Poljot International simply has better and higher standard of QC in all phases of its watch production than its other comrades. Besides using a more refined original Poljot movement, its watch movement and casing also have better finishing. In short, the movements are almost completely rebuilt.
This range also provides longer warranty (2 years) which gives better peace of mind for our clients.
Alexander Shorokhov, the managing director of the company, encapsulates the rationale behind Poljot International's pricing in this strong statement: "A new Russian design, precision technology, revised constructions and improved materials as well as rigid quality controls have enabled Poljot International to gradually build up its own image in order to compete successfully with well-known watch companies".
Read more about Poljot International.

It really depends on the movement of the watch. In general, manual winding watches from Red Army Watches last between 38-48 hours when fully wound. For automatic watches, power reserve last between 30-35 hours given one full day on the wrist.

One can be assured of the authenticity of the Tourbillon from Red Army Watches. Very often, watches with open balances (open heart) are mistaken for Tourbillons. One can differentiate a Tourbillon from an open heart by observing the following:
• The escapement including the balance wheel oscillates while rotating in a cage, usually a full rotation in one minute
• With an open heart, the balance wheel is oscillating, not rotating
• The rotating cage on a Tourbillon acts as the “seconds hand” of the watch
• Tourbillons usually function on a “Breguet style balance wheel”

There are few things a watch buyer should know when comparing prices of different brands (of a new piece).

Is it a quartz or mechanical timepiece?
When comparing two watches with the same function, a mechanical watch is always more expensive than a quartz watch. The only exception to this is the few brands with the so-called "Precision quartz" or "Jewelled quartz" movement.

What functions does it have?
Two mechanical timepieces can differ greatly in prices due to the different functions they have. Basic function is referring to hour and second feature only. Complicated functions like a chronograph, and tourbillon fetch higher prices.

What brands are you looking at?
Brand image carries a certain added value to a watch. A lot of watch buyers are drawn to a brand due to this reason, without realizing that image comes at a price.

Red Army Watches' mechanical timepieces offer great value for money for people who do not really care about the brand and status tagged with some other brands. Swatch, Seiko, and Casio carry mostly quartz watches, catering to the mass market, while our range is best compared with mechanical Swiss or German brands. View our range and compare our prices with the Swiss brands, and you will be surprised to see what value you can get out of our timepieces.

Crystal refers to the see-through window above the dial of a watch. A sapphire crystal is indeed made of synthetic sapphire, which is a transparent form of corundum, or aluminum oxide (Al2O3). It is extremely hard (Moh's scale 9), and will resist scratching by most substances short of diamonds. However, if struck sharply and from the correct direction, sapphire will shatter. Here's what makes the three most commonly used material different:

Quality	Scratch-proof	Shatter-proof	View distortion
Excellent	Sapphire	Acrylic	Sapphire & Mineral
Good	Mineral	Mineral	-
Average - bad	Acrylic	Sapphire	Acrylic

Most Buran, Aviator, Junkers and Zeppelin, Poljot International and Denissov watches comes with sapphire crystal.

A mechanical watch is a device for keeping time, which uses the energy from a wound spring, and keeps time through the highly regulated release of that energy through a set of gears (the wheel train) and an escapement. It differs from the typical quartz watch in that it uses purely mechanical components to keep time. Mechanical watches typically can run for about 40 hours on one full winding of the mainspring, with a few designs available with up to 8 days, or even 10 days, of power reserve. (quoted from Timezone.com)

A quartz watch is cheaper and more accurate than a mechanical watch. A good mechanical watch can typically be made no more accurate than 2-3 seconds per day. Your typical inexpensive quartz is usually good to 0.5 seconds per day or better.
But mechanical watches are not about achieving the ultimate in accuracy. Craftsmanship, aesthetics, and tradition are all part of the allure. Because the wheel train of an analog quartz watch is not under constant stress from a wound mainspring, it does not need to be as finely finished, nor does it require painstaking skill and precision in assembly.
Mechanical watches are good enough for most people's everyday lives, and they call to our emotional side.

