In 1967, Vostok was commissioned by the Soviet Defense Department to produce a dive watch comparable in performance to it’s foreign counterparts, proven watches like the Blancpain Fifty Fathoms and Omega Seamaster – no small task for designers Mikhail Novikov and Vera Belov at the Chistpool watch factory.
They say the enemy of creativity is the absence of constraint. For Vostok, designing a watch that met the specifications of the Russian Navy without using the proven industrial design methods of the Swiss forced them to reimagine the fundamental elements of a dive watch.
Protecting the inside of the case from water penetration being the primary goal, Vostok was forced to innovate – coming up with novel solutions for the winding mechanism, crystal and caseback to prevent water entering the watch at depths of over 200 meters.
Ultimately succeeding in overcoming this challenge, the vostok scuba dude was born, and today has become a cult classic amongst watch aficionados. Cheap, quirky, and reliable – the Amphibia is an interesting watch with a rich history, something truly unique in a world dominated by the Swiss and Japanese.
Today I’m taking a look at the Vostok Amphibia “Scuba Dude” – one of the dozens of style configurations available for this weird, yet iconic dive watch.
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