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Kirovskie / Кировские

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, Mayak, Moskva, Pobeda, Poljus, Rodina, Signal, Sportivnie, Sputnik, Stolichnie, Strela, Sturmanskie, and Vympel. In 1964, the vast majority of these brands were consolidated under a single trademark: Poljot. 

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The Kirovskie brand (Кировские, likely named after the prominent early Bolshevik leader, Sergei Kirov) was an extremely successful line of watches produced in the late 1950s and early 1960s. The movement was​ an at-the-time cutting edge caliber 2408 with central second hand. This was a complete redesign of the original caliber 2608 (widely used in Pobedas and Moskvas) in order to produce a much thinner movement. 

 

Kirovskies were manufactured with numerous dial styles (sunburst, matte, embossed), case shapes (classic, crab, miniature), case materials (chrome-plated, gold-plated, solid gold), and colorways. The latter is most notable, as such flamboyant colors were very unusual at this period in the USSR when more conservative styles were typically favored. These vibrant watches were especially popular among the Stilyagi (стиляги, meaning "stylish"), a youth counterculture movement known for donning colorful clothes and accessories as a means of protest to the unification of style and culture at that time in the USSR.  

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The Kirovskie brand was retired in 1964. Many Poljot watches were subsequently produced in exactly the same style (the only difference being the brand name printed on the dial), but most of the the colorful and fashion-forward designs favored among the Stilyagi would never be manufactured again. 

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