Case-Back In The USSR
"Watch Carefully, Me"
In his lecture at the Horological Society of New York, former Hodinkee Editor, Cole Pennington famously said, "Always read the caseback." This simple advice is a reminder that the engraving on a caseback of a watch can tell us a lot about its history, provenance, and craftsmanship.
Although watch engraving is often seen as a dying art, it is still a popular way to personalize a watch and make it more special. In fact, many famous watches have engravings, such as the Rolex 'Daytona' given to actor and race car driver, Paul Newman by his wife, Joanne Woodward with the legendary “Drive Carefully, Me” written on the caseback.
Last year, I purchased a watch off of Ebay for less than $20. It was a Vostok Komandirskie, a Russian-made mechanical wristwatch that was first introduced in 1965 for the Soviet military.
In the watch community, Vostoks have a rabid cult-following due to its quirky design and most of all, its affordability. Its movement is a time capsule in and of itself that has remained virtually unchanged since it was first introduced. Having owned a couple of these Soviet era watches in my collection, I knew what I was getting into. The Vostok watch brand has also been featured in pop culture, most notably when Bill Murray's character, Steve Zissou, wore one in the 2004 Wes Anderson film The Life Aquatic with Steve Zissou.
Vostok watches come in a variety of dial colors and configurations. This watch in particular had a fading sunburst green “Airborne” dial due to the Soviet Airborne Forces' crest printed just under the 12 o’clock mark. The watch has numerical hours with the exception of the 12, represented here with a red star. Also in red is the seconds hand, while the minute and hour hands are chrome plated. Because of its age the lume plots, which were once white had turned into a yellowish hue.
The listing was created by a Hungarian seller who seems to just want to get rid of a number of bric-a-brac items for sale. Among them was the aforementioned watch. The description, if I remember correctly, goes something like “Runs and keeps good time”. It had a couple of poorly lit pictures with the watch laying flat facing up. Normally, I would request for more angles and profiles, as well as a picture of its movement to see whether there were any alarming signs of corrosion, among other things. Also the watch came with a questionably secure folded link bracelet. It’s cheap, so I couldn’t care less.
When ordering items coming from Eastern and Central Europe, the shipping time usually takes forever. With the war in Ukraine, it could've made matters worse as some shipping channels were either disrupted or re-routed. But to my surprise the package arrived quicker than expected. The order was placed on April 27 and it arrived within thirteen days! The watch was delivered in a padded envelope and was covered in multiple stamps with indecipherable inscriptions. Inside was a wad of bubble wrap secured only by a loop of scotch tape. Out of it the watch emerged unscathed and miraculously ran immediately after a few winds of the crown. It was only when I flipped the watch over that I noticed a peculiar inscription engraved on the caseback that's dated “9.05.93”.
I assumed the engraving was Cyrillic, so I took a picture of the caseback and posted it on a Vostok group I'm in, hoping someone could translate it. I also reached out to a Bulgarian friend, thinking she might know someone who could help. She referred me to her mother, who was able to translate the engraving. The inscription read:
To Timofey Prokopovich Handoz.
From the President of Ukraine
L.M. Kravchuk, May 9, ‘93
Several people in the Vostok group came forward with roughly the same translation and suggested that "L.M. Kravchuk" could be Leonid Kravchuk, the first elected president of Ukraine. A quick Wikipedia search confirmed that he was indeed the president of Ukraine between ‘91 and ‘94, and eerily enough, he had passed away on May 10, 2022, the day I received the watch. (Twilight Zone theme song plays)
To this day, I am still unsure whether the engraving was an elaborate prank, but it is unlikely. Because if it were, the seller would have likely sold the watch for a higher price, knowing its provenance. President Kravchuk may be a renowned figure in parts of Eastern Europe but his cultural influence ends within their borders. He’s no Paul Newman, that’s for sure! That Rolex Daytona fetched a record breaking 17.75 million USD at the 2017 Phillips Auction. This Vostok Komandirskie sold for $15. Of course not all engravings matter. Provenance is not a one-size-fits-all concept. Some stories about the history and ownership of an object are more significant than others. This can make it difficult to assess the value of provenance, as it can be subjective, especially to collectors.
The mystery of the Vostok watch remains unsolved. Who was Timofey Prokopovich Handoz, and why did he receive a gift from the President of Ukraine? What does the inscription mean? I may never know the answers to these questions, but that's part of what makes this watch so special. It's a timepiece with a story, and it's a story that I'm still trying to piece together.
You might be owning a watch worth thousands of dollars. Hope you find the history behind it. Great find!