From Russia With Love

Back in April, I became obsessed with watches with semi-precious gemstone dials. Specifically tiger eye and malachite faces. I spent many sleepless nights trawling through eBay in search of examples but creating said timepieces is a very difficult proposition. Stone is a delicate material when sliced to the thinness required to fit into a watch so it’s a very time intensive skill which means that most examples are out of my price range.

What ended up happening is that I purchased two timepieces with faux finishes: A tiger eye-ish Renis timepiece from Israel (which I already wrote about) and this mock malachite Pobeda watch from Russia. After three months I had sort of given up on the Pobeda ever arriving but it showed up in the mail on Friday and I am in love.

It came with the original box and papers but no bracelet. Of course I wanted to wear it straight away so I put it on a vintage mesh fabric strap — a nice breezy look for summer but ultimately I am envisioning a stainless steel extension bracelet to mimic the horizontal stripes on the lugs. I’m also digging the typography and the sector sub seconds. The hard lines are a nice contrast to the veining of the malachite finish.

I wish I could read the Cyrillic alphabet to figure out when the watch was made and it’s service history. It’s currently ticking along like a charm and looks brand new. Because it arrived strapless, I wonder if it was ever worn at all.