Hello, comrades! My name is Sergei. I was born in the USSR in 1971. Since 1999 I have lived in the USA. Ushanka Show channel was created to share stories as well as my own memories of everyday life in the USSR. My books about arriving in America are available on www.sputnikoff.com/shop (Russian or English versions) or Amazon: www.amazon.com/dp/B08DJ7RNTC Please contact me at sergeisputnikoff@gmail.com if you would like to purchase a signed copy of “American Diaries” Fan Mail: Ushanka Show P.O. Box 96 Berrien Springs MI 49103, USA You can support this project with tips by clicking a "heart" under this video, or: Via Patreon here: www.patreon.com/sputnikoff Viia PAYPAL: paypal.me/ushankashow Ushanka Show merchandise: teespring.com/stores/ushanka-show-shop If you are curious to try some of the Soviet-era candy and other foodstuffs, please use the link below. www.russiantable.com/imported-russian-chocolate-mishka-kosolapy__146-14.html?tracking=5a6933a9095f9 My FB: facebook.com/sergey.sputnikoff Twitter: twitter.com/ushankashow Instagram: instagram.com/ushanka_show/ Reddit: www.reddit.com/user/Sputnikoff

There was a joke about soviet watches and the boasting over soviet records in all aresas: IN USSR, THEY MADE THE FASTEST WATCHES IN THE WORLD.

I had a Raketa watch, left from my grandfather, I loved that watch, it was kept as brand new, since my grandfather worked with marble and other various stones, he rarely wore that watch, because the repetated shocks of hammering a chisel will ruin any mechanical clock. A few years after gandpa passed, my father gave it to me, I was in highschool; and one day, while running with a classmate on the corridor of my school, the watch came loss, and I lost it; I turned back and looked for it in a matter of minutes, but somebody already pocketed it; I think it was the cleaning lady, I saw her on the corridor and asked about the watch, but she said she did not see any... what was I supposed to do, start searching thru her pockets? There was no one on the corridors but her, it was during class hours, and we were running around because our teacher did not come to class, so we were free to do whatever we wanted. Twenty-five years after it happened, and I still regret losing that watch, I remember grandpa liked to wear it when he was going around town shopping, visiting friends or doing business.

I have a Vostok watch bought in a Russian store in Alaska. No batteries, all mechanical... perfect.

Apparently "made in USSR" wind up alarm clocks were imported into Canada at some point as I recall one around home when I was a kid. It was the only thing in the house that was made in USSR. My guess is that it was bought no later than 1977 or so.

I have a Vostok Comanderskie model. It is somewhat unusual. It records 24 hours. The "normal" 12-6 o'clock position is AM while the "normal" 6 to 12 position is PM. It is ideal for submariners who cannot easily tell day from night. It is totally cool. Vostok watches are known as robust watches that will keep on ticking for ten years without servicing. Mine can be regulated to be accurate within 5 seconds or so per day. But the accuracy will easily diminish with any kind of shock. Using it to chop wood, for example, could drop the accuracy to +-20 seconds per day. You can buy pretty much any Vostok watch for under $100. There are a zillion variations.

I visited a flea market outside of Moscow a couple of years ago and I was amazed at the amount of Orient watches, now I finally understand why there were so many. Also functional vintage made in ussr vostok or poljot watches only cost like 3 usd there, so I suppose the ebay resellers from those regions are making a lot of money...

A joke about Soviet watches (joke probably coming from 80's Yugoslavia): a Russian goes to watchmaker (here in Yugoslavia) to repair his Soviet made watch that stopped. As the watchmaker opens the case, a cockroach emerges and starts running over the counter. Watchmaker quickly grabs a hammer and starts hitting the cockroach. Russian then screams:"njet! njet! To machinist!'

I have a circa 1960 Strela chronograph--the first watch to be worn on a spacewalk and a circa 1965 Sekonda chronograph both with cal 3017. I cherish both as a wonderful part of horological history.

Yugoslav perspective. My dad (b. 1947) had "Mir", "poljot" and "raketa", and some others that were quite damaged. He didn't pay much attention to what he was buying, he once bought what he saw as a nice watch in England only to discover it was USSR (I think MIR). he still wears cheap ones. The USSR watches are quite nice. MIR is golden case, relatively small diameter. Simple design but elegant, it looked modern. Raketa is a true beater, very simple. Just 3 hands on silver dial and some hour marks. Works even now, but doesn't keep good time. Poljot was most elaborate it had date function, and I think (but could be wrong) had automatic function. I liked it most of the three. I destroyed that one :(. About 10 years ago I bought Vostok, komandierski, from 80s (actually from seller from Ukraine) it was cheap, but for a reason, it was in very rough condition later some idiot tested its watertightness in a swimming pool, it failed.

