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Vostok is famous for making rugged and inexpensive watches. Unfortunately, most of them are of the 12 hours kind, with a few combined 12/24 dials (which I do not consider “real” 24 hour watches). Vostok is most famous for its outstanding “Amphibia” diving watch (which can taken to a depth of 200m) and its “Komandirskie” model – a rugged watch with a military feel to it. As far as I know, Vostok made only four models with a 24 hours dial (the Vostok models 891373 – mine – 891272, 891172 and 891171), which is too bad. Another bad call is that these 24 hours models were not given the kind of water-resistance the Amphibia. This models does have “waterproof” stamped on its back, but I that could mean anything. I suspect that these Vostoks are more water resistant than the Raketas (thanks to the screw-down crown), but whether that is good enough to swim with them is anyone’s guess.
Still, this is a nice and inexpensive 24 hours watch, with a reliable mechanism inside, a screw-down crown and a clear, if a little small, face. The hands are fairly luminous, and the rotating 60min bezel is neither too loose nor too tight. The bad news is that Vostok stopped making these watches, which is really too bad. What they should have done is put a 24 dial inside an Amphibia case but, alas, this does not seem to be in their plans. |
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