"He who has the watch "Montana" looks a lot like Celentano"

This saying could have only made sense in the late Soviet Union, combining two popular foreign things - the Italian singer Adriano Celentano and "Montana" digital watches.

In reality, Adriano Celentano most likely never owned this watch, as it is only a cheap digital watch, which could have been considered a luxury only in the USSR.

Note - my example in the photo uses a knockoff Casio module, for reasons I will discuss below, I encourage you to look at some pictures on the web.

This watch has nothing to do with the "Montana Watch Company" which still exists today.

Factual information is scarce, but what I gathered from various sources indicates, that this digital watch started appearing on Soviet grey market stalls in the mid 80's.

Proudly proclaiming "Montana" on the top of the case, English writing on the crystal, an engraved eagle and "U.S.A." in bold letters on the caseback left people with no doubts that this is a genuine foreign import and a sought after commodity.

In reality these watches were produced in Hong Kong, having absolutely nothing to do with U.S.A. in various factories to various degrees of quality and finish, ranging from dreadful (mine) to quite good. The watch sports a chromed brass case, an acrylic crystal, a quite poor electronic module, a nasty aluminum bracelet and no hermetic sealing.

The Montana had all the features present on the Soviet made "Elektronika" watches of the time, but it had a trick up it's sleeve - it could play various melodies. Not 16 as stated on the crystal (usually twelve) but some models could even play the melody for the Beatles' "Yesterday", and since it was a rarer foreign import, it became highly sought after and started to compete with Elektronika, even pushing the local manufacturer to come out with models that could also play melodies.

Despite being more expensive (a Montana cost around 70 rubles, when an Elektronika would go for 40-50 rubles) it firmly cemented itself in the country's zeitgeist as a symbol of a slowly opening up economy, maintaining it's popularity until the 90's, then dying off as most digital watches, slowly falling out of fashion.

Nowadays you can find working Montana watches for around (in my opinion exorbitant) 40€.

The particular one I have I bought for 4€ non working. Trying to revive it proved unsuccesful as the circuit board was corroded and started melting when trying to swap components. The easiest solution was to drop in a cheap Casio module I had laying around which proved succesful, as there was ample space and with the addition of some spacers I even got the pushers to work.

This satisfied me as it quenched my curiosity for this relic of a strange time without having to pay a hefty premium for one.

This is my first post, please comment what you know, your insights, what I could have missed.

Thank you for you attention, cheers for now!