In the late 80's England, you could buy Soviet watches from ads in the Sunday newspapers. Used to advertise them as "KGB surplus" or something silly like that 😊 I actually bought a brilliant Svetlana multi-band radio from a similar ad . I recall Soviet cameras for sale too. It was that time before the fall of the Berlin wall when Gorbachev started opening things up.

I spent time in German refugee camps full of Russians in the early 90s. I remember the Russians wearing watches with nationalistic or military symbols or even military vehicles like tanks depicted on the watch faces. I was surprised to see that none of the watches you featured had any such militaristic decorations on them.

You made me nostalgic for the first watch I ever had. It was a digital Star Wars watch my parents gave me for my 8th birthday. I wore it constantly - even when I slept. Good memories.

I love old Soviet watches so much! I’ve never been big into watches but I do like to get a nice Восток or Электроника every now and then. My first Восток was given to me by my dad after he came back from Ukraine on a business trip. It’s a cool 1956 watch with a First Class Naval Navigator badge on the face. Although I’ve gotten it fixed multiple times it will still fall behind about 15 minutes at the end of the day. I like to collect the military ones so I’ve got all sorts of Navy and ВДВ watches. My “fanciest” one is allegedly apart of the Ратник series of equipment. After typing this I’m not sure why I typed all that while nobody asked but man do I really love this channel and Soviet military watches

If anyone is interested there is a cool video on KZfaq, America's Greatest Hits By Year 1840-2013. Most of the songs the Montana watch played are in that video. Some songs are older but we're repopularized when they were recorded the first time in the early 1900s, so they are out of sequence.

My sister in law, who lives in Poland, always wanted a Russian watch called Electonica. These LCD watches were the height of fashion in the mid to late 80s.

I have two modern Vostok mechanical watches that I bought from a Russian dealer on eBay. One has a black face, a Red star, and a little tank on it. It works great and I carry it in my pocket when I go to town. I am a former metal worker and shipyard employee, we carry our watches in our pockets for safety reasons and to protect them. My other Vostok watch has a sea blue face and a submarine and red star, it is ok but freezes up sometimes. It works though. That Montana watch was cool, I heard it play Oh Susanna, a Stephen Foster classic from the 1850s, the original lyrics are racist, and one other song it played was from the 1840s Gold Rush, My Clementine, and Home on the Range, 1870s westward expansion and land rush! Awesome video Sergey! 👍😊🇺🇸🇺🇦 I also heard Stephen Foster's Beautiful Dreamer and Home Sweet Home. When I was in college I was a history major and did a paper on Stephen Foster and Civil War era music. Foster died a drunk in a Baltimore gutter in 1862, but it considered the father of American music, Home Sweet Home Confederate.😆

My first watch was a Casio. I now have a Casio World Time and Seiko and Orient automatic watches. Had a Vostok watch that stopped running after less than a year. 😔

Citizen watches are still great, especially their Eco-Drives. Love the Soviet watches, esp. the "Cosmonaut" ones. So much history and nostalgia.

In the 70's my mother bought an alarm clock made in the USSR. It was cheap and looked OK. It was very loud, clank, clank and so she nicknamed it Darth Vader. But she loved it, as it was very reliable and never lost time.

Soviet watches were one of the items western tourists bought when they visited The USSR. Better ones were actually good and by western standards they were dirt cheap - especially If you exchanged your western currency into rubles on black market, where the exchange rate was really good.

I have one Molnja pocketwatch😁 A soviet joke about watches: A worker was always late for work. So he started saving all of the money he could and finaly bought a watch. So the next day he shows up at work exactly on time. His boss sees that and saw the watch. He reports it to the authorities. They arrest him and ask him "Where did you get a watch, how did you get the money for it?"

Loved this! Watches were a marvelous thing to us back in the past. My Aunt gave me a Timex watch with a black leather band when I was six years old and it worked well for over 20 years.

When I was young, my wage level good watch need time corrected once of week. Now my titanium shapphire solar Citizen "need" time correct once in half of year, if 1-3 s. feel too much.😁

I have an old “электроника 5” which plays several melodies like Kalinka, Turkish March and best of all, your channel opening - Moscow Nights. I don’t wear it much because the band is made of sharp metal links that snag on clothing a lot.

