Pobeda Owner Review : Bluffing, simple and inventive

I quite like this little watch, which is so pretentious for what it is that it's no longer laughable, but truly admirable. The Samara factory makes watches as a cover for its military activities, and they've kept the old Pobeda brand and the old small-hand movement inherited from pre-war LIP watches. Watches are clearly not their priority. And yet, with this, they can offer a wide variety of models. This one is a "CV Chronograph," judging by the bezel, but if you look more closely—because it's true that a chronograph without buttons seems strange—it turns out to be just the calendar complication with the month and day of the week... and the small seconds. Of course, there are no hands for the month and day; you have to place them mentally. It's a mental exercise to do every morning. So, of course, the graduated bezel isn't bidirectional, or even unidirectional; it doesn't move, which is safer. You have to rotate it mentally—it's good for your memory. If you open the snap-on case back, you'll find an antediluvian ZIM 2602 movement. Naturally, there are no calendar or chronograph complications on this type of movement. In short, the sheer audacity of it is impressive. The soundtrack to listen to is Ostap Bender's song from "The Twelve Chairs." Con artists fascinate us; we see exactly what they're doing, how convincing they are, and yet we still fall for it. https://music.youtube.com/watch?v=vUV4ewHmDVM Adjectives: inventive, simple, imaginative, deceptive, astounding