Why customers love Raketa?

This model is not very fashionable and yet it has many advantages, it is equipped with the robust 2609NA movement, has a textured dial with metallic reflections and especially a clear railway with "oversize" numbers which are very appreciable for the old people who see their eyesight decline, without going as far as the watch for the visually impaired that is the big zero, or even the tactile watch for the blind. Raketa knows how to make watches adapted to people with reduced visual abilities. The font of the numbers is captivating, it gives the impression that the numbers are hammered, that the hours fall inevitably like a powerful and rhythmic mass, whether it is our own rhythm that we imprint on our life or the one that inevitably falls on us: the rhythm of worries and problems of all kinds. This duodecimal string of numbers that tick away makes us think of the twelve hours of the half-day but also of the twelve months of the year where life and its string of worries take place. That's why I think when wearing it of the very rhythmic title of Elysium, "all year long" ( https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5uXM2bUjtew ). A captivating song of despair and hope mixed together. The chrome-plated brass case, type 621, with a clipped steel case back. The scaled bracelet suits it well but the organic glass is a little fragile when you're too active or clumsy. Adjectives: readable, punctuated, classy, reliable, caring

Square watches combine energy and unrivaled presence, but this one has its rounded corners and particularly curved Arabic numerals. It is powered by a Raketa 2614H caliber with 19 jewels indicating the date. The case is made of chrome-plated brass, type 141 with a clipped steel back. It is a 32 mm square with rounded corners. The light gray railroad is not very visible, it is more of a shadow on the edges that brings volume, the black hands and numbers on a white background stand out very well, giving it excellent readability in all circumstances. This watch is nothing special and yet it is very endearing, full of energy and softness at the same time. Its simplicity seems obvious and its energy is simply incredible. It reminds me of the album "obvious and incredible" by the St. Petersburg musical ensemble Radar ( https://music.youtube.com/watch?v=MzRRvmwIJKo&si=0oLLpdRSUWCGxNOr ). Adjectives: obvious, incredible, square, rounded, soft, energetic

Model launched in the 80s as a tribute to the conquest of space, the Russian manufacturer interprets the heliocentric theory here with originality. With its round hands symbolizing the moon and the sun, a case cut with a sickle and its ultra-domed acrylic glass, it is impossible to remain indifferent to the atypical character of the Raketa Kopernic. A watch that often challenges and opens the discussion on watchmaking. In short, a pleasure to wear this small (36mm) vintage Soviet watch with a strong design. On the mechanical side, a manual winding (caliber 2609.HП, 18,000 A/h) with a good power reserve, a very acceptable drift (-10s/d). Intended to be distributed on a large scale by the Russian watch industry. So no frills, reliability and robustness. My copy apparently left the factory in 1991, the year of the breakup of the USSR. I bought it for next to nothing with box and papers and gave it a service (more expensive than the price of the watch^^). Recently fitted with a sand-colored nato strap with a black PVD buckle, it is off to a new lease of life.

