Strela (watches)

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Strela Chronograph, ca.1962

Strela ( Russian Стрела for arrow) is a series of mechanical wrist chronographs with manual winding.

The history of watches

Strela watches were manufactured in the former Soviet Union by the First Moscow Watch Factory from 1959 in various model series. The first models from 1959 onwards were exclusively made with a Cyrillic dial and were the first mass-produced wristwatches with a chronograph function that were manufactured in the Soviet Union over a long period of time. Initially, Strelas were only available to members of the armed forces , railroad workers , cosmonauts , scientists , and other high-ranking personalities in the Soviet Union. In later years the watches became available to the public as well and could be bought for 70 rubles .

The clockwork

A movement was used that was specially built for this purpose: the Poljot 3017 movement, a column-wheel chronograph from the First Moscow Watch Factory based on the Swiss movement Venus 150/152. Around 100,000 movements of this series have been produced in total. In a column wheel chronograph, the pointers for the individual functions (start, stop, zero) are controlled by a column wheel; in the 3017 Strela this has seven columns. This technology is rarely used in today's chronographs because it is very complex and expensive. The 3017 was the last Soviet chronograph caliber with a column wheel control. Production ended in 1979 and was replaced by the Russian chronograph calibers of the 31mm series.

literature

  • Johannes Altmeppen: USSR: The Chronograph. How the works emerged from 1831, their special features and models . In: Uhren-Magazin , 10/1998.
  • Juri Levenberg: Russian wristwatches . Callwey Verlag, Munich 1995, ISBN 3-7667-1173-3 .

Web links