Some people still share strange belief that watch can’t be given. Let’s try to understand sources of this belief, why this fine and useful accessory has deserved bad glory as a gift?
Myth: to grant watch is to separation.
Version of the same myth: it is impossible to grant sharp objects, and watch has sharp hands!
Truth: some heard that to present watch to the beloved or friend means to predict parting. People inclined to superstitions will tell you that sharp objects can “cut” the relations. Well, any opinion takes place to be, and still we insist that the similar statement is absolutely groundless, at least because already millions of times it was confuted in real life.
However perhaps there is an element of truth in this superstition: having presented the Chinese hand-made article of the known brand which will be scattered in a week, you will precisely force your friend or darling to doubt sincerity of your feelings. The stylish exclusive model with the exact course made of qualitative materials, on the contrary, will only strengthen mutual good feelings.
The myth (from China): to present hours means “to invite to a funeral”.
Truth: it seems, in the 21st century “black tags”, signs of mafia and frightening symbols had to remain only at cinema.
Perhaps, today, in the world where to visit the website telling the fortunes it is considered no more than a joke about which you forget in one and a half minutes, places for such superstitions already didn’t remain. If all of you still are subject to them, think that the concepts “time” and “eternity” are inseparably linked, and in good sense. Distract reading the good popular scientific book about nonlinearity of time or viewing of series “The Client Is Always Dead”. The healthy humor considerably prolongs our life so we will transfer a silly belief to the joke plane. Rather experiences about what it isn’t necessary to think of are capable to reduce life.
Myth: having received watch as a gift you acquire with them pain, emptiness and misfortune.
Truth: the phrase written above should be said for Halloween, beforehand having dressed up the vampire or the zombie.
Pain and emptiness can overtake people, subject excessive suspiciousness and to groundless fears. But it already should be discussed with the expert in medical subject. And watch as a gift can bring only satisfaction, joy from use of the functional gadget and pleasure from carrying a stylish and elegant accessory.
And of course if it came about pain: selecting a gift, it is worth remembering the person to whom he intends and to be guided by his tastes and needs, but not the ideas of fine, because they can vary. The gift shall please the receiver. And if you know the person, it rather will be able to introduce happiness, joy and other good things in his life.
Myth: watch can’t be given and received as a present, it is necessary to pay for them at least the symbolical sum having given in exchange, say, a coin.
True: barter harmed nobody yet so why not to “pay” for a gift.
So, this myth is quite harmless, though senseless. Time can’t be bought or sold though many characters of works of art tried to manipulate it anyway. And if from philosophy and metaphysics to pass to real facts, then the watch is first of all a beautiful accessory and the functional device, it can be given as well as any other thing ever made by the person. Even moreover: it is necessary to give hours! All of them still remain not banal and status gift, and the huge choice allows to pick up easily suitable model for every taste and a life case today.
As well as any mechanical watch, Vostok demand rather careful relation to themselve. It is undesirable to throw them, to drop, shake, overheat or overcool, to subject to influence of powerful electromagnetic fields.
Though Amphibia are reliable watches and you can hear many stories about their survival in extreme conditions, it isn’t recommended to do if you don’t want to damage your watch.
Always reliably twist a carving clockwork head after installation of time. Hit of moisture in the mechanism — perhaps the worst of troubles which can occur with hours.
Of course there are cases of a production defect when hours aren’t tight initially, but much more frequent reason of “fogging” or drops on glass — not twirled rather well clockwork head. Not incidentally all “Amphibians”, as well as the majority of diving hours are equipped with the automatical winding that need for untwisting of a clockwork head was as seldom as possible.
In ideal conditions everything that is required for your watch is a preventive maintenance in a watch repair shop one time in 3-4 years. During this procedure watch will be completely dismantled: details will be washed out, repaired or replaced if necessary, then gather with new lubricant and the pressurizing laying.
But in the real world it isn’t excluded that Amphibia suddenly will cease “to work like clock-work” — will begin to lag behind more than on 20 or to hurry more than for 60 seconds a day, date will cease to be put, watch will cease to be wound or go at all. In this case you besides should address the watchmaker — in a warranty workshop or any watchmaker who has experience with the Russian watches and spare parts for them. Anyway don’t forget to receive the document on the carried-out works with date and a name of the master.
