Cornavin Is A Russian Watch?

[ducadiangers]

Hello! look to tis watch taht i have find on ebay it's a cornavin watch....very strange taht the quadrant has the written in Latin alphabet....and the movement is a russian movement....can you help me?for me is very strange....(20 US)

[Chascomm]

Hello! look to tis watch taht i have find on ebay it's a cornavin watch....very strange taht the quadrant has the written in Latin alphabet....and the movement is a russian movement....can you help me?for me is very strange....(20 US)

The Cornavin company was founded in Geneva, Switzerland back in the 1920s. They made a wide variety of watches of various grades. In the 1970s, they started outsourcing; movements from Russia, dials from Taiwan, cases and assembly in Hong Kong etc, etc. By the end of that decade they were sourcing complete watches from the Soviet Union, mostly from the Petrodvorets Watch Factory (makers of Raketa). Your watch is an example of this, and apart from the dial markings is identical to Raketa-branded watches. Many Cornavin-Raketas seem to have been sold within the USSR, although they were obviously intended as an export product.

[Ray MacDonald]

http://www.timezone.com/library/horo...horologium0031

[Chascomm]

http://www.timezone.com/library/horo...horologium0031

Ah, the famous Walt Odets Cornavin tear-down. This article has been responsible for many watch enthusiasts looking at Russian watches for the first time. These Soviet/Asian Cornavins seem to be fairly rare. I've seen a few on ebay with the earlier 'thinnish' 2609 movement, but this has the 'chunky' 2614.2N. More commonly on this forum we see the all-Soviet Cornavins.

[James Haury]

I will have to look closely at my Cornavin.