This is certainly one of the most prized Raketa watches by collectors, the "Goroda" (Cities in Russian, pronounced almost like "Garada" because the unstressed vowels are attenuated and there the accent is on the last syllable). It is nicknamed thus because of the large Louis Cottier-style universal time bezel. It is massive, since it is 43 mm in diameter (and even 45 mm if we count the crown) for 11 mm thick. The watch itself is on 12 hours, with the day and date - It is a caliber 2628N with 19 Jewels, double calendar, day and date. But there are white graduations on 24 hours in order to use the universal time bezel. It was first produced in the late 1970s for the Soviets, then in the late 1980s for the Italian market. The case is a type 313 in gold-plated brass on 10 or 1 micron depending on the version. There are also chrome versions. There are several dial colors, blue being the most common. The back is clipped in steel. The domed plexi glass gives an impression of cosmopolitan roundness. This great classic of the Raketa collections always makes me think of a Russian rock classic, "nobody writes to the colonel" by Bi-2. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1u7WN2zBEDc First of all because the song begins like the name of the watch that we slowly count down "Bolchìe Gorodà". Because it is a song about time that passes differently depending on where we are and who we are. Inspired by the novels of Gabriel Garcia Marquez who lived in Mexico at the time and wrote about Colombia. It is a song about emigration and solitude. It was composed in a big city on the other side of the world, in Melbourne, it became emblematic of the 2000s because the director Alexei Balabanov gave it the central place in the film Brat 2. It must be said that it was not his initial choice, he had preferred a song about the war crimes in Afghanistan that forged the cultural universe of the killers of the 90s. But the singer had categorically refused in view of the project of a cinematic ode to ultraviolent organized crime and primary nationalism that it conveyed diametrically opposed to the humanist commitment that animated the composition of the song. This is how the hit of Bi-2 came into play. The club scene shot in Saint Petersburg, is supposed to take place in Chicago. It's the whole scope that we shoot, Colombia, Australia, Ingria, Illinois, Pennsylvania... In short, all the time zones are there or almost. "Big cities, Empty trains, There is no shore, no bottom We have to start all over again from scratch." The song must also be suitable, I guess for the Big Zero special edition "Brat 2". But hey, there are other reasons to love this song or this good little planet and all these time zones besides a blissful admiration for the international organized crime. You can look at your telescope to see what time it is at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology or the Tokyo Institute of Technology rather than Brighton Beach or Marbella. You can love the song apart from what it has become through its passage to the silver screen. Adjectives: imposing, global, universal, terrestrial, traveling, brilliant, cosmopolitan, amazing

This little Raketa schoolgirl watch (489205) exudes the joy of the bell that rings at recess time. It is a small disc that recalls the classroom clock, the horns are invisible hidden behind so as to have this impression. The dial with the writing lines and the name of the watch are in the style of a school notebook, the double black numbering for the hours, blue for the minutes as well as the large black hands on white provide excellent readability. It is rather rare that a Raketa watch has its name written on the dial in script, a name that is moreover obvious, "schoolgirl". The Soviet logo of the quality mark is on the back of the watch, which is also not so common either, but fortunate because it does not distort the evocative magic of the dial. It also came in different colors: burgundy, pink, matte aluminum, chrome... These are watches that were affordable, only 16 rubles, so that schoolchildren could buy them. The mechanism is a very classic 2609 NA. The soundtrack for this piece would be "En sortir de l'école" by Yves Montand. A song tinged with the enthusiasm and overflowing imagination that we have in primary school. (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UlD0nBLvrcE ). It is a watch that makes us dream by its evocative power, that brings back school memories buried deep inside each of us, even if it is perhaps not precisely the model that we wore then. Adjective: Youthful, schoolgirl, educational, fresh, dreamlike, optimistic, simple, nostalgic

Since 2025 is a centered octagonal year, it's time to wear an 8-sided watch. This watch is nicknamed "The Star Wars" or "the Star Wars" in reference, not to the wars waged by the residents of the Moscow palace topped with a red star, but its shape recalls the American film series "Star Wars", some star fighters having a central cockpit window in the shape of an octagon. The watch also has another more common name used for example by Alexander Brodnikovsky, Grobik, the little coffin because the octagonal shape of the glass evoked a glass coffin in front of which everyone went to see a mummy on Red Square and that also at the beginning of the 1980s the USSR was marked by the parade of coffins, those of the first secretaries of the party who often died until the arrival of Gorbachev and then the returns from Afghanistan of all the "loads 200", code name of the coffins of soldiers returning home. The coffins were omnipresent in the consciences. And yet, if you look closely, none of them really have an octagonal shape, they are simple quadrilaterals with right angles, chests, the glass coffin of the mausoleum, it has a flared shape but rectangular and inverted compared to the glass of the watch, the upper part being wider than the lower part. As if the associations of ideas work strangely. It is a dress watch because the octagonal organic glass is rather rare and difficult to change if it is damaged so you have to be careful. The two inserts in the upper and lower parts of the watch are made of black-coated brass ("black chrome" they said at the factory https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PYc2Rte-fUk), in keeping with the hands. It has survived much less well than the chrome plating of the case. The four screws are perhaps a tribute to Gerald Genta, but depending on the angle from which you look at them, they are not very visible. The dial is textured, silver in color with large indexes and the RAKETA brand in chrome. Depending on the angle, the inscription is displayed in a luminous chrome or a mourning black. The movement is a 2628 N with 19 Jewels with the day/date function which is set by setting the date by pulling the crown while the day must be set by scrolling the hours. In the 1990s, control parts with illustrated dials will give a lighter atmosphere to this somewhat macabre model. It is a classy but serious dress watch that invariably brings to mind the dead by the nickname it has been given. We can attribute to it the song by the group Grajdanskaïa Oborona (Grob for short) "the dead" with a simple and joyful melody, childish in a word and with a serious and deep text, punk on a church organ (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yeQAaWGpg_Y ). The dead are not alive, this seems to be a trivial evidence and yet... adjectives: serious, elegant, octagonal, mortal, memorial, historical, worked, accomplished

