I got this lovely and unusual watch from my tutor / instructor when he retired, probably seven years ago or so. It is original, never restored, only serviced by me after it came here. The servicing I did a good number of years ago, and it could need servicing again, but it runs cleanly and all functions work as they should. When I serviced it, I put in an NOS balance but that has almost no time on it.

• Crazy wacky late Soviet design - a mash of elements including gold plating, italicized Roman numerals, gold / yellow dial

• side-to-side crystal makes the watch wear larger than the numbers say.

• Day / date works very well

• Day language is single only - Cyrillic / Russian.

• Case plating is quite good, as watch was barely worn, if at all

• Comes with original Slava-branded box and issue paperwork

• Production date was August 14th 1990, sixteen months before the fall of the Soviet Union.

• Being that this is from the USSR (not post-Soviet Russia) the build quality is superior. USSR-made movements have factory markings, slightly better finish, and the ring with the date levers is made in metal, not in plastic (the lever are also polished).

• Movement is 21j Slava 2428, a cool movement with some quirks, such as dual mainsprings! That’s right - two complete barrels w/ mainsprings. The idea being that power delivery will be averaged out and give a better accuracy, in theory.

• Indirect seconds means that the balance is quite large.

• Endshake on the balance is adjusted by means of shims under the balance cock; a primitive solution but hey it works.

• Date quickset is pusher at upper right

• There is no day quickset

• Dial and hands are non-lumed.

This is a wacky one!