Home, 2006-12-27
After seeing a wrist shot of the Vostok Amphibia Diver (where it looked a lot better than the photos I had seen on different web shops) and later learning that it could be mine for $51, I ordered the watch.
The Amphibia has an unusual design, the dial looks like something from a european diver's watch from the seventies, but with a strange looking bezel.
Vostok (which means "east") is a Russian watch company founded in 1942. In 1965 Vostok delivered watches to the Russian Defense Department, the original Amphibia watches was designed using the experience from the cooperation with the Defense Department and was build to resist the pressure of 2000 meters of water.
I do not know when the watch was produced or whether the model is still produced, but it can be bought in several places on the Internet. I bought it from Russian Souvenirs for $45 plus $6 for shipping. I got the watch nine days after I placed the order. The watch came in a very basic cardboard box.
I bought and expected a cheap looking watch. It looks unusual, but not as cheap as I thought it would (but cheap nevertheless). It is a very thick watch, which adds to the odd appearance. I liked the design from photos, and the watch looks much like I expected from the photos.
The watch came on a horrible, cheap "leather" strap. I replaced it with a NATO strap.
| Case | 40mm |
| Width incl. crown | 43.5mm |
| Lug tip to lug tip | 46.5mm |
| Lug spacing | 18mm |
| Height | 15mm |
| Weight | 60g |
Dimensions (measured).
The round case is probably chrome plated brass, but it might also be polished steel (time will show). The crown is huge and it is designed different from other screw down crowns I have handled it works like a cap that is screwed onto a hollow tube and the gasket is inside the cap. It seems like a sound design that protects the stem well, but when unscrewed, it does not feel that solid.
The screw down back looks strange, I have read that it should be an impressive design, but cannot figure out exactly how it works (and doubt it is impressive). The crystal is domed acryl, where the dome starts about 2mm higher than the bezel, making the crystal vulnerable. The watch is rated to be water resistant down to 200 metres.
The bezel is friction based, it does not have a luminous marking but is easy to handle, also with gloves. There are no numbers on it, only colored markers for each five minutes, I guess from the colors that the bezel is meant to be used as a countdown bezel.
The dial is easy to read -- the numerals, text, and picture of a diver is printed in a light grey that does not distract. The printing is nice and even looks ok with a 4x loupe. The hours are marked with dots and the hands are easy to distinguish. The dots and hands are filled with a luminous material, but "12" is not marked in a special way, which can make it a little hard to read fast in darkness (however, the missing dot at 3 can help to orient the watch). The luminous material is applied ok, but under a loupe it is easy to see the uneven distribution (the dots are however all perfectly round and centered). The luminousity lasts for a very short time, a couple of hours I think.
The movement is a Vostok caliber 2416-B. It has 31 jewels, is automatic and can be hand wound, it is non-hacking and tics with 18,000bph (I think) -- the date cannot be quickset. The old caliber 2416 was a 17 jewel manual wind that is rumoured to be very sturdy and almost unbreakable, the 2416-B is a cheap automatic that is considered unreliable and the chrome coatings are said to have a rather short life. The movement does not run very consistent, at first it ran about 6 seconds to fast (a day), on a vacation to a warm climate it began loosing time (and lots of it), now it seems to loose between 7 and 20 secunds a day. I guess the different rates is caused by a balance not compensated for temperature differences.
| dial up | +40 |
| dial down | +36 |
| crown up | +20 |
| crown down | +3 |
| crown left | -4 |
| crown right | -6 |
| greatest deviation | +46 |
| average deviation | +15 |
Positional performance.
I am not exactly sure what the problem is, but a couple of times I have experienced that the watch stopped a short time after I had adjusted the time. The problem seems to go away if I adjust the time, screw the crown a little down, unscrew it, wind it a little and then screw it down.
It is amazing that an automatic diver's watch can be had for around $50 -- the price/quality relation is definitely unbelievable. However, I do not know how well the watch will be able to withstand abuse -- I have read different stories on the long time performance, but time will show.
I liked the watch when I first got it, but I like the design even better now (On the other hand, I have also learned how much date adjustment sucks when it cannot be quick set).
Official Vostok site (in Russian): http://www.vostok-inc.com/
On Russian Watches: http://digilander.libero.it/cuoccimix/autosoviet-watches.htm