Are Russians Serial Watch Abusers?

[bullet308]

I mean, really...

Look at eBay. Look at Etsy. There are hundreds if not thousands of horribly abused, mangled or at least ill-maintained wrist watches to be found in Russia (and Ukraine, and the Baltics, and just about anywhere in the former Soviet empire), once solid and respectable timepieces that look as if they have experienced some combination of flood, having been stored in a running microwave oven, or perhaps being left in direct sunlight on the lunar surface for a few millennia...

I have taken possession of some dozens of these watches in recent weeks, often paying from $.50 to $2.00 each for them, and a lot of them are cosmetic wrecks with wierd blistering and/or fading and/or coatings of unidetifiable crap on the dials. Remarkably, the movements are usually in excellent condition even in the most battered examples...but...yuk...

Any idea just what the hell is going on here?

[bullet308]

And these are not the worst of them...

[Geo]

Any idea just what the hell is going on here?

New old stock from Chernobyl?

Do you have access to a Geiger counter?

:D

[BeyondWorld]

It's because they are mass produced and not expensive watches.

 

I use to be able to buy omega movements like that too, in bags.

 

And years before I started it was rolex movements.

[bullet308]

New old stock from Chernobyl?

Do you have access to a Geiger counter?

:D

Funny you should mention that...right now, my obsession is with Russian wrist watches...around 2011, only coincidentally about the same time as the Fukushima Daichi disaster, my obsession was...wait for it...geiger counters and related radiation detection gear. I still have a fair bit of that stuff around, though I am not sure I have a complete counter up and running at the moment..

The Fukushima thing, while a tragedy for a whole lot of Japanese folks, was actually quite fortuitous for me...I was unemployed at the time and struggling to keep my house. I spotted a market niche for a Geiger counter accessory...an inexpensive external speaker for the old US Civil Defense CDV-700 Geiger counter, which is very common here and a whole bunch of them got shipped to Japan about that time...they are good old detectors, but they don't have a speaker. So, I invented this:

 

A clone of mine currently for sale, with a cute little CD sticker added...

A simple modification to a $.99 window alarm, paint it yellow, add a $5 (ouch) connector to hook to the Geiger counter head phone jack, sell for $25. Sold several hundred of them, mostly to Japan, along with a pile of CDV-700s and parts and other Geiger gear I had accumulated right before the big meltdown, and before the copy cats (like the one above) kicked in. By then, I had saved the house, had a proper job again and the nightmare was over.  :-) 

So...yeah, the Chernobyl-thing had actually occurred to me...lets see if I can get my hot-rodded DP-5V up and running and confirm or refute this theory...

http://www.neozap.com/Rad/DP5Bgeigerreview.htm

Edited February 26, 2016 by bullet308

[Geo]

I like a man who knows a roaming Roentgens when you can't see them. I wait with interest to see what you discover!

[oldhippy]

New old stock from Chernobyl?

Do you have access to a Geiger counter?

:D

You beat me to it Geo. That was my very thoughts.

[stroppy]

Just a thought but if you watch any of those "Russian dash cam" videos you'll see that Russians are also not fond of washing and polishing their cars.  I think it is a hangover from Soviet times.  The Russians see consumables at the very basic level of utilitarianism.  

"Me Boris...me no care if watch shiny.  Must work, must take knock from shovel when I dig potatoes.  If broken, fix.  Me no care if no more shiny.  If no can fix, sell to stupid westerners!  Da!"

[anilv]

In poorer countries you find watches have a longer lifespan than In a more affluent countries. Typically you find stuff that usually will be thrown away can be 'reporter'.

You've all probably heard horror stories about how the russkies maintained (for want of a better word) their cars..its usually not by choice! You've also probably heard that some items like cars, watches were not available to the general public..you probably couldn't get them in the shop but had to wait until your number came up! So what was available got used way beyond what would be considered its normal service life in other countries.

Secondly, how many 'water proof' cases do you see from these parts? Apart from amphibias there's really no water or dust protection at all.! Despite that a lot of the poorer specimens can be brought back to life with a clean and service... but you'll need to find a decent case for it!

Anil

[bobm12]

Also, those products were build to last 2 lifetimes although rough on the edges they would run and run...more than an Energizer Bunny! Probably the reason why a clean and service will do wonders on them. Some reviews on the web talk about finishing the places where it matters (in a watch movement) while the others were not so much.

[ramrod]

first of all, let me say that you are spot on with your observation. i have seen several very well designed, and otherwise beautiful luchs that had a wierd krackle finish on the dial. i figured it was either a soviet era, vodka infused funk design....or just a bad paint job. i suspect the latter. i would suspect the movement far outlived the dial. "it doesn't look good, but it runs like hell".

as for your out of the ashes geiger counter invention....good for you! i love a story like that. i'll live vicariously thru you. hell, i couldn't invent an egg timer.

