Vostok was founded in the early 1940s in Cistopol (where it had moved from Moscow because of the war) as a mechanical watch factory. During the war, watch production was stopped; the factory is converted to produce weapons and military equipment. At the end of the war, however, the usual production of watches restarts. From the 1960s Vostok becomes the official supplier of watches to the Russian army, and in this period the two most famous lines of the Vostok began to be produced: Komandirskie and Amphibia.

During the Cold War’s years, the Soviet Ministry of Defence needed to equip the members of the Navy with divers’ watches, which were as similar as possible to those of the Western armies. The watches had to be very robust and operate at severe temperatures and considerable depths.

The factory could not afford to acquire the patents of Swiss companies. In addition, Swiss manufacturers had a level of precision in production that could not be achieved in the Soviet Union. Finally, the watches had to be cheap both in the cost of purchase and in the maintenance.

Two designers of the time, Mikhail Novikov and Vera Belova take up the challenge: after having thoroughly studied the watches produced by the Swiss houses, they note a flaw in the cases of diving watches: the screw case back is a unique piece with the case, in some cases it is separated by a gasket that is still compromised when the watch is opened for maintenance. Their waterproofness is therefore based on the force with which the case back is screwed, and this makes maintenance complex and long.

Novikok and Belova focus on possible alternatives: they design a case back consisting of two parts, with a gasket in the middle. A first part consists of the metal case back that leans as if it were a lid to the seal placed in contact with the case. The second part consists of a threaded metal ring that is screwed inside the case but that goes in direct contact with the case back and not with the gasket. In this way the seal is simply compressed by the case back pushed by the ring but it is not placed at risk of damage as the case was in Swiss watches. Therefore it does not become necessary to replace in case of maintenance and the gasket can be made with a consistent thickness and width that guarantees excellent safety margins as regards waterproofing.

But in order to make an underwater watch, it is also necessary to pay attention to glass. Novikov and Belova decide to use a transparent plastic material called “Lucite” that was already used in the production of costume jewelry. It is a rather thick plexiglass with an excellent transparency that can be produced with a curvature. The most important feature of this crystal, however, is that thanks to its curvature and elasticity, as the pressure applied by water on its outer surface increases, the crystal in Lucite goes to crush against the dial and especially to expand against the case increasing even more the waterproofness of the case and the edge of the crystal.

All that remains is the crown. To increase the strength of the watch and prevent infiltration by shocks of the winding crown, Novikov and Belova choose a curious solution: usually to be screwed to the case against the seal, the pin of the winding crown is removed from the clutch, overcoming the resistance of a spring. In the underwater Vostok this spring disappears and the clutch, between crown and stem, is engaged only by completely extracting the crown and keeping it pulled outwards. The crown extracted and left free thus seems to “dance” on the stem, with a completely abnormal behavior but allows the seal to hold.

The name “amfibia” is chosen through a contest between the employees of Vostok in homage to the amphibian animals that can live well both outside and inside the water.

The first specimen of Vostok amfibia was produced in 1967: it can withstand a depth of 200 meters. The first Amfibia have a manual winding 2209 mechanism without calendar. Then the amfibia is produced first with 2414 mechanism with date display and then 2416 with hand- winding movement. The model immediately reaches high levels of popularity. For this reason, in the 70s it was decided to produce a watch that could be used by divers up to 30 atmospheres. The model is called Nvch-30 and is tested in the North Sea. The popularity of amfibia watches grows further in 1975 when astronaut Georgij Grechko wears one during the space mission Soyuz.17.It will also be the first ever Vostok watch to travel in Space.

Great contribution to the international success of Amfibia even in Soviet times was the introduction in the early 80s of the model scuba dude, also known as frog man, with the unmistakable diver on the dial. The success was so sensational that even today, the scuba dude is reproduced in its unchanged form after over 40 years on the Amfibia dials of various colors and it is by far the best-selling amfibia model in the world. The scuba dude theme has undoubtedly helped to get the amfibia watch out of the niche of the diving enthusiasts to become a real watch style to wear on any occasion, even very far from aquatic environments.

AMFIBIA RAKETA AND POLJOT

Following the example of the Vostok and above all the great popularity that Amfibia watches collect from the first days of production also other Russian factories offer their version of amfibia watch. In particular the Raketa realizes a first amfibia that, however, has bigger dimensions than that of the Vostok. The case has a diameter of 45 mm.

Since it is impractical, the second version is smaller, with a diameter of 40 mm. In general, Raketa does not produce amphibia on a large scale. Its production is limited to 15000 specimens per year and the achieved impermeability does not exceed 10 atmospheres.

Poljot also produced his own version of amfibia in 1972