets me a week of time.

And, I have not had the barrel spring out for new grease in all these years as my barrel spring winders are for watches, which are way, way smaller.