“… 10… 7… 5. Inevitably, the car wheel gradually moves. People stiffened with bated breath. What will it be?… 3… 1 meter and at last the thing that people expected with such curiosity finally happened: the wheel of Volga rolled over the… watch.”
This is how newspapers described the demonstration of “Amphibia” –
the first Soviet waterproof watch – capabilities in 1967. Today its creators tell us about the birth and features of this model.
Mikhail Novikov:
The task was this: to develop a watch that is not inferior to foreign analogs and can function reliably at a depth of up to 200 meters in the conditions of considerable pressure differences and temperature.
At that time, I was the chief of New Design Bureau and generally worked on “Amphibia”. The name was thought up by one of our employees. We held a peculiar competition for the new watch’s name and chose “Amphibia” for symbolizing being equally comfortable both in water and on land.
At that time there was a set of waterproof watches of various designs produced in Switzerland. It would seem that we didn’t have to reinvent the wheel. But we couldn’t repeat the designs as our equipment didn’t allow to provide the required accuracy. Besides, almost all designs were protected by patents and it was impossible to copy them. The question of the patent acquisition didn’t even arise, as far as I remember, there was no attempt to purchase a patent or a license in the USSR. We patented our work, protected it, and didn’t buy “their” patent.
I studied patents for the waterproof watch, the so-called 43rd class, very carefully. But the stories about Italian and other watches for submariners and I learned and began collecting later when work on “Amphibia” was completed.
Our task was not in finding a technical solution but in finding the same effective solution, as good as foreign examples were (if possible, find better), but not patent. And we developed our own design which could be manufactured and which didn’t repeat someone else’s. Of course, at the same time, many options of sealing were considered, we rated them by the efficiency of sealing and the cost.
And the car rolling over the watch was just a demonstration of its durability and had nothing in common with real testing. The pressure at the maximum depth is several times more than the pressure of the tire upon the road, but the mechanical pressure and pressure in liquid work differently, and it is impossible to compare them.
At the first glance “Amphibia” doesn’t differ from a usual watch. But actually almost all elements of the case here are special and it was necessary to tinker with each of them.
Let’s take glass: it is almost not noticeable, but it has a special cross-section. Glass is under pressure of 20 kg/cm2, it is several times more than the pressure of car tire upon the road. With such pressure glass caves in on 0,5 mm. When caving in and flattening a little, it has to additionally pressurize the case and at the same time not touch the second hand. It is difficult to calculate bending even for flat glass, and far more difficult for “Amphibia’s” glass.
Vera Belova
“Amphibia’s” glass is thicker than usual: if “Komandirskie” has 2 mm, then for it is 3 mm. But the point is not only in thickness and configuration: it is also made by special technology. Unlike usual glass, it isn’t just cast from plastic but it is also ground away. To provide tightness with a big pressure very high precision on diameter is necessary and even the slightest scratches on a contour are inadmissible. To achieve all this, glass is ground the.
Mikhail Novikov:
It would seem that what could be simpler than rubber laying? Sometimes they say: you get one from a water tap. But requirements to rubber laying in “Amphibia” are much tougher. In a usual watch its thickness is 0,5 mm and in “Amphibia” it is 0,75 mm. Under the pressure of 20 atm laying is compressed in size by 20-30%. If you squeeze the rubber band from the tap like that it won’t be straightened back, residual deformation is too big. And our laying has to restore its initial form completely. Add temperature drops here, and you will understand all complexity of a problem. To provide the set parameters, it was necessary to develop not only details but also materials. For achievement of necessary laying characteristics at one time, we even tried to process them by an ionic method – the technology that is used in space equipment.
Vera Belova:
We were choosing rubber for a very long time. To avoid leaks the rubber had to be smooth, without pores. For a regular watch we used laying from usual rubber from the Kazan plant of rubber products. They are good for small pressure but cannot maintain the big one. That’s why we made laying for “Amphibia” at the plant ourselves, producing it from crude rubber and then cutting.
Mikhail Novikov:
There were problems with other materials too. The case of “Amphibia” was for the first time made not out of brass but out of stainless steel. The steel case is better: it is stronger, more durable, and, besides, it is anti-allergenic.
