Watches Celebrating Russian Achievements in Air & Space

Comrade watch collectors this week will once again be dedicated to Russia-themed watches.  I haven't been hacked.  It's just that Russia has been on the news very much lately.  Naturally, there are watches out there to celebrate Russia's "Yuge" achievements.  On October 4,  1957, the Soviet Union launched Sputnik.  It was the first man-made satellite to orbit the Earth.  It was a major technological achievement and it ignited the space race between the U.S. and Soviet Union.  If you want to get all multimedia, here is what NASA believes transmissions from Sputnik sounded like and the picture below is a mockup of Sputnik.

With the 60th anniversary of the launch coming up, it's interesting to look at some of the watches used in the Soviet space program and some of the watches that commemorate Russian and Soviet achievements in space. The company that made the watches worn by cosmonauts still exists and still makes fine mechanical watches.  Many watches celebrate Yuri Gagarin the first man in space.

Sturmanskie 40th Anniversary of first man in space watch - photo by Jason vom Anger (Own work) [CC BY-SA 3.0 (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0)], via Wikimedia Commons

Amazingly, there are also now watches made in China that pay homage to old Soviet watch styles and watch companies.  In searching on Amazon, I'm not quite sure if these are created by actual Russian designers, Russian companies who have outsourced production, or Chinese companies pretending to be Russian.  Nevertheless, some of the watches that I've seen from a company called CCCP that look really good. 

CCCP Watches 

As of 2024, the CCCP Gromov 40mm Automatic Watch on Amazon is a great example of a Soviet-inspired watch with a Japanese NH35 movement.  Named after Soviet aviation pioneer, Mikhail Gromov, who flew across the north pole and landed his non-stop record flight in California, this watch is a nice clean looking automatic.

CCCP Gromov Automatic Watch

The recent misadventures of Russia with their invasion of Ukraine can't be helpful to any watch brand so there might be bargains to be had.  I've got to think it would be hard to be a fan of Soviet communism, but someone must be making a killing off of it.