What Makes Vostok Watches Unique?

You have probably heard that Vostoks are unique watches, but what is actually unique about them?

From a far they just look like any other watch, but when you dig into things you will realise they are pretty different in many areas such as their looks, design and even their history and this all adds up to them being very unique, but I will go into more detail about that below.

Vostoks Have A Unique Design

During the cold war when the Russian government asked Vostok to come up with a watch for the military, they had one clear requirement – don’t copy the Swiss watches, but make sure the watch can rival them.

This then resulted in the designers coming up with some very interesting designs that are actually pretty incredible and this really makes them unique.

They Are Soviet Watches

Vostok watches where designed and built in soviet Russia, everything about them has that flavour running through them and like most things that were created behind the iron curtain, they look familiar to many things we have in the west, while also having their own identity.

If we think of the soviet military, their tanks, planes and guns all looked so different to ours, yet similar in a way. These watches where built for this military and they just have that unique soviet taste about them.

Vostok Have A Slow Beat Rate

A very unique thing about Vostoks is that they are built to last and this was done by getting them to beat at a slightly slower rate than Swiss watches.

This does not really affect the time telling performance, but it does significantly change the service interval. Watches are beating thousands of times per hour and over the course of years this means can really wear down the moving parts, but by simply slowing this down, it reduces the length of time it takes for this wear to occur …so you can wait longer in between services.

This has allowed Vostoks to require servicing every 10 years, which is a lot longer than what most other brands that usually suggest, which is about half of this time.

The Case Back Is Different

From a far, the case back of a Vostok doesn’t look much different, maybe the Russia motif may throw you off, but when you actually look at how they work, they are pretty unique.

They are designed in a way that an O ring is placed in the watch, much like any other gasket. However, usually the case back is then screwed down on to this, which can shear the gasket.

The Vostok designers got around this problem by placing a plate on the back that would press directly down on to the gasket, rather than sheer into. This plate was then held in to place by a metal ring that would screw down, pushing the plate down and into the gasket.

This means that all the sheering is places onto the metal plarte, not the gasket which really means you can open the back of the watch as much as you want, the gasket will not get damaged, making it easier and cheaper to repair.

This style of case back has the extra bonus of becoming more waterproof the deeper the watch goes. The pressure of the water just pushes the platr further into the gasket, only making the seal stronger.  

The Crystal Is Also Unique

Vostoks use a domed acrylic crystal, which is not that unique, however, how they use it is.

The plastic crystal will bend and spread out under the pressure of deep water, which sounds bad, but it’s actually perfect. The crystal basically pushes down into the watch, making the seal between the crystal and case stronger.

The designers where able  to use physics to their advantage and this allowed them to create a watch that could dive to the same depth as Swiss watches without using the same technologies.

Vostoks Have Wobbly Crowns

Vostok are also built to be robust and one unique way they do this is through their wobbly crowns.

This can seen very unusual when you are first using it, but it’s actually pretty clever. Basically the stem of the crown is not attached to the watch, so if you drop it and its lands on the crown, the energy cannot get into the main part of the movement, it will at most break the crown and only that, rather than the whole watch, again making it easier and cheaper to fix.

When you want to wind the watch, you just need to move the crown around and you will feel it connect with the watch and you can use it like normal. It does feel strange, but it is a cool and unique safety feature.

Vostok Dials Are Unique

When it comes to dials, Vostoks are certainly unique. Even when you look at the less provocative dials, the design language is very unique and very much their own style that is just not replicated anywhere else.

I think you could easily spot a Vostok dial from any other brand simply due to their uniqueness.

I would say that Vostoks are more known for their soviet era military designed dials, where you will find all sorts of tanks, missiles, fighter jets and basically any other military type artwork on the dials. These can be pretty intense, and people either love it or hate it, but regardless they are very unique.

Vostosk are also well known for their “scuba dude” dials, which all contain a drawing of a scuba diver, which is unique to their dive watches and not something I have seen copied by any other brand.

Vostoks also have a vast number of dials available, which is unique in itself as most companies have a couple of different options, and these are normally just the same dial, but in a different colour at most.    

Vostoks Are All In House

While making everything in house doesn’t make Vostok unique, it is quite uncommon these days, especially at the price point that they charge.

If you hear the term “in house” it means that the company does everything themselves. You may think this sounds strange, as you might his this is normal, but when you actually look at how a lot of watches are produced, you will realise that a lot of brands really just buy different parts and then put them all together.

This is most commonly seen with the movement, where the company buys a common movement to use in their watches. This is done to keep the costs down as designing, manufacturing and assembling a new movement is not cheap, or easy.

This is even seen in a lot of Swiss watches, where they will all commonly use movements provided from ETA, which is a company that specifically creates movements to be sold to companies for this exact reason. It is really only a small handful of large companies who make everything themselves “in house” and is usually associated with the more high end brands. (Although Seiko do this, they sell affordable watches, but they are a huge company who can afford to do this)

However, this also is something Vostok do. They design, create and assemble every part of their watches and rely on no other external parties to help make their watches. 

When you buy a Vostok, it is 100% A Vostok …designed, manufactured and assembled in Russia.   

(You can read more about – Are Vostok Movements Good?)

Conclusion

As you can now see, Vostoks are very different than other watches and they are in fact very unique, which is partly why they are so popular.

They really add a whole different style to a watch collection and they have the interesting story and history to go with it.  A lot of their uniqueness makes them quirky, but this is why we love them!