Interesting as always. I do have to ask, for quartz watches, was there an issue finding replacement batteries? And as for your grandfather's watch, it may only need a cleaning which mechanical watches need about every four or five years. Sourcing a new mainspring should not be too much of a challenge. A competent horologist can see to that.

I just came back from my last trip from Russia. I bought 2 brand new Anfibias with the diver on it.. and I also bought 2 used Soviet watches (Bostok and Zim). I wear the Zim everyday for now, so I love it. I don't know why is it so hard for you to buy these watches since they are pretty affordable.

Ah, the watch from the intro. I remember one, and the sound. Ah, memories.

can't wait to check out the new book

I began purchasing Soviet watches in 2012. My faves are 50s snd 60s Vostok, Poljot and Signal.

This deserves more views and likes.

Very cool video, Sergei. I have a few Russian watches and enjoy them a lot. My favorite are 2 of the Sturmanskie Gargarin special edition from the title card, I have a black dial one and the khaki dial. Very cool retro look and a piece of history

I have 20+ Soviet watches, I am collector having 200 in total Swiss, German, French, Czech and Japanese. USSR watches are less but reasonable accurate. Btw. Poljot was the top brand than some models of Raketa like 24h, Copernicus, and than is the Vostok. Main feature is that USSR watches are super easy to fix. Pobeda you have is rare, can be fixed or just cleaned, probably oil lost viscosity. Take care it has Radium dial so it radiates a bit probably over 10msv.

Oh yes, in the late 80's (socialist Hungary) my father's watch played similar songs. Maybe it was a montana, maybe a casio, not sure. But I remember how amazed I was with that western product. It seemed out of world.

The Soviets had some decent watches. They're a rather decent way of getting into vintage watches, I love my '60s Poljot and hope to have the alarm fixed. They only go for ~$200. My Railroad Molnija makes a good work watch as it's pretty tough. That one only cost me ~$100. I've got 2 Molnija's, both are what's called Ukrainian marriage watches, cobbled from parts. The second one is from the 60s and lives in a Raketa style case. The Molnijas were made in the 1st Chelyabinsk watch plant and are clones of the actually pretty good Cortebert 616. I really want a Vostok Kommandirskie next. Good video!

Congratulations! You have a lot of information about manny aspects of the real life in the Soviet Union, including the soviet watches (I have some of these pretty watches). Greetings from Lima-Perú.

I'd be interested hearing about how you go about buying smuggled goods and if there were any potential consequences of openly wearing something obviously smuggled.

Thank you so much for this video, I really enjoyed it.

Have a modern POLJOT which started my interest, have a couple of others now which are vintage. 17 and 23 jewels. Great watches and my little bit of Soviet history from my youth during the 80's.

I have about 40 Vostoks i love them they are so rugged and comforting .(:

Don't buy the watch until you've considered getting your Grandfather's fixed first. You might actually be able to do a collaboration with other KZfaqrs who fix weird watches. The U.S. company that was bought and moved to Russia was called Dueber-Hampden. Dueber-Hampden made pocketwatches, there is a Wikipedia. My understanding is that prior to that, Soviets were assembling watches from Swiss parts left after The Revolution. After " Dueber-Hampden", there was cooperation w/ LIP in France, and then Soviets later developed their own movements. There are folks on the internets that cover these things in great detail. I kind of found the history of Soviet watchmaking to be one of absorbing Capitalism's failures (Dueber-Hampden, LIP), and trying to move forward from simply steering the Tsar's abandoned ship to making it's own boats. IIRC, there was a conscious effort to create a timepiece industry as a springboard for Soviets to eventually make more complicated instruments/gauges.

I have a командирский/ komandirskie watch from the Soviet Army. It's a really good watch. Extremely accurate, and it doesn't need batteries like most do. I just wind it up every 2 days, and it works magnificently.

I recently bought a Svet 42 from the 1960's. Apparently it belonged to a Russian Army officer. It looks like a watch you wear on a date or out to dinner. It's not for an enlisted man, and I'm impressed with its accuracy. As long as I keep it wound it keeps up with my quartz watches which agree with my phone.

I am collecting russian watches, vintage and modern and they are a blast! Great value for money and so full of historie. Its sad somehow, that so smal things were so valuable back then and held dear. Now even big things lost all magic.

