My "new" four vintage

Some of you may seen these watches in my WRUW posts, I got them back from service last week.

These are parts of the great pack of watches that I got from a friend. My friend's father passed away in 2021 and he was a great hoarder, he bought and collected everything - I mean, EVERYTHING - from stamps to license plates. However, his son is the opposite, so last summer my friend just gave me the watches what his father collected: this pack contained maybe 60+ men and women watches, from cheap quartz (and good quartz like my beloved Seiko SQ) to some valuable pieces. Without spendig a fortune or irrationally much money for servicing compare to the value of the watches, at the end I could use 14 pieces from the old man's heritage. It is more than enough.

Most of the"inherited" watches are Soviet. These above are Pobedas: the smaller with strong patina is from the second quarter of 1953, the other, which has beautiful blue hands, from the 60s. The Pobeda was the flagship of the Russian wristwatch industry, Stalin himself gave the order to establish the brand. (The name Pobeda, which means Victory, came from Stalin as said, celebrating the end of WWII.) Both watches have the same ZIM 2602 movement with 15 jewels, without shock protection. Interestingly this movement (which based on a Lip movement) was used till the 2000s.

I think many of you know the Raketa, one of the major Russian watch brands. I have many Raketas - working and non-working also. The brand had a wide range of watches at the time of USSR, this is a simple one with the usual 2609.HA workhorse movement. Durable movement in a fine and casual case.

And last a German one. The small town of Glashütte is a centre of German watchmaking, and after WWII, when the companies of the town was merged into one called GUB Glashütte (which runned by the government of the new East German country GDR), these watches remained quality products. (You can read plenty of good articles about Glashütte, e.g. https://quillandpad.com/2020/10/02/175-years-of-watchmaking-in-glashutte-a-history-of-fine-german-watchmaking/)

This watch in the picture has a 60.1 movement and a lovely patinated dial from the late 50s. It became one of my favourites in my collection, a classic with the feeling of another era.