Cardi Vostok Chronoscope Racingtime GP (now with sporty black dial!)

Yet another creation from the house of Cardi Vostok via a hard right turn at Ukraine.

It is another colour variation on a platform of which I already possess two other examples.

The case is the same slim but somewhat slab-sided affair and coupled with the flat crystal and flat caseback it seems to have drawn some stylistic inspiration from a hockey puck.

I prefer the less rounded bezel on the MVM Sport and that bezel looks better made as well. The rounded bezels seem to have had the numbers and markers bashed into the metal with little regard for tidying up the aftermath.

The black dial has a grainy appearance similar to the MVM Sport. Putting some fine printing on this grainy backdrop is a respectable feat.

These cases and bezels came in a mix of chrome plate finish and the goldy titanium nitride coating, all on top of brass. Sometimes you find an example with a matte grey finish on the case which seems to have a much finer texture than the grey titanium nitride oxide used on some Komandirskies. At least the casebacks were stainless steel and scewed down in the traditional 2-piece Vostok fashion.

The movement is the same basic three-hander Vostok 2409A hand wind item that has powered a few generations of Vostoks by now so parts should not be a problem if you choose this to go this vintage route.

You may be asking yourself "are these a dressy sports watch or a sporty dress watch?" The caseback claims "Water Resistant" and that is as far as it goes, so I think the needle on the meter is swinging toward the dressy end of the scale.

As (so far) I seem to be the sole contributor to the #cardivostok hashtag, I guess that makes me the unofficial brand ambassador here on WC. I can see only 3 problems with that:

• As brand ambassadors go, I am not famous

• Nor am I charismatic

• I am about 30 years late to the Cardi Vostok party and that would exceed most people's idea of what it means to be "fashionably late to the party".

Nevermind, I enjoy wearing these "civilian" Vostoks for what they are. No tanks, missiles, fighter jets etc. Just some 90's styled dressy pieces from a now defunct collaboration in Vostok's effort to move upmarket just a bit.