2025 is a perfect square, it's forty-five squared and it's also a concentric octagonal number. In short, you have to wear a square or octagonal watch in 2025, when most watches on wrists have a circular profile. So let's stand out. I suggest starting with this square Raketa 2209/913139 with a 19.5 micron gilded brass case. It's a 2209.I "Russia" movement, very thin but unreliable, with 17 jewels, a fairly scratched organic glass. Fitting an analog watch that runs smoothly into a square case is not normal, we can see right away that something is wrong with those who designed such a case. It's stupid, it's nonconformist, it creates four unoccupied corners, the movements are made to fit into round cases, it's a useless waste of metal (it's only gilded brass, but still). In short, to wear such a watch you have to be optimistic at all costs, an optimism from the beginning of the year, an optimism of a lover who wakes up with a smile on his lips ready to climb the most perilous peaks. Someone who would listen in the morning to "Wake up boo" by the Boo Radleys or "l'Alpiniste" by the Cosmo-rock band Elysium from Nizhny Novgorod. This is my personal interpretation, because basically it's a watch from the early or mid-1970s and it's not at all the kind of music of that time, so let's suggest Larisa Mondrous' hit - "Prosnis i poï!" (wake up and sing!) which somewhere comes from the same delirious optimism. We can also see the design as a copy of what Swiss watches could offer, Zenith for example. It is a badly made watch, but beautiful and with impertinent optimism that breathes the sweet bourgeois perfume of the rotting West. Adjectives: absurd, optimistic, impertinent, golden, square, bourgeois

This antique men's watch (small size 22mm in diameter for the dial and the 28x28mm case) has a dial all in stone, in green jasper. It exudes elegance and simplicity. Indeed there is only an inscription indicating the brand and the 23 rubies, but on my model the white paint is almost gone, only the first "a" of Raketa remains. There are no indexes on the dial only on the imitation bezel. The brass dial looks good, it allows to enlarge the watch a little and to combine the circular shape with the square. The hands refer to the brass and the square of the dial, while contrasting well with the green of the stone. The design is a real invitation to travel because of its very simple appearance, it combines opposing elements. The natural patterns of the stone are also reminiscent of a lively landscape with the dark upper part and the green lower part and including a spot centered at six o'clock. We can also see a rough sea and a central island. The movement is a bit special, it is a Record-2209 with 23 jewels, it is one of the rare unreliable and difficult to repair movements of the Petrodvoretz factory, it was developed informally in the late 50s and early 60s by engineers of the factory, Starkov and Kisselev, starting from a blank sheet and without copying Western models. It is equipped with an anti-shock axis device. The steel case back also bears the mark of the globe with the inscription anti-shock. The stone quadrants have a particular importance, even if they are not common, for this factory because historically it is a factory of cut stones then of mechanism rubies. This watch reminds me of Paul Lay's album Odyssey released in the fall of 2024. If the stone with its natural patterns represents Ulysses' journey, the stain is the island of Ithaca, this haunting and unattainable central point. Paul Lay's Album lets us hear with his trio (Piano, Double Bass, Drums) Ulysses' journey with so many twists and turns to his native country, and his inner journey from the moment he says he is "nobody" in front of the Cyclops until he finds himself and appeases Poseidon's anger. Adjectives: mineral, simple, original, traveling, epic, dreamy, oneiric

