Poljot

[text almost entirely reproduced from Wikipedia, article consulted on April of 2019, except for the mention to the year of establishment of the brand. At the time of visit to the Wikipedia, the year 1964 was mentioned instead of 1961. That mention to 1961 was extracted from the Watch Wiki page and I found to be more consistent with regard to the years of production suggested by the Ranfft Watches website for some of Poljot models listed there]

Poljot (Russian: Полёт, literally meaning "flight"), is a brand of Soviet/Russian wristwatches, produced by the First Moscow Watch Factory (Russian: Первый Московский Часовой Завод, ПМЧЗ, Perviy Moskovskiy Chasovoy Zavod). The flagship brand of the USSR's watch industry, Poljot produced numerous historical watches used in many important space missions, including the world's first space watch worn by Yuri Gagarin.

The Poljot brand was established in 1961 in the soviet union, with watches from the First Moscow Watch Factory becoming very popular there.

History

Founded in 1930 under orders from Joseph Stalin, the First State Watch Factory (Russian: Первый Государственный Часовой Завод - 1ГЧЗ) was the first large scale Soviet watch and mechanical movement manufacturer. Via its USA-based trading company Amtorg, the Soviet government bought the defunct Ansonia Clock Company of Brooklyn, New York in 1929, and the Dueber-Hampden Watch Company of Canton, Ohio. It moved twenty-eight freight cars full of machinery and parts from the USA to Moscow in order to establish the factory. Twenty-one former Dueber-Hampden watchmakers, engravers and various other technicians helped to train the Russian workers in the art of watchmaking as part of the Soviet's first five-year plan. The movements of very-early products were still stamped "Dueber-Hampden, Canton, Ohio, USA" (examples of these watches are very collectible today). In 1935 the factory was named after the murdered Soviet official Sergei Kirov.

As the Germans closed in on Moscow in 1941, the factory was hurriedly evacuated to Zlatoust (Russian: Златоу́ст). By 1943 the Germans were in retreat, and the factory moved back to Moscow, adopting the "First Moscow Watch Factory" name (Russian: Первый Московский Часовой Завод - 1МЧЗ).

In 1947 the first wristwatches under the brand name "Pobeda" and the first Marine Chronometers and Deck watches were produced. By 1951 the production of wristwatches had increased to 1.1 million. In 1975 new machinery and equipment for manufacturing complex watches was imported from Switzerland. The first chronograph "Okean" (caliber 3133) was produced for the space station "Sojuz-23."

In 1990 production of watches and clocks reached 5 million pieces, and in 1991 the international award "Golden Trophy for Quality" was awarded in Madrid.

In 1992, after the collapse of the Soviet Union, the factory was converted into a public limited company. Poljot calibres are used by a number of Swiss and German companies, often re-manufactured new old stock with high-grade decoration.

References

Wikipedia
Watch Wiki
Ranfft Watches