1st Moscow Watch Factory Strela Cronograph 

Preface: Communism is shit, but this watch is cool. I’m very thankful to my lovely girlfriend for gifting it to me. 

History and space connection

There are multiples claims to this watch, it was the first mass produced wrist chronograph in the Soviet Union and that cosmonaut Aleksei Leonov wore this watch during the first ever EVA, on March 18th 1965. Less fortunately, it was also the watch worn by Vladimir Komarov on his Soyuz-1 flight in 1967, that tragically ended with the cosmonaut’s life lost during landing. This was the first in-flight fatality in the history of spaceflight. The Apollo 11 crew left on the moon a commemorative medal for Komarov, gifted from the widow of the cosmonaut to Colonel Frank Borman. Throughout its manufacturing period, this watch was standard issue to cosmonauts. 

In the mid 1950s the Soviet Union acquired Swiss watchmaking equipment and drawings of the Venus 150 (some say it was the 175 but it is not possible as it is a different size) column-wheel chronograph movement, used by several manufacturers in Europe such as Breitling. Soviet designers significantly redesigned the movement, including increasing the number of jewels from 17 to 19. The result was caliber 3017, an all steel movement with anchor escapement.

This marked the start of the first soviet mass-produced chronograph.

The Strela production started in 1959 by the 1st Moscow Watch factory (1MWF). Over the years, the watch design changed a lot, starting from a clean version with no telemeter and tachymeter, to then incorporate these and add luminous hands and change the colour of the dial.

There’s an opinion that this watch was only available to the air force, especially pilots and cosmonauts, and not available to civilians until a later stage (that could match with the rebranding to Poljot). However, various versions of the chronograph appear in Soviet watch catalogues as early as 1959/1960. Some say that those catalogues were a propaganda tool, advertising the goods but not offering them to the public.

Is my version the one used in the first EVA?

Most say yes, but some claim that it was a later version with white dial as well but with luminous indices for ease of reading in space. There seems to be some debate about which version of the Strela Leonov wore. However, most seem to feel it was either a non-luminous Cyrillic marked watch or an early, white-dialed luminous piece. 

Which year is mine from and is it original?

Mine is the non-luminous Cyrillic marked dial (Figure 1), which supposedly is exactly the version worn by Leonov. Everything leads me to believe that the dial is original, due to the bone/cream white colour (fakes are bright white), correct font, correct shape of hour marks, few scratches, oxidation/pitting of gold-plated hour marks (Figure 2), and correct colour for the telemeter and tachymeter scales. The only doubt comes from the great condition of the dial, but I’m confident this is just a well-preserved dial that has been thoroughly cleaned/restored. In addition, the hands seem to be all original, all gold plated. The chrono hand is dark blue and of the correct shape, with the “leaf” counterweight, and apparently very rare to find as replacement. The seconds and chrono minutes are also gold plated as visible in Figure 2, and all original Strelas I’ve seen online have the same, except one that had black ones. This has been said to be the one Leonov whore, but there’s no confirmation of this.

Here’s where confusion kicks in. According to the graph in Figure 4, this serial number with this dial (Strela in Cyrillic) is an edge combination. In 1964 they changed the factory name to Poljot and later Sekonda, and the dials have it written. According to the graph (unknown source), at the end of 1963 the max serial number should have been 20000. The graph shows that the Cyrillic watch continued production until 1965, but other sources claim that the production of this version stopped in 1962.

According to this other source: “The movements made around 1965 have the following serial numbers:

• 1959 - 1963 Strela, Sekonda, up to 19000

• 1964 - 1965 Strela, Sekonda, Poljot 19000 to 31000

• 1966 - 1967 Sekonda, Poljot 31000 to 42000”

Many say that the serial number has little to nothing to do with the manufacturing year of the whole watch, as this is stamped on a part of the movement that could be very easily replaced. Is important to remember that Strelas were manufactured from 1959 to mid-late 1970s, so it is not uncommon to see a watch with a replaced balance cock from a different era.

Nonetheless, the dial matches the movement, as jewels is written in Cyrillic and there’s the 1MWF pentagon stamp. The pentagon comes in between the diamond 1MWF stamp and the Poljot crown stamp. Also, the 3017 stamp is missing, which is a thing only on earlier movements like this.

My educated guess is that this watch was manufactured between 1964/1965.

The case also seems original, with the sloped and faceted lugs. The crown also appears to be original, as it is the same thickness as the original and worn.

This watch has a domed crystal, which makes the red tachometer numbers on the far outside of the dial not visible. This suggest that this is not the correct crystal, which should be a vertical sided flat top one. Some suggest that the domed crystal was used on the earlier Strelas that did not have a telemeter and tachymeter scale. Both might have been used given the inconsistency of the soviet supply system, or simply the crystal was replaced with a previous era one.