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Sputnik / Спутник

At the height of the Space Race, the excitement surrounding the Sputnik satellite inspired two watch factories to undertake their own commemorative designs. These watches were produced from around the time Sputnik launched (October 4, 1957) until around the time that Juri Gagarin completed his first historic flight into outer space (April 12, 1961).

 

The First Moscow Watch Factory built their design around a Kirovskie watch. The dial featured a prominent globe and a second hand with a red Sputnik dot that would "orbit" around it. The Chistopol Watch Factory variation also included an "orbiting" second hand, but in this incarnation the sub-second hand was replaced by a disk. A hole in the disk represented Sputnik, and beneath it, the number of seconds were revealed as the watch kept time. Taken together, these are two of the more unique second hand concepts in all of Soviet watch production. 

Unsurprisingly, due to their high demand and great collectibility, Sputnik watches are frequently counterfeited. Buyer beware.

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