HALL OF RUSSIA THE BEATING David Henderson-Stewart, a young Franco-British en- HEART OF RUSSIAN trepreneur (with Russian ancestry) living in Moscow, WATCHMAKING knew nothing