Commemorative watches were not uncommon in the USSR. Celebrating the glorious past and recalling it on a watch dial was even customary and yet this watch stands out. Because it is not about celebrating an anniversary of the coup d'état of November 17, or that of the end of the hot war in 1945, no it is about celebrating the anniversary of the watch factory which finds its history in the cut stone factory in Petergof (finally Petrodvoretz at that time). In addition to the factory, it is the imperial past that is evoked. The factory and the imperial palace, this little Versailles overlooking the Gulf of Finland. Which has also become the symbol of "the window open on Europe", this forced modernization of Russia and its opening to European civilization. The golden case and bracelet further reinforce the imperial side. The guilloche (and gold) dial brings a real luxurious aspect in a Soviet Union that was really drawing to a close. Because 270 years after 1721, this brings us to 1991, the moment when the wind of change was blowing over Europe. A time when we were looking for other tutelary figures than the founding fathers of Marxism and real Socialism. I am not a big fan of gold watches, but I think it suits him very well, there are much more sober versions of the same commemoration, Dmitri Brodnikovsky presents a whole bunch of them on his YouTube channel, but ultimately, it is always the same 2609 NA movement, the same case (if not the gold plating), the same black hands, the same organic glass, the same steel case back as there are for millions of other watches that came out of the Factory. Luxury in sobriety, grandeur in decadence, this watch expresses in my eyes all the strength of this era of great change and historical continuity. The following anniversaries have produced remarkable watches, for the 290th anniversary, 2011, the commemorative watch of Gagarin's flight and the magnificent space watches that followed, for the 300th anniversary, 2021, the impressive “Imperial Peterhof Factory” line making a stone ring the central element of the wristwatch and unfortunately also becoming the symbol of the imperialist bloodbath that followed in 2022. And then 2021, it's the spotlight on the Gelendzhik Palace, the Peterhof of today's empire, which is nothing more than a sad murder hole open to Europe. For the 310th anniversary, we don't know yet, 2031 is still a long way off. In short, you will have understood that commemorative watches are invitations to compare different eras, to innovate while being part of a long tradition to imagine a more serene future. But if the watch can become the symbol of its era, it is not it that builds history, it is rather the one who wears it, for better or for worse. The adjectives that describe it are contradictory because this watch is an oxymoron, it is sumptuous and simple.

Its name may be scary, Raketa Sniper (or Military or Aviator depending on the context), Raketa means missile or rocket in Russian and Sniper, sniper in English, we can still imagine a new precision ballistic missile, or an ultra-precise cruise missile capable of destroying a children's hospital thousands of kilometers away without a hitch. But don't be alarmed, it's a watch from the 80s, a time when Raketa was mainly for civilian use. In reality, the name refers to the dial's sight which resembles that of a sniper's scope. It is not a watch specifically designed for snipers, just like Yema's Superman is essentially sold to normal human beings, not immigrants from Krypton. It uses the codes of diving watches, like those of the Superman, but it is not one, there is no bezel, it is not waterproof. It has the luminescent coating and the indexes in the shape of a sight, but its case is for the surface. It is an excellent compromise for everyday life, where you do not need to dive and withstand enormous pressure, but where readability is appreciable. We therefore have a completely classic 511 case. It is a model dating from 1981 which combines the 511 case in 38mm diameter in chromed brass with the hands of the Amphibia model. The back is in stainless steel with a serial number. It is one of the rare models in a military style from the Petrodvoretz factory of that time. The caliber is a classic 2609NA (its power reserve 36 to 42 hours). It is a robust and reliable mechanism very widespread, easily repairable. It is not so common and yet very endearing. Adjectives: Readable, efficient, light, military, sporty, adapted, civil