I 've a few Ussr watches in my collection, they are quite reliable and very well made I really love the design but the quality of keeping the time is as accurate as swiss models it's impressive, particularly on my Raketa watches, I have some Vostok watches and the amphibia is a must have I will say, I'm really happy to watch this video because not many people really talk about the quality of Russian watches.

I actually still own a Vostok and I also owned a watch with multiple timezones including if I wanted to know Irkutsk time. IIRC it was a Raketa.

I have a 1939military style watch made in the Second Moscow Watch Factory and a 1945 1985 Vostok Komandurskie hand wind watch with a hacking movement. Both are very good.

I actually just bought an old vostok off ebay last month and I kinda love it. A little quirky but a very reliable action.

Soviet watches. On time twice daily.

Luch watches are made here in Minsk, Belarus. The factory is still going.

Great vid, I've got a coupla Vostocks, great watches with some unique engineering features.

I actually have 2 amphibias. They are waterproof to 200-300 meters depending on the model

A Finnish tourist walks in a Berjozka in Leningrad. After browsing in watch shop he declares: "Here in Soviet Union you have only old fashion mecanical watches. My Japanese watch has timer and alarm." Shop assistant:" You are wrong. Here is the latest Soviet innovation. This wrist watch has all you mentioned plus a calculator and a compass." Customer: "Wow, that is marvellous. But what is that large suitcase and wires coming out of it?" Shop assistant: "That's the electronics of that wrist watch!"

I got "Raketa" wqtch as a present back in the 80's as many of my friends. That was my first watch and it was ok. (In Yougoslavia)

I've covered a ton of Soviet watches on my channel, had a bit of a break from it but working on a CPSU Congress Slava "tank" as I type, abs rare as hens teeth, then I am repairing my Chaika Stadium after finally tracking down a NOS Poljot 2627 auto...

Superb show!👌❤️👍

Would be interested in seeing Brezhnevs watch collection.

I would check out Marshall from wristwatch revival. He restores watches. Also I recently started restoring vintage watches and the first one I was able to fix was a pobeda like your grandfather's. Very interesting watches.

This might help Sergei. There was an American watch company called Hampden who started in the 1860s and were very successful, but by the 1920's were losing money(probably because they were known for pocket watches and wristwatches were taking over then) and went bust. The Soviet Amtorg company was operating in America at the time and they bought the rights and equipment from Hampden and another clock company called Ansonia from New York and brought them back to the Soviet Union. A LOT of equipment. It filled 20 train carriages. They also brought 20 American ex Hampden employees and watchmakers over to Moscow to help set up the watch factory and teach the locals the trade. I don't know if any stayed on. By the early 1930's the watch factory in Moscow was producing their own watches. That was the factory that closed and moved when the Nazis invaded and what became the First Moscow Watch Factory after the war. I have a few Soviet watches in my collection. Amphibias which are very tough. 🙂Their waterproof case design is VERY clever and didn't use any Swiss patents, so they could sell them overseas. The innovative design also meant great sealing and you could re-use the seals time and time again. Even the seal material was a special rubber and the crystal was a special plastic developed in the factory that sealed more the deeper you went. I also got interested in very early Soviet quartz watches which were developed within the Soviet Union and were an interestingly different design compared to Swiss and Japanese. The first in 1977 was the Chaika Rezonator. I have one and it still works. Big old thing, but very cool. 🙂 They were very expensive at the time and were only ever sold within the Soviet Union, unlike others like Vostok where you find examples with writing in English on the dial meant for export.

Thanks for the history. I have 3 Vostoks, a Amphibian and 2 Komandirskies. I moded one with a NOS Vostok Century Time dial.

I have a Vostok Amphibian I purchased about 10 years ago. It's gotten a little slow the last few years. Probably just needs a cleaning and re-lubing but it's hard to pay someone for the service on a watch that only cost me $60 to start with.

I own a modern Vostok Amphibia that I bought online in 2019. It’s one of my favorite watches I’ve personally ever owned (along with my Casio calculator watch I got as an elementary schooler in the mid-1990’s). The Vostok keeps great time!

