Examine my Franken Gagarin ...

[mysterian]

Hi all,
Almost a year ago, before discovering the finer points of Franken-spotting I purchased this "cool-looking" Russian watch. A Sturmanskie Gagarin! ... for $45
Now, I'm finally getting around to examining some of my earlier purchases and low and behold if I didn't nab a franken or two! Surprise Surprise.
I believe this one is certainly a mixture of things, some mismatched crusty old hands, a common Pobeda case ... perhaps a reprint fake dial?
When I received this one, the movement was rattling around all loose inside the case. Upon opening up the back, a simple tweak of those 4 clamps added the desired pressure to keep the movement secure.

Anyway,...I'd be very interested in your opinions on what's what.
Where are all the bits and pieces from,... those hands, strange second hand, crown, dial .... is the movement at least decent with all the correct parts?

Here are the photos:

[WelshWatchNut]

Dial is misaligned off anti clockwise by a few degrees and the '3' position does not line up with the crown stem. Always a giveaway that.

Its also in excellent condition compared to the case suggesting its a reprint.

[schnurrp]

Dial is misaligned off anti clockwise by a few degrees and the '3' position does not line up with the crown stem. Always a giveaway that.

Its also in excellent condition compared to the case suggesting its a reprint.

Yes, and hands are usually in better condition than the dial which is certainly not the case here.

I think the movement is nice and I believe I have heard that the later runs had the 17 jewel shockproof movement.

[sci]

No need to guess about the dial - it is a new reprint, done somewhere where Cyrillic isn't the common alphabet. The letter Ш from Штурманские is typed like Latin W. Have to say, that at least any non-WIS could not mention any of the points we are discussing here :)

[wood]

mysterian!

I think the hands are from a sportivnie watch (hour and minute). I think member shadow_ru pointed that out on
my franken 15j. I´m not sure though.

wood

[koutouzoff]

When I began collecting soviet watches, I bought this...



I was so happy that in my feedback I thanked the seller for this "piece of History"!!!
So naive... then I discovered this forum :)

[mysterian]

Koutouzoff,... That's wonderful!
It looks like a cousin of my watch, perhaps born from the same pile of spare parts and fake dials!

We should have a world-wide "Wear Your Franken Gagarin Sturmie Day". I'm sure there are hundreds of potential participants,... if not thousands!

Anyway,... Thanks to all for the feedback and comments so far.
There's always something to glean from even these crafty fakes!

[koutouzoff]

Actually they can be very useful to repair real Shturmanskie... because most of spare parts are common

[bubldopl]

May I ask if any of you have an opinion on this one. For all I could tell, all looks fine with it. Got it for 300USD on the bay. I took a chance. Franken ?

[DolleDolf]

....Got it for 300USD on the bay. I took a chance. Franken ?

Yeh, flailkin77 ain't cheap. There is a paint blob off the 4. I actually put this watch up here for a preview.

sturmanskie: redial?

The responses were of such a nature that I did not pursue it. Overall flailkin77 has good products, albeit fairly high priced compared to others.

I am not adverse to taking a little gamble here or there. Viz my thread of today with "three vintage arrivals" where you can also see my redialed Volna Percision. but these are watches in the $40-60ish dollar range. I find, should a watch not be 100 percent (or even one percent) correct, a lot easier to live with than high priced shturmanskies, strelas, OKEAHs.

Russ russian watch blog has an educating chapter on these as well.

Russ/Russian Watches