[anilv]

One thing I've noticed is the mainspring is usually 'stronger's than on similar swiss movements.. probably a trade-off in terms of power reserve but I believe this contributes to the longer life as the escapement has an easier life.

Anil

[noirrac1j]

Funny you should mention that...right now, my obsession is with Russian wrist watches...around 2011, only coincidentally about the same time as the Fukushima Daichi disaster, my obsession was...wait for it...geiger counters and related radiation detection gear. I still have a fair bit of that stuff around, though I am not sure I have a complete counter up and running at the moment..

The Fukushima thing, while a tragedy for a whole lot of Japanese folks, was actually quite fortuitous for me...I was unemployed at the time and struggling to keep my house. I spotted a market niche for a Geiger counter accessory...an inexpensive external speaker for the old US Civil Defense CDV-700 Geiger counter, which is very common here and a whole bunch of them got shipped to Japan about that time...they are good old detectors, but they don't have a speaker. So, I invented this:

 

s-l1600 (3).jpg

A clone of mine currently for sale, with a cute little CD sticker added...

A simple modification to a $.99 window alarm, paint it yellow, add a $5 (ouch) connector to hook to the Geiger counter head phone jack, sell for $25. Sold several hundred of them, mostly to Japan, along with a pile of CDV-700s and parts and other Geiger gear I had accumulated right before the big meltdown, and before the copy cats (like the one above) kicked in. By then, I had saved the house, had a proper job again and the nightmare was over.  :-) 

So...yeah, the Chernobyl-thing had actually occurred to me...lets see if I can get my hot-rodded DP-5V up and running and confirm or refute this theory...

http://www.neozap.com/Rad/DP5Bgeigerreview.htm

Hey Bullet308,

Welcome to the forum. I had an Eternamatic from the 50's that was a real beauty. I work in a neuroscience lab and we wear body dosimeters and use Ludlum paddle detectors to pick up any radiation contamination that might occur. This is how I discovered that this watch was radioactive. At first I though it must be a mistake, but after leaving it in the isolation room overnight (We often use short-lived isotopes mostly for imaging, and so I allowed for decay if it was contaminated), it would still cause the detectors to go way out to the right--the metric on these is mSieverts which we can convert to the milli- röntgen equivalent in man or mREM. The watch was not lumed, but the dial side was definitely emitting gamma . I don't know how or why it was "hot," but I had to get rid of the watch. 

[ramrod]

no telling where that watch had been to pick up that radiation. i'd love to know the story.

[noirrac1j]

no telling where that watch had been to pick up that radiation. i'd love to know the story.

Since then, I've checked every watch I own with a detector.  It's not something that immediately comes to mind, and why should it? The majority of watches aren't radioactive and even old watches with radium lumed hands or hours marker don't set off a geiger--well not that much.

 

But if something in that watch, like the dial in my old Eternamatic, is emitting radioactivity...well let's just say there may be more than blistered, faded dials to worry about.

Edited February 28, 2016 by noirrac1j

[bullet308]

I have some radium dial hands that I bought some years ago as check sources...and they are indeed pretty warm. 

The hottest thing I have is a US-issue marching compass from World War II...checked in at 80mR per hour, enough to where you really don't want it in your pocket at all, much less for a road march...

It and a particularly hot prewar Fiestaware dinner plate reside out in the garage...the thorium mantles, americium buttons out of fire alarms and other such low-yield artifacts are at the far end of the office...

Not too concerned about external doses of gamma...we get dinged with that all day, every day. it takes a LOT of that to really make any difference...its ingesting bone-seeking isotopes like radium or, horror of horrors, breathing in or otherwise ingesting some kind of alpha-emitter, that really worries me. 

Still trying to find time to repair the DP-5V...

[noirrac1j]

You're correct about everyday doses everywhere. Many things besides watches are hot...particularly brightly colored pre-war earthen....oh boy.

Sent from my SM-G925T using Tapatalk

Edited March 1, 2016 by noirrac1j

[mcass]

I just bought my first Russian watch a couple of days ago and this thread is making its arrival just that much more interesting....lol

[mcass]

Well my Russian Zaria showed up in the mail today and overall I am very pleased. I wore it all day and it seems to keep time well. I do have a question though. This may sound funny but do watches sound different depending an the angle at which they are held? I ask because I was simply lying here at the computer resting my head on my hand and could hear the ticking of the watch. At one point I leaned forward just a little bit and the sound of it changed. I dont quite no how to describe it but it was definitely different. almost like a pinging sound behind the tick tock. When I tilted it back this pinging would go away and all I would hear is the tick tock.Is this normal??? Ive never noticed this on  a watch before?