Vostok Komandirskie vs Amphibia – What Are The Differences?

If you have been looking at Vostoks you may be wondering what the actual difference between the Komandirskie and Amphibias is.

From a far these two lines of watches look very similar, which is true. They do share a lot of similarities, but there are a lot of differences that if you look carefully enough, you will start to spot.

I own both type of watches and I love them both. I don’t think one is better than the other, but you may find one suits your tastes or your needs slightly better than the other. Although honestly, you will probably end buying both.

Main Differences and Similarities between Vostok Komandirskie and Amphibia

I will just go through the main aspects of the watch and point out where they are similar or different. You need to remember that there are a lot of models. Like a crazy amount. So I will be just be talking about the two lines of watches in general. If you are looking at an individual watch, you may find that there are small differences from what I’m talking about.  

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Vostok Komandirskie

These are the “field” style of watch and Komandirskie roughly translates as “commander’s”

Vostok Amphibia

These are the dive watches and are a little more robust, with better water resistance than the Komandirskie, which I will go through in more detail below.   

The Hands Are Different

For me, the hands are the biggest give away for what line you are looking at.

Both watches use the same hour hand, but the minute hand is larger on the Amphibia. It has a fat arrow tip at the end of the hand, which I prefer over the Komandirskies slimmer, straight hand.

The second hands are also different. The Amphibia uses a lolly pop hand, where as the Komandirskie has just a simple, straight hand.

Water Resistance Can Be Different

Both watches are water resistance, but one is significantly more so than the other. The Amphibia being the dive watch has 200m of water resistance, while the Komandirskie only has 30m.

Both watches are constructed in the same way and use the same case back, so I am not sure why there is such a big difference. Both watches use a screw down crown, but I am guessing the Komandirskies seal is not as strong.

They do feel quite different when winding the watch, so I think the crown is the reason for this difference in water resistance.   

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The Case Shape Is Different

The cases look very similar, but there are actually a lot of small differences between them. It can be hard to know as there are so many case shapes to choose form, but if you look carefully you will see that the two lines do not mix their cases.

If look at the model numbers of a Vostok they are always 6 figures long, the first 3 are related to the case shape and the last 3 are the dial design.

If you look on meranom.com or any where else you can buy a Vostok you will they have nicely laid this out for us. You can see they have separated the two lines of watches and actually listed them by case shape.

As you can see there are more cases for the Amphibia, but more importantly, the models do not cross over.

This means that the two lines will never have the same case, although some are very similar looking. In general the Amphibia have larger cases and larger lugs widths.  

Case Material

This is also different. The Amphibia are made from stainless steel, while the Komandirskie is brass plated. This means they look very similar but are very different and probably one of the reasons why they have different water resistance, as stainless steel will not rust, where brass plating can.

Bezels

Again these look very similar but often have small differences, the main one being the use of stainless steel and bras coating again.

You can get a lot of gold colour options for the Komandirskie, which the Amphibias do not have.  

Usually the bezels on Vostoks can be interchanged across cases, but you need to check what case numbers the bezel actually fits on, although for most of them, they will interchangeable across most models.  

Case Back

As I’ve already touched on when talking about water resistance, these are very identical looking. They both use the same technology to seal the back, where there is a case back that is set on the watch and then an outer ring that is placed over this and tightened down to seal the watch.

Different models will have different engravings on the back, but normally the Amphibia will have this logo written on the back somewhere.

Crowns

Both watches use a screw down crown and in general the Amphibias crown is a little larger.

When you are winding the watch they both have wobbly crowns, which is a Vostok design.

However, to me, they feel very different. The Komandirskie feels much more wobbly. To me the Amphibia barely wobbles at all, it actually feels pretty nice and smooth.

You can defiantly tell the difference between an Amphibia and a normal watch. There is still a wobble, but it’s barely noticeable compared to the extremeness of the Komandirskie. I am not sure if that is just my models, but it something I have noticed.

Weight

There is a slightly difference, but not much. Due to the Amphibia being slightly bigger as well as using a different material it is slightly heavier. Also some models of the Komandirskie are not automatic, so the lack of a rotor makes them lighter.

Vostoks Have Different Straps

In general, the strap is usually thicker on amphibian and is normally 22mm and a bracelet.

The Komandirskie is most often on a leather strap which is slimmer, usually being 18mm.

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Models Of Note

Before I go on and talk about the other general aspects of the watches I want to point out two interesting models. 

The 650 is a Komandirskie with the same specs as an Amphibia, such as 200m of water resistance and the classic arrow hands.

The 350 is also a Komandirskie with nearly the same specs as the Amphibia. It only has 100m of water resistance (a lot more than the standard 30m) and it also has the amphibian arrow hands.

Both of these are the more “modern” looking style of Komandirskie, even if they are listed in the classic section on Meranom, which is maybe why they have a slightly different look and specification.

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Dial

There are some dials that can be found across both lines of watches, but mainly they are different.

Most of the dials will have either “Komandirskie” or “Amphibia” written on them, which makes it easy to tell them apart. However, there is nothing stopping you from swapping them around, as they will fit.  

All the dials say Сделано в России (Made in Russia) which I absolutely love

The Amphibia has the “scuba dude” dials, which is a man diving and the iconic dial for this style of watch.

The Komandirskie dials are usually very heavy on the soviet military imagery, with all sorts of tanks and fighter jets and things like this. They are pretty marmite; you either love them or hate them.  

Movements

These are very often the same across both lines. My two watches actually have the exact same movement.

However, some Komandirskie can be manual wind only. You may also find that they only have 17 jewels, whereas most Amphibias have 31, and are always an automatic.

It doesn’t really matter what movement you end up with they will all performance to around the same level and you can Regulate A Vostok Movement easily if you want to increase its performance.

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Crystal

Both lines use the same acrylic doomed crystal, which is of course looks cool, but is very easy to scratch.

Lume

The lume is equal across both styles of watches.

How much lume there is will really depend on the dial. My Komandirskie has a lume pips at every hour maker, where my Amphibia does not.

The Amphibia second hand also has lume on the lollypop, where the Komandirskies second hand has none. I guess you could argue the Amphibia as slightly more lume on thehour hand, due to its arrow shape, which has lume, but really it’s about equal.    

Packaging

While packaging isn’t really part of the watch, I guess it’s still important.

The Komandirskie will come in a cardboard small cardboard box where as the Amphibia is in a plastic box, which can sometimes be red and sometimes black.

Basically both watches have terrible packaging, although, your watch will arrive safely, so in that sense the packaging does its job very well. 

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Price

The exact price will depend on the model you are looking at. They can often be similar and I believe both my watches where a very similar price. Over all, all models of Vostoks are very affordable.

However, often the Amphibia is more expensive, but like I said, it will depend on the exact model you are looking at.

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Over All Opinion

I love Vostok watches and I love both the Komandirskie and the Amphibia. I think it’s very hard to separate them and say which one is better.

There are so many models and dials to choose from that it’s really hard to say what one in general I like more. Honestly I like them equally as much, which is probably why I own both and will probably buy more of both in the future.

If you are thinking about getting one, just look at the subtle differences and see what little things you like best, if you are not sure, just get both. you won’t be disappointed.

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