Read more: "On Companionship and Soul in Watches"
Read more: Technical Analysis of Quartz vs Mechanical Watches

An "automatic" wristwatch is a mechanical wristwatch with a self-winding mechanism. In other words, one does not have to wind the crown periodically to keep the watch running. A "manual" or "manual wind" watch must be wound by hand, using the crown, usually every day, to operate continuously.
If one were going to own only a single watch, and wear it every day, an automatic would be a good choice, since the watch will be worn consistently enough to stay wound - the owner would never need to manually wind the watch, and would only need to adjust the time to compensate for drift and at changeover to daylight/summer time and back. (In fact, several early automatic movements dispensed with the crown and moved the time-setting mechanism onto the back, under the theory that the mechanism would only be accessed infrequently. This turned out to be a marketing flop - people liked the look and easy accessibility of the crown.)
For this reason, most commonly seen watches with more than a simple date window use automatic movements - this includes "triple date" calendars, annual calendars, perpetual calendars, and any of these combined with moonphases (see 5.3 for more information about calendars). With few exceptions (oddly enough, these seem to be more expensive watches), most manual wind watches have simpler calendars, although they may include other complications like chronographs (see section 4.1).
One caveat about automatics - if you have more than one watch that is worn regularly, the automatic winding advantage is lessened - the automatic may stop if not worn often enough. With some calendar mechanisms, this can be an increased inconvenience when the watch is reset.
Finally, since frequently worn automatics are usually at or near a full state of wind most of the time, one may get the impression that they can be adjusted to be more accurate and consistent over the course of many days. This, in fact, is not necessarily the case, as a manual-wind watch that is wound consistently once per day can be tweaked so that the day to day variation is very small. In short, there is no definite performance advantage to an automatic - it is mostly a convenience (quoted from timezone.com)

Read more: How to Start an Automatic Movement when fully unwound.

Manual winding is another type of mechanical watch, also known as wind-up watch and hand winding watch. It has no winding rotor; the owner must wind the watch in the traditional manner, using the winding/setting crown, usually at the 3 o'clock position. A full wind for most of Red Army Watches' timepieces will give a power reserve of at least between 36 to 42 hours depending on the models. Many have gone beyond this range when tested.

Many timepieces Red Army Watches are manual winding. I am a practical person; manual winding seems to be very time consuming.
Is it a question or just a concern? If I were to quote what the experts say, it's all about interactivity and the emotional side of ourselves. By giving a good wind to a watch on a daily basis (if you wear it regularly), you are basically breathing life into it. The same thing with an automatic watch which needs to be worn to get wound. The beauty of a manual winding watch movement can be seen in a full view through a glass back available in many pieces in our range, and this makes it more interesting to many people than an automatic watch. Well, all said, it only takes 10 full winds if you wind the watch every morning, which doesn't take more than 10 seconds of your time.
Even Omega recommends that if an automatic watch has not been worn for several days and its power reserve has thus run low, the owner should wind the watch manually for around 15 rotations of the crown (clockwise) to ensure the best possible rate from the outset. This shows that even for an automatic watch, you still need to play an active part in caring for it for its optimal performance. We do have a good range of automatic watches as well, so please feel free to view and enquire about them.

On this, I would like to quote Mr Tay, the VP of Sincere Watch: "I do not think there is an issue of which is superior. It is a question of preference. If the watch is to be worn daily, an automatic would provide a measure of convenience as the daily movements of the owner will keep time moving. As for pricing, there is a slight price difference between hand-wound and automatic movements. In general, the automatic movements are usually more expensive".

To the surprise of many people, the beginning of the Russian love affair with horology dates back to 1404 when the first chiming clock was built into the Kremlin tower in Moscow by a Russian monk called Lasar Serbin.
The first watch schools appeared, again in Moscow, around two hundred years ago and further development of the country's watch industry took place during its period of industrialization in 1929 when the first 'five-year-plan' came into effect. This was led by the First Moscow Watch Factory, which is the source of Poljot movements.
Our watches have been around for many years and will stay around for many more years. There's no doubt on their reliability, and with the emergence of the Internet, more people are able to share their thoughts about these watches. Just like any other brands, there are always positive and negative comments you will find from the users of Russian watches from all over the world, but one thing for sure is that it has a special place in many followers' minds when it comes to good value and reliable brand of watches.

Before I answer this, I need to know if the brand is a quartz or mechanical. It is very rare that you would find a mechanical Swiss brand at that price range, when some of the famous quartz brands are already selling at this price level. Another thing to remember is that our price range starts from as low as S$250 for a basic automatic watch, and I don't think you will be able to find a comparable Swiss brand at this level. An Oris automatic basic function is retailing at least at S$900, according to my last check, and this brand is well known for its positioning as a good-value-for-money Swiss brand.

It's perfectly normal and you should not be worried about the noise. It does sound like a mechanical piece, doesn't it? On the pressure, I can't say much about it other than it being normal, and the way I look at it is that it's good that the pushers are not so sensitive that I can press without knowing it. Come over to our shop and I will show you how these marvelous mechanisms work inside a tiny casing.

