The History of the Russian Watch Market

From 1796 to 1801 Kulibin worked to make an astronomical pocket watch. Contemporaries of Kulibin such as Terenty Voloskov, Leo Sabakin and Yegor Kuznetsov made sophisticated astronomical watches as well. Sabakin gave his first watch as a present to Russian Empress Elizabeth in 1784.
It happens that the Russian timepieces which are most sought-after by international collectors are not the
most technically complex ones. The Bronnikov brothers, cabinetmakers from the town of Vyatka, made their way into the history of watchmaking through their unique watches made almost entirely of wood. The only two metal parts in their watches are the driving spring and the balance spring. Various sources claim the Bronnikovs made at least several hundred watches.

In the 19th and early 20th centuries Russia imported expensive and sophisticated watches, mostly from Switzerland. Timepieces by the celebrated Abraham-Louis Breguet became part of Russia’s history thanks to the great Russian poet Alexander Pushkin. Vacheron Constantin, Patek Philippe and Courvoisier sold high-class watches to their most prosperous clients, among them many members of the ruling Romanov family, aristocrats, and famous artists.

In the early 20th century the Russian market for imported watches was dominated by Swiss watchmakers such as Paul Buhre of Le Locle, Borel of Neuchatel, Tissot of Le Locle and Henry Moser of Schaffhausen and Le Locle. Owing to the customs laws of the time, most Swiss watches were brought into Russia as parts and were assembled at the local workshops owned by the representatives of the Swiss companies.
After the OctoberRevolution and the ensuing collapse of industry and foreign commerce, local watchmaking came to a near standstill. In the early 1930s, at the very start of the declared industrialization era, Joseph Stalin signed a decree concerning “the Establishment of Watchmaking in the USSR”. The First and Second Clock Factories were built in Moscow.

Through a series of large-scale projects, the Soviet Union developed its own watchmaking industry. The most popular watch brand of the Soviet era was Polyot, produced by the First Watchmaking Factory of Moscow. The astronaut Yuri Gagarin wore a Polyot watch during the world’s first space mission. His fellow astronauts followed suit, at least until 1975 when the Russian space industry began collaborating with Omega.

Soviet science could boast of landmark achievements in precision watches with mechanical time-measurement. The famous Fedchenko timepiece seems to have completed the long-time record of mechanical watch improvements as it supersedes the precision of Short’s watch by an order of magnitude.

The collapse of the USSR marked the beginning of a new epoch in the development of the Russian watch market. Liberalized foreign trade allowed the Russian watch market to overcome its long-term isolation from the global watchmaking community. Indeed, the time has come when Russian citizens are able to select the watch that best suits their means and tastes.

Russians are great fans of sophisticated mechanical timepieces. Whether in the 19th century or in the early 20th century, the manufacturers of expensive watches invariably gave priority to the Russian market. Many famous Swiss watchmakers were proud to name their Russian clients: members of the Imperial family, aristocrats, high-ranking military men or important entrepreneurs… The preferences of today’s Russian elite, like those of the past, are for sophisticated mechanical timepieces by well-known Swiss or German watchmakers. However, the attitude of Russians towards watches has changed in the past decade. The many fans of fine watchmaking are no longer surprised by words like “tourbillon”, “minute repeater” or “perpetual calendar”, while new Russian collectors keep more than one unique, sophisticated watch made by the world’s top manufacturers.

By Alexey Kutkovoy

Jakob van Kress, Augsburg, circa 1600.
Gold, enamel and gem-set smoky quartz-cased pendant clockwatch.

Provenance: The main collection of the Armory.
Currently in the Museum-Preserve “Moscow Kremlin”.

F. le Grand à Rouen, circa 1600.
Niello silver and gilt “fermée” type
pendant watch.
The covers with niello portraits of
François I of France and his wife Eleonora.

Provenance: Gohran 1926.
Currently in the Museum-Preserve
“Moscow Kremlin”.

Georg Ernst, Augsburg, early 17th century.
Gold and enamel shell cameo-set pendant watch.
The front cover set with a portrait cameo of the Holy Roman Emperor Ferdinand II (1619-1637).

Provenance: The collection of Count A. Musin-Pushkin, 1810. Count Musin-Pushkin, president of the Academy of Sciences, presented this watch to the
Armory Council in 1810.

Currently in the Museum-Preserve “Moscow Kremlin”.

Peter Parquet, London, early 18th century.
Gold, enamel and gem-set rock crystal-cased pendant watch.
Provenance: Presented along with the property of Peter the Great to the Cabinet of his Majesty in 1810.
Currently in the Museum-Preserve “Moscow Kremlin”.

The earliest mention of a mechanical clock in Russia is found in chronicles dating back to the early 15th century. The country’s first clock was apparently a weight-driven striking tower clock. It was installed in the Kremlin in Moscow as early as 1404. The clock, made by Lazar Serbin, a Serb who came from the Mount Athos Monastery, cost the Russian treasury over 150 roubles (an enormous sum in today's money). Serbin’s clock had a dial, an alarm, a “Jaquemart” that appeared to strike the hours and an astronomical display showing the positions of the planets.

Due to their bulk and weight, the first Russian tower clocks were made by foreign clockmakers who were later replaced by Russian craftsmen. The nation’s most famous clock, the Kremlin carillon, was made in 1621 and was mounted in 1625 in the Kremlin’s Spasskaya Tower by a clockmaker named Golovey. In 1706 the carillon was replaced by a new clock that Peter the Great had bought in Holland. Today’s Kremlin carillon was made in the 1850s at the Boutenop factory in Moscow.

However, Russia’s earliest craftsmen did not confine themselves to making only tower clocks: in 1620 watchmaker Moisey Terentyev made a miniature ring watch for Czar Mikhail of Russia.

Until the 18th century watches were a rarity in Russia: in 1700 the entire Imperial family owned only 23 watches; the boyars 24, and the archbishops no more than 9. Most of these watches had been given as presents by foreign visitors.
Mikhail Lomonosov, Russia’s first academician, worked to design precise marine chronometers, which were instrumental in determining longitude during ocean travel.

Aiming to eliminate the variations in rate due to temperature, Lomonosov introduced a fusee, to equalize the force of the four mainsprings, and also recommended that several clocks be kept onboard for time averaging. In 1764-1767 Ivan Kulibin (b. 1735 - d. 1818) created his famous “egg watch” that featured complicated striking work with carillon and automata representing religious scenes. The watch had a cylinder escapement, a balance spring and a fusee.