Vostok Europe Expedition Trophy 2006

[LFCJari37]

At 43mm this is a nice big watch, but without the weight of my OM or U1. It has a leather strap, which isn’t my favourite as I worked out with my Tissot. I find them too fiddly to do up and undo quickly and easily, and this is no exception. Worse, the hole placements in the strap mean I cant get a really secure fit, its either annoyingly loose or not at all. The bezel turns nicely, but doesn’t seem to have the ball-bearing like feel of my OM and U1, it is also quite loud as it clicks into the position you want. The movement is a Russian 32 Jewel automatic movement, which is screwed down for 100m water resistance. It features a GMT 3rd hand, but this cannot be adjusted. Instead, you turn the bezel, which has 24hr markings, to the 2nd timezone you wish to monitor. Unlike the main hand which use the standard 12 hour mode, the GMT hand only rotates once every 24 hrs. For someone who has never seen this before, it is a bit disconcerting a 1st, but you soon get used to it. There is no crown position to adjust the date on its own, so you need to keep going through the hours until the correct date and time come up. There is also no hacking feature. The watch can be hand-wound, and has a 30 hr power reserve. I haven’t really worn this watch enough to determine how good the lume is yet. I do like the look of the watch, and it is accurate enough for me, but I suspect I will need to get another strap for it, because the looseness of the fit becomes annoying very quickly, especially when my OM and U1 fit so well. Nevertheless, I will wear it in my new 3 day rotation. Overall, im quite happy with the watch.

[KICooke]

I actually like the leather strap on this watch. I never take it off and even after 3 months of showering with the watch on, the strap has held up very well. Mine has been adjusted (by myself) to keep time within chronometer standards.

The date setting is kind of annoying as it uses the 12 back to 8 then back to 12 method to advance the date. I really don't like moving the hands backwards on a watch so I just move the hands forward to the next date. I use the 24 hour indicator makes sure I set the watch properly to AM or PM. The lume is great, its Superluminova and glows quite well in the dark.

The only downside, a Chinese case, when I took the back off to adjust the time I saw the "Made in China" stamp inside the back cover. Hope they didn't use any lead!

[Dirkjan]

I agree, it's a nice big watch. It is actually a LOT lighter than I anticipated. But that is not really a downside when wearing it on a daily basis.

The bezel turns, but not very smoothly (expected more of this). The numbers seem to be a bit misaligned.

I am also not a leather strap fan, and asked the retailer to replace it with VE's own silicon straps. It looks terrific.

The lume is good enough for me, last night I gave it 15 seconds with a MagLite and it was still slightly visible when I woke up this morning (about 6h later).

Date settings are the same as with any Vostok, not a real problem since I've been wearing these kind of watches for a decade now. Screwing the crown on the case can be a bit cumbersome since there is a lack of feel where the threads begin.