Quick explanation of the Cardinal, Sekonda and Cornavin brands, the USSR government was hard pushed for foreign currency and so tried to break into the British and American markets with Sekonda being marketed for Britain and became immensely successful, for America they rebranded various watch factory pieces under Cardinal and Cornavin branding and were an utter flop because the USSR couldn't compete against American Timex and Hamilton groups. Should also remember the GDR Soviet brands like Ruhla which featured the absolutely most simple tin plate movt's which were surprisingly accurate and reliable. Sekonda of course is quite a large modern entity in its own right switching to Hong Kong Remex movt's when the Soviet collapsed then to Miyota and Seiko in later years, in the UK British Timex were absolutely awful during the 70's and Sekonda found a niche that pitted Soviet pieces against the awful British Timex and became very popular. Queen of my collection is a NOS Sekonda "tank" auto, languished in a store room since the mid 70's and no one wanted it til I bought it and its just pristine. I bought an unusual Belarussian quartz earlier this year, AU20 plated, old 2356 quartz movement which surprised me for a virtually new watch but isn't a Luch as Luch said they did not know the logo and it wasn't theirs.

Christmas 1992', I received a "Vostok/Boctok" Soviet military watch . Automatic winding+3 day reserve featuring a quality 21 jewel movement with numerical date. i assume the red/ yellow hands+markers were painted with radium . Regardless of time in the dark it would always be illuminated, never decreasing . I have always appreciated Soviet memorabilia especially military surplus.

Soviet watches are a huge hit or miss. One I had was complete junk but the one I have now from Slava is the best watch in my whole collection above Seiko.

I have Vostok Коминтерновский that sits amongst an AP Royal Oak, and a Rolex yacht master ii. I love all 3 of them.

Just bought a Komandirskie, I'd love to get a poljot chronograph but it's super expensive, like the minimum is 300 bucks

As a child I really got a Swiss watch. I am from free Europe, and my parents had money. Other children didnt have a similar watch😢. Then you couldnt buy a watch immediately, you had to save money for some months.😮

I’m a watch collector and i have lots of Soviet watches, i love them! One of them was a gift from my grandgrandpa to me.

One of my friend had a soviet alarm clock when he was a kid, the tic-tac keep him awake.

S, I've been collecting and modding Russian watches since the late 1980s. My first Russian watches were Sekonda, which isna British brand that in the 70s and 80s re badged Poljot and Raketa watches, they were made in Moscow and Leningrad. These were great watches and they were very popular in the UK especially when the quartz movement very nearly killed off mechanical watches in the west in the 1980s. If you wanted and affordable clockwork watch then Sekondas could be bought for about 10 quid in 1985.. about £30 today ($38). By the early 90s we were seeing Vostok and Poljot watches for sale in the west and a lad called Stuart, based in Leeds, England was importing them. By the early 1990s quality control was being a huge problem as the old USSR economy disintegrated and eventually even Vostok went out of business. I have a couple of Amphibia divers from this period and they were pretty awful. The good news is that the company was saved and modern Amphibias and Komandirskie watches are excellent value coming in at between $70 and $300 with most at about $100 . I own several and they are worn in rotation with my Seikos and various luxury Swiss watches. The Amphibia is an interesting watch because it evolved as a diving watch outside the Seiko/Swiss tech tree so the waterproofing and shock proofing is different. The seals work on the compressor principle .. the deeper the watch goes the more the water pressure seals the watch. The only downside is that the large rubber caseback seal needs replacing every 4 years or so or it becomes to hard to be of any use. However they are easy to work on and if you mess it up, it's not like trashing a $5k Omega. Incidentally, Orient were rare in Europe and the US right up until about 2010. They were the luxury brand for Citizen and were targeted at the far east and Middle East which is why so many entered Russia through Afghanistan. Orient is now marketed globally and their entry level divers (Mako) and formal watches (especially the Bambino) have a huge reputation with watch collectors and they are often one of affordable entries into owning an automatic watch for many people.

I LOVE vintage Soviet watches and have been collecting for over 10 years. I have over 70 now. I recommend ebay, go for a Ukranian seller (this is not just political decision), Ukrainian sellers are good and reliable. You will have no problem finding one. They are fun, full of history and reliable (if you buy from a seller that service the watches). I owned a new Rolex once (in the 80's), but now if someone gave me a Rolex I would sell it and buy more soviet watches. I am addicted !

