Chaika Owner Review : Charming, animal and unusual

This small watch (33mm in diameter) features one of the cutest characters in Soviet animation: the lion cub Rrr-Meow, who appears in the film "The Lion Cub and the Tortoise Sing a Song Together" (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tKEblbzoasI). The song, set to a jazzy tune, evokes nothing particularly special except the joy of basking in the sun and the debate surrounding the right of the performer or AI to adapt a song's lyrics, versus respecting the author's intent and the exact wording. This legal question is treated humorously, as it's a film for young children, and in any case, the USSR's respect for copyright was inconsistent, and generative AI was then purely science fiction. The 1974 film is by Inessa Kovalevskaya, based on a story by Sergei Kozlov. Under the guise of being an African animal cartoon for very young children, it's actually a veritable ode to laziness, to listening to jazz while sunbathing, in a Brezhnev-era world where effort and hard-won happiness were valued. The watch dates from the 1980s. It was produced by the Uglich factory under the Tchaïka (the seagull) brand, which isn't even visible on the dial. The only inscription is "Made in the USSR" at 6 o'clock. The lion cub holds an object shaped like a quarter of a disc in its right paw, probably a toy, but I don't know which one. The legibility of the black hands against the colored background is passable, but not very good. It's a two-hand watch; there's no seconds hand, which is quite common for Tchaïka. The lug width is designed for a 16mm strap. The case back is a snap-on steel case. The movement is a small Tchaika 1601A with 17 jewels. So, naturally, the soundtrack to this watch will be the song of the great tortoise, performed by the lion cub—a reservoir of colorful and naive good humor in a gray and absurd Soviet world. A chance to breathe and soak up the sun.