How Do You Operate A Vostok? (Winding it up and setting the Date and Time)

If you have just bought a Vostok you may be wondering how you operate it. Luckily it is very easy and pretty similar to most other mechanical watches.

However, I will go through how you wind the watch and then set the time and date so you know exactly what is what.

How Do You Wind A Vostok Watch?

Winding a Vostok is extremely easy and the exact same as any other mechanical watch.

Hand Winding

You will be able to hand wind all models of vostoks and doing so is very easy. You just need to twist the crown.

You may need to unwind the crown first. To do this, twist the crown towards you and should feel it get loose. After a few turns it will come away from the watch and it can feel like you have broken it as it can feel loose and wobbly this is totally normally. Just gently twist the crown and you will feel it engage the winding system and you feel and hear the watch winding.

If you watch does not have a screw down crown, you can just twist start twisting it in either direction and you will hear and feel it winding the spring.

If your watch is hand wind only then you must be careful. You will reach a point of resistance, where it does not wind any more. This is because the mainspring is fully wind. The watch has full power. If you try to keep winding, you will snap something. So stop immediately the second you feel resistance. 

(You can read more about – Can You Over Wind A Watch?)

Automatically Wind

Some Vostoks are automatic, which means that they are self winding. Basically you just have to wear the watch and the natural movement of your arm will cause a rotor inside to spin and wind the watch.

You can of course still hand wind the watch, which you should do when you first put it on, to give it some initial power, then after that it can keep itself topped up.

I have found that you do actually need to move around for this to work. If you are just sat still at a desk all day, you will need to manually wind the watch to make sure it has enough energy.

(You can read more about – How Long Does An Automatic Watch Take To Wind?)

How Do You Adjust The Time On A Vostok Watch?

Setting the time on a Vostok is extremely easy, you just need to unscrew the crown and pull it out to the first (and only) position.

Screwed Down Crown

Most Vostoks have screwed down crowns; you can tell if this is the case by twisting the crown towards you. It should give way and start to feel like it is getting loose.

Once you unwind the crown all the way, you will be met with the signature wobble which can feel strange in between your fingers, this is totally normal. Pull the crown away from the watch and you feel it click into the first position.

Now you can twist the crown in either direction to make the hour and minute hand move, allowing you to set the hands.

When you are finished, just gently move the crown back towards the watch and the threads of the crown should hook back on to the watch and you can then wind the crown back down, onto the watch so that it sealed.   

Non Screwed Down Crown

A small number of vostoks do not have a screwed down crown. You can tell if this is the case by twisting the crown in either, where you should hear the watch winding.

To set the time you just need to pull the crown out. Try and get your finger nail underneath it and pull it away from the watch and you should feel it click into place.

You can now twist the crown in either direction to move the hands to set the time.

Once you finished you just need to push the crown back into place and you are done.

Hacking

You may have heard of “hacking a watch” which sounds fancier that it is. This is when you pull the crown out to set the time, the movement stops, which means the second hand stops moving. This allows you to accurately set your watch. You can push the crown back in and start the watch on the exact second you need.

Unfortunately you cannot hack a Vostok. They do not have this function built into their movement so your accuracy is never going to be perfect.

 However, you can sort of do it, although it is not advised.

You will notice that when you are setting the time and moving the hands, you will notice that the second hand sometimes gets stuck, especially if you are winding the time backwards.

If you play around with the crown, you can start to realise you can sort manually hack the seconds hand. It isn’t perfect and doesn’t stop perfectly, but it does sort of stutter and jump around the same place, meaning you kind of hold it in position.

The second you let go of the crown it should start moving forward normally again.

Personally I wouldn’t advise doing this, you are going to wear down the movement a lot faster by trying to resist the seconds hands from going forwards like this …although it does happen naturally sometimes when you are winding the watch, so it can’t always be avoided. I just wouldn’t encourage it is all I am saying.

How Do You Set The Date On A Vostok

When it comes to setting the date …it’s easy, but I will be honest, it’s annoying.

There are two ways you can do this, one way is very long, the other is…long.

To set the date you just need to put the watch into the time setting position, which means pulling the crown out to the first position. Now all you have to do is wind the watch forward until it reaches 12 midnight, where the date should flip over.

You can see how this can take a while, Every time you want to advance by 1 day on the date wheel, you need to cycle the hands through a full 24 hours. You literately have to twist the hands all the way round the dial twice to change the date.

If you watch says the 2^nd and it’s actually the 22^nd…that is a lot of twisting

However, there is a quicker option.

Again get the watch into the time setting position and this time wind the hands forward to midnight, where the date will flick over.

Now wind the watch forward to about 1am and stop ….now wind the hands backwards, so they go back to about 8pm.

This back and forth between 1am and 8pm is how you “quickly” set the date. Once your hands are at 8pm, wind them forward and the date will change at midnight again… so push on to 1am, stop and rewind back to 8pm.

This is much quicker, but it is still painfully slow, especially if you have to change the date by a lot of days. You can still be sat there for some time.

This is very much one of the “quirks” with Vostoks, it’s annoying, but it is what makes them what they are.

(you can read more about – Can You Wear A Vostok Watch Every Day?)

Conclusion

Hopefully you have you got your Vostok fully wound with the date and time set accurately and now you can sit back and enjoy your new watch. 

As you can see there is not a lot to operating a Vostok, they are pretty straight forward. Their wobbly crown may be a little unique, but apart from that, they are not very different to any sort of watch.