I wore for quite a long time a Raketa watch with an english face that had a calendar that had the years 1982 through 2000 on it. I stopped wearing it as the stem to move the calendar I believe it was called fell off and it ultimately stopped running due to overwinding it. When I wore it though it was a very reliable watch, even surviving getting accidentally run over by my car after it fell off in my driveway, suffering only a couple scratches! I'd love to restore it to functional condition, but I would not know where to begin on doing such a task,

pull the trigger with no fear . the soviet watches are great . first of all, the legendary sturmanskie .i got 10 already, and waiting for one more

I actually scored a grail a few weeks back, 1953 Vostok 2602 in perfect original condition, fully serviced and it keeps time so well just a shame its sized like a ladies watch but it was a mens watch in an era where miniaturisation was seen as king (and saved costs) and back then only rich ladies owned a watch which were even smaller (got a ladies Sekonda which has an absolute tiny movt inside, smaller than a penny) and likely a Commissar's watch as for 53 it was pretty high end stuff, has the very strange B where the top loop stretches like a rocket.

I picked up an old 1970s Pobeda watch from the flea market for 10$ and it worked like a charm. Too bad I dropped it few weeks ago and it stopped working. Just did some research and they are asking like 100$ from the same model, so I got it cheap.

Very informative and interesting! A question: Were Vostok watches produced for the military the same quality as the Vostok watches for civilians?

really curious what something like a basic Datejust or Sumariner would go for in USSR

Orient makes nice watches. Some Seiko employees started it if I remember properly. The cheaper price vs. Seiko in 2022 is due to weight of the watch, noise of the movement , and the lower quality bracelets. Theyre overall heavier than equivalent Seiko but cheaper. It's less machinework to mill the parts for an Orient. They also have wider tolerances for daily +/- timekeeping . I have one that gains about 4 seconds per day, which is quite acceptable considering the other complications are flawless and the main reason I own it or wear it. Buy that watch your grandfather owned. You will remember him every day you wear it.

Their sill are watch Smith's you can get your grandfathers watch fixed by one for way way less then buying a clone of that watch if you still have the old watch. It may only need a Maine spring and cleaned.

I've owned several Russian/Soviet watches. A Vostok "Komandirskie" Amfibia, which isn't the same as a Komandirskie. One of my dream watches would be the Sturmanskie Gagarin. They're not Swiss or Japanese quality, but they just work, and that's what matters.

2:04 - This 3-BR apartment was consuming "almost 25% of your family's income." Here in Boston, I am spending more than 54% of my post-taxed income for my rent. I hate you now.

I own a few Vostok Komandirskie watches, and I love them, with all the different retro faces. Due to the current special military operation, I've put on nato-straps though (not kidding). I actually wear them, as they are great conversational pieces.

Great video! I recently bought a Slava Medical Pulsometer watch with the engraving "КФГ" on it. Despite reaching out to various watch communities and forums, no one has been able to decipher its meaning. Any insights? Thank you! 😊

The melodies in the Montana watch are the same that chinese Christmas three light's have 😅

Soviets even were making electronic watches in late 80' named Elektronika 1, with red digital yime screen. The price was 25 ruble. My friend he was something like 11-13 years old he was dreaming to buy this watch. We used to go to univermag to look at this watch. It was something like iPhone 13 now to a kid. So after months of considering he decided to buy watch. He went home. Put watch on wrist. Went outside. And omg what a disappointing! In the sun you could not see what's time because digits were red light only can be seen in shade or indoors

I collect them thanks!

Comrade, what happened to your grandpa's Pobeda after all? Wouldn't it be cheaper to just repair it?

Soviet watches are my favourite to collect because they have so many cool designs I managed to purchase a watch that was dedicated to the liquidators of Chernobyl it’s vary cool pice of history, the brand of that watch is Zim

What about watches with a 24hr clock face? I remember back, in the day, my friends were crazy about getting them, and there were quite a few coming from the former Ussr, in the first year's after it fell. We were under the impression that it was a common characteristic of Soviet watches.

I have question on another topic. You said that people living in private houses didn't had indoor plumbing. Why? Was it forbidden to build wc?

All I can say about the Montana is, "Oww".

Anybody know about Sturmanskie? What was their reputation, are they reliable

I’m partial to Sinn, mühle glashütte, and tutima.

also my grandpa bought gold watch whish was 300 rubles and one day got drunk and lost the watch

спасибо за... Maybe next year

...and there it is again.... the GOST number. Those Soviets and their standards...

I find it unlikely that old watch like your grandfather's on Etsy was $7200. It would more likely be $72 (shown $72,00 or $72.00 depending on where it's being sold). That is the upper end of most vintage Russian watches, apart from a few sought-after Poljots and USSR Sekonda chronographs.

I wear my Vostok watch daily

You should just buy the watch. The memory of your grandfather attached to it would be worth $100. If it needs to be serviced, most watchmakers in most cities can clean and adjust the watch.