Raketa - History, Models and Owners' Reviews

Anti-magnetic watches, meaning those protected against magnetic fields and that are not likely to go out of adjustment depending on the fields to which they are exposed, are very useful in the contemporary world. Designers love to add magnets everywhere in our daily lives; there is a veritable profusion of magnetic fields that we live with and that are harmful to mechanical watches. Anti-magnetic watches, whether modern or vintage, are always my favorite. The 2610 movement is anti-magnetic, derived from the 2609HA. It was housed under a special alloy dial and in an anti-magnetic case made of special EIA steel or a steel/nickel alloy. The dial is incredibly pitted, to the point where it's hard to tell what color it is: a sort of leopard print somewhere between navy blue and burgundy. The choice to only represent the 12 in Arabic numerals and to use large two-tone indexes with matching two-tone baton hands is above all a choice of readability. Indicating the 12 o'clock position on the dial is enough to understand the principle; we are on a classic twelve-hour dial. But beyond the simple information, the 12 sits above the 11 indexes like a conductor who punctuates the division of time. It is the one that remains when all the others are massacred, this watch resists magnetic attacks and the twelve is the number that resists alone. How did it survive? Maybe because its one looks like I and two is confused with a Z, maybe because it is not so visible, maybe because it is indispensable, maybe by mistake or even by destiny. How can we know, there may not even be a reason? In short, you'll have understood that aesthetically this dial is badly damaged, the case is scratched, but it works well. This doesn't make the watch less interesting; on the contrary, it seems to tell a story. And ultimately, that's what we're looking for when wearing a vintage watch: that it tells the time fairly reliably and, above all, that it tells a story. The soundtrack I would choose to accompany this case would be "From Russia with Love," recently released by the Moscow punk band Normy Morali https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OYhrNKgvKtY Adjectives: indomitable, armored, antimagnetic, resistant, rebellious, experienced, survivor

This large 51 case has been released in many versions. But the dial design is particularly successful. Oversized black Arabic numerals, with thin black hands and a black-on-gold railway. It reminds me of Alain Baschung's music video "Osez Joséphine" https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MaIDRUp2Luo, the white horse roaming the circle under the big top and the guitarists in the center. It's crazy, powerful, and delicate. The case is a gold-plated Type 51 with the "Au" symbol at 9 o'clock. The movement is a 2609-NA. Due to the solid gold dial, readability is excellent, which is far from being the case on many watches equipped with the same case and hands but with a dial featuring custom-made colorful patterns. Raketa Au 2609NA /513454 Adjectives: legible, powerful, vibrant, delicate, nocturnal, daring

Dials are generally divided into four. 60 minutes gives four quarters of an hour of 15 minutes, or twelve twelfths of 5 minutes. This is how we represent time. We count in multiples of 5, then 15 minutes. This watch is an exception; it divides 60 minutes into three times twenty minutes. It might seem like nothing, but it changes everything. We represent time differently. The three-sector pattern evoked the "caution radiation" sign for the Soviets, hence the name "atom" watch. It is sometimes called the Yalta, a reference to the Yalta Conference, where Charles de Gaulle was not invited and there were only three leaders dividing Europe after Hitler's fall. Basically, we're not used to having thirds of an hour; for twenty minutes, we prefer to say "a good quarter of an hour" rather than a third of an hour. Whereas for cocktails, on the contrary, we say a third, even if it's only a small third and there are more than three. Marcel Pagnol's recipe for mandarin-lemon-curaçao from the Bar de la Marine is a good example. It's a question of tradition above all, more than arithmetic, with all due respect to Marius. The name of this watch, which wasn't chosen by the brand's marketing team, but by its users, is quite revealing of what was going through their minds at the time (or perhaps still today). Yalta and the atomic bomb, Ozirosk and Chernobyl—no one thinks of the Holy Trinity or cocktails, which are deeply anti-Soviet concerns (Christian or bourgeois). It's a very elegant watch, in its gold-plated version with its majestic dauphine hands. My copy doesn't reflect this very well because it's only chrome, its dial has clearly shown signs of age, and the second hand has been replaced with a less stylish generic model. The design nonetheless remains elegantly minimalist. The case is chrome-plated brass, 36 mm in diameter, with a clip-on case back. The movement is a 21-jewel Baltika 2909A. For the soundtrack, I'm reminded of the music from the animated film "The Mystery of the Third Planet" by Alexander Zatsepin, a landmark work in the early days of Soviet electronic music. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tQL5fYHIyxo&list=RDtQL5fYHIyxo&start_radio=1&rv=tQL5fYHIyxo Adjectives: elegant, mysterious, ternary, striking, terrifying, powerful