Is the watch fully wound before you started the chronograph function? This has to be done first before you start the function.
If you have, and it's still not moving, please bring your watch to us and we will take a look at it. We do get some watches breaking down, and we are proud to say that the rate of breakdown is comparable to the industry rate. You do hear of a S$10,000 watch breaking down after two months of use. A mechanical timepiece is a unique creation, and it takes two to make it last - the owner and the craftsmanship. Remember that your watches are assembled piece by piece by the watchmakers, humans like you and me, and sometimes they make mistakes too.
Be assured that Red Army Watches will test the products before we pass these on to you, so the chances are quite low that you will get a faulty timepiece.

Please click here for the answer.

Most of our watches use all stainless steel for the casing, which is the standard for many brands as well. Some of our range are also available with titanium and 14K pure gold casing, but of course these would be much more expensive.

This is quite rare but it sometimes happens not only with our brands but also with other brands of watches. Therefore, there's nothing to worry about. I just quote here what Citizen says in its Web site about fogging:
"From time to time, you may notice condensation that appears then goes away after a short period of time. This is a normal occurrence and happens primarily from sudden temperature changes. When there are sudden temperature changes such as entering a cool building from the hot out-of-doors, or jumping into pool on a hot day, the watch may fog. Conversely, if you go to the cold outdoors from a warm building, fogging may occur. As long as the fogging clears in a short period of time, there is no need for concern."
Some watches (very expensive ones, that is) are equipped with Argon-filled watch cavity which prevents fogging by eliminating moisture intrusion into the watch.

Please read our write-up on Watch Care

A tachymeter is an instrument for measuring speed. It is a chronograph with a graduated dial on which speed can be read off in kilometres per hour based on 1,000 metres distance.
How to read an observation on the tachymeter: Only the central chronograph seconds-hand is used. For observations of a longer duration, the indications of the timers (minutes and hours) count.
Example for calculating the speed of a car: The chronograph indicates that the distance of one kilometre has been covered in 30 seconds. The corresponding point on the tachymeter scale indicates 120. The speed is therefore 120 km per hour.

You almost got it right. There are different stories on how Poljot started the production of a chronograph movement back in 1975 as to who it obtained the equipment from and where it was imported from (read Poljot history). Some said it was imported from Glashuette in the then East Germany; some said it was direct from a factory in Swiss; and some others even said it was from the United States.
Despite the different accounts, the pictures and write-up by RageRover, below, reveal the truth.



Posted by: RageRover on Apr 29,2004 in
http://forums.timezone.com/index.php?t=tree&th=323646&mid=799993&rid=0&rev=&reveal=

I don't care what people say about the quality of Poljot, EVERY experience I had was a GREAT one. I intend on purchasing more Poljots. As far as cost difference goes, the fact that one is Swiss, one is Russian, that alone in many people's eyes is worth paying the extra money
Many watchmakers have told me that the Valjoux is not the greatest of movements. And I do believe that Poljot has done a great job of modernizing it. I am also very happy that 2 years ago they added the 24hr and moonphase feature. Only adds more value to a Poljot chrono. The build quality on the Valjoux is a bit better. The finish of the parts, and possibly the quality of some of the metal parts are better. And I don't mean just visually, some of the parts on the 3133 are very rough.
That said, with the extra jewels and higher beat, a 3133 can easily be regulated to chronometer standards
I think many of the complaints about Poljot are more about case and dial quality and movement timing.
It is an unadjusted movement. So you may get a movement which is 30 seconds fast. Or you may luck it out and get a movement that keeps time to 5 seconds out of the box. Some complaints are valid, like chronograph hands not lined up, or watch running way to fast or slow. But this can easily be fixed, VERY cheaply by your local watchmaker. As far as case quality goes, I think Poljot is really a totally different company than it was a few years ago. Their watches are now sold worldwide. High quality metals like stainless steel and titanium are used. Cases fit well, including pushers and crowns. They are also comming out and developing more of their own designs, instead of copying Titima or Junghans for example
Poljot has released special versions, where the movement was highly finished (with cotes de Geneve for example). If you feel like spending more, you can get a totally rebuilt 3133 from Poljot International
Just a note, for those who do not know, Poljot International is a German company building watches using Russian Poljot movements. Poljot International is assembled in Germany, cases and dials are higher quality... but you will also pay more like $1,000 and not $200.

Another interesting truth is - and it surely answers your question - this picture below:



Please note the engraved name on the movement which tells everything, that ETA7734 = Breitling 7734, and it's the base for Poljot 3133 movement.