While mechanical watches all over the world have less than 4% share of the watch market, there are markets where besides being just popular, mechanical watches are the only type of timepieces produced. One such country is Russia.

In Russia mechanical watches in all price categories are popular amongst the different groups of consumers. 29% of Swiss exports to Russia are mechanical watches. Another 200,000 units are of Japanese origin, and nearly 4 million units are produced by the Russian watch factories. This last figure may seem improbably large since it exceeds the total production volume of the entire Swiss watch industry, nevertheless there is no mistake. The Russian watch industry is still afloat.

Founded in 1930, the Russian watch industry began to really develop after World War II. In the second half of the 20th century Soviet watch factories met the entire demand of the countries within the communist block and, moreover, the watches were also exported to such countries as England and Canada. Lacking complicated calibres, Soviet factories mass-produced goods of an average quality. Since matters of patent were totally alien to the closed economy of the USSR, there is no wonder that some movements were modifications of the more popular Swiss calibres. Based on the level of their equipment and production techniques, Russia lagged 4 or 5 years behind Switzerland.

Despite a much belated launch of quartz movements at the end of the 70s and the beginning of the 80s, the switch of production capacities to the mass production of quartz at the beginning of the 90s made it possible for Russia to export over 20 million units a year.

Whereas the entire Soviet watch industry traditionally consisted of complete 'manufactures', the production of quartz components was allocated among several factories. This fact partly accounts for the success of the quartz program in the USSR. Narrow specialization, together with state control, allowed the factories to rapidly increase production volumes. After the decentralization of the economy the links between the factories were broken and the production of quartz stopped in 1995. Strange as though it may seem today in the epoch of quartz movements, there is not a single quartz movement among 3.7 million units annually produced in Russia. Belorussia is the only one of the former republics of the USSR where there are three factories, one of which manufactures analog quartz movements and the other two make digital ones.

During the 10 years of quartz production, Russian consumers not only became accustomed to the advantages of quartz, but also even began to mistrust it after the Russian watch market was inundated with cheap low-quality Asian watches at the beginning of the 90s.

Let's look more carefully at today's Russian watch industry, the 'lost world', where mechanical watches disproportionately occupy a greater market share and are almost the only type of watches produced.

The modern Russian watch industry consists of 8 factories falling into 3 groups according to their economic conditions and prospects of further development. There are the 'leaders', the 'second echelon' and the 'dinosaurs', which have survived through to the beginning of the 21st century only by chance.

The leaders are Vostok and Chaika. Both of them are major factories in Russian towns, more or less well-equipped with lowly paid workers.

Vostok is a leader in the production of gent's calibres and is one of the two Russian watch factories manufacturing automatic movements. Having been created in the 80s, Vostok's movements are the most modern in Russia. Also ahead of the other Russian watch factories is Vostok because of the quality of its equipment and their personnel. As quartz watches were never produced by Vostok, the company has managed to totally preserve its production capacities. Besides watches, the factory also manufactures maritime clocks, alarm watches, tachographs, water and gas counters, etc. The manufacturing equipment makes it possible to produce about 1.5 million movements a year both in standard and decorated variants. During the last year the watchmakers of the factory developed several non-standard movements, which are already in great demand among watch connoisseurs.

Unlike Vostok, Chaika produces only manually wound movements of two ladies' calibres, its calibre 1301 (size 13 mm) being prob-ably the smallest serially produced mechanical movement in the world. Last year's output reached 1,200,000 units.

Between the leaders and the second echelon is Zarya. After the production had almost stopped and the factory owner changed, Zarya now makes over 50,000 movements a month and is planning to double this volume. The three ladies' calibres produced by Zarya have a manually wound mechanism with three hands.

The three above mentioned factories have the brightest future in the watch market. The capacities of the factories make it possible to produce large amounts of movements of acceptable quality. The weak points are an unsatisfactory decorative finishing of the movements and obsolete calibres.

The second echelon is represented by Moscow factories Polyot and Slava. Located in the centre of Moscow the factories are hardly profitable as Moscow is one of the most expensive cities in the world, and the rent and salaries here are rather high.

Despite its low output, Polyot is probably the most well known Russian watch factory in Europe. This manufacturer of watch complications produces a rare mechanical chronograph and an alarm watch as well as modified versions of both.

The Second Moscow Watch factory is Slava, which produces over half a million gents' movements annually, including automatic ones with a 'day-date' calendar.

The Russian factories of the third group manufacture practically vintage movements. They are Molniya, specializing in the production of pocket watches, Agat known for its mechanical stopwatches and Pobeda, the movements of which are based on Swiss calibers of the 1930s. Nevertheless the total output of the three factories is about 500,000 units a year. Their movements might be of interest as a base model for finishing.

The above descriptions of 'contemporary' Russian movements might make one doubt that such rarities are still in demand. However, taking into consideration the fact that Russian people have average incomes of below US$200 a month and a predilection to mechan-ical watches and familiar Soviet brands, it is no wonder that products from the Russian watch factories have their consumers.

But the situation is gradually changing. The decline in demand has made the Russian watch factories search for markets and partners overseas. Their hopes are not groundless. Despite the obsolescence of products, lack of sophisticated production techniques and inventory, Russian watch factories do have advantages. Practically each of the Russian watch factories manufactures all its watch parts, from balance and spirals to jewels. The excess equipment, cheap but qualified personnel, a 60-year tradition of watch making allow them not only to produce movements of their own calibres, but also supply other companies with watch parts. They have the capacity and there are not so many watch factories in the world that can produce, from start to finish, over a million mechanical movements a year.

Surprisingly, some dinosaurs have survived and they present a real power.