Poljot ( literally meaning "flight"), is a brand of watches from Russia, produced since 1964 by the First Moscow Watch Factory. It produced many historical watches used in many important space missions including world's first space watch worn by Yuri Gagarin. History Founded in 1930 under orders from Stalin, the First State Watch Factory was the first Serious Soviet watch and mechanical movement manufacturer. Via its USA-based trading company Amtorg, the Soviet government bought the defunct Ansonia Clock Company of Brooklyn, New York in 1929, and the Dueber-Hampden Watch Company of Canton, Ohio. It moved twenty-eight freight cars full of machinery and parts from the USA to Moscow in order to establish the factory. Twenty-one former Dueber-Hampden watchmakers, engravers and various other technicians helped to train the Russian workers in the art of watchmaking as part of the Soviet's First Five-Year Plan. Interestingly, the movements of very-early products were still stamped "Dueber-Hampden, Canton, Ohio, USA" (examples of these watches are very collectible today). In 1935 the factory was named after the murdered Soviet official Sergei Kirov. As the Germans closed in on Moscow in 1941, the factory was hurriedly evacuated to Zlatoust . By 1943 the Germans were in retreat, and the factory moved back to Moscow, adopting the "First Moscow Watch Factory" name In 1947 the first wrist watches under the brand name "Pobeda" and the first Marine Chronometers and Deck watches are produced. By 1951 the production of wrist watches increases to 1.1 million. In 1975 new machinery and equipment for manufacturing complex watches are partly imported from Switzerland. The first chronograph "Okean" (caliber 3133) is produced for the space station "Sojuz-23." In 1990 production of watches and clocks reaches 5 million pieces and in 1991 the international award "Golden Trophy for Quality" is awarded in Madrid. In 1992-1994 the new brand "Poljot-V GmbH" or "Poljot-International" is set up with headquarters in Kahl, Germany. "Poljot-International" are considered in most countries as counterfeits of the original Poljot watches from the "1st Moscow Watch Factory". (Wikipedia)
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