Traditionally the case is manufactured like that: we cut work pieces of the case from brass tape on a special press, it is later ground, chiseled, etc. But steel is much more tough than brass. And we couldn’t cut work pieces of the necessary form for a long time: “ears” to which the watch band fastens broke off constantly. Therefore the first cases were with “fragments” instead of actual ears. Then we tried to cut the case in 12 stages. But it also did not go very smoothly.
By the way about steel, from which the cases are made. When the “Amphibia” was developed there was no such brand of steel produced in the country. And we had to add a new position to the GOST (the state standard).
Vera Belova:
The change in the case has concerned not only material. The screwing-up head and the timing disk (bezel) have been used on “Amphibia” for the first time. If before immersion you set “O” on the disk against a minute hand, then it will be possible to determine the time spent under water. Only in the 90s these elements have appeared on the “Komandirskie” watch. The back cover was special too: instead of 0,5 mm, it was 1 mm thick. Even the screw which holds a cover has been strengthened.
Mikhail Novikov:
After creation of “Amphibia” according to our proposal, the international standard for scuba diving watch was changed. A condition was added that if one applies pressure perpendicularly to the head or buttons of a watch under water no moisture should get in the watch. Of course, “Amphibia” met this requirement.
Also, military modification NVCh-30 of “Amphibian” was issued. When seamen came to NIICHASPROM with the order for diver watch, they were told that they already produce a similar model in Chistopol. To provide the hermeticity required for 30 atm pressure we had to modify serial “Amphibia”. In NVCh-30 there was a different glass configuration and thicker cover.
Vera Belova:
These watches were tested according to a very tough program. Even the watch band was checked for durability. By the way, the band of NVCh-30 had the unique fastening that was a little strange in appearance but very strong.
Mikhail Novikov:
The main part of tests was carried out in NIICHASPROM, and the component acceptance test was passed during maneuvers of the fleet in the North Sea. By the way, there was a rehearsal of something similar to the rescue of Kursk crew. The submarine laid down on the bottom at a depth of 120-130 meters, imitating accident. There were two saving ships, the enormous pontoon crane “Carpaty”, diving bells, decompression cameras, and a crew of divers. The scheme of operation is this: the bell goes down from the ship, it is set on the special attached platform by the boat, it is forced to it by the pressure. People go from the boat into the bell and they are lifted up to the decompression chamber. During that training, we lifted one group of six people. Divers who worked at depth had our watches. Both tests and maneuvers went well.
During this training, the watches were tested at maximum depths of more than 100 meters though really they intended for other purposes. Deep-water divers have a continuous radio communication with the ship and in their heavy equipment, it is simply inconvenient to look at the watch at such depth. But for scuba divers and fighting swimmers our NVCh-30 were irreplaceable.
Soviet and foreign newspapers were written about the first waterproof watch still in the mid-sixties. The watch ensuring reliable functioning at a depth up to two hundred meters in the conditions of the considerable differential pressure and temperature of the environment were created. These watch were designated “Amphibia”.
And today the experience accumulated decades allows to make watches capable to withstand extremal operating conditions.
Watch “Amphibia” are created for fans of the active types of rest, free and offen people.
Chistopol watch factory “Vostok” has released “Amphibia” watch collection for women.
This new model of women sports watch “Amphibia” is for active recreation and sport. In the fitness center, on the beach and even in night club these bright and expressive watch will be reflection of taste and the proof of activity in life. Watsh follow two main tendencies of modern watch fashion: aspiration to a visibility and classical design. Diameter of the case is 34 mm. Dials have original design, are decorated with cubic zirconias and are issued in several color options – red, white, blue and black. The same color scale is used also in straps. There are polyurethane or genuine leather straps. The watch has a simple and reliable mechanism Vostok 2409 with the manual winding. The case has water protection up to 10 ATM.
These are hours which will be the real decoration of everyday life of any modern woman.
All the favourite and long-awaited, updated collection men’s mechanical Komandirskie K-34 watch, consisting of 7 models on base mechanisms 2426, 2415, 2416.
All models are made in cases of stainless steel, tightness – 10 atm., with various belts, mineral glass, transparent cover, indexes and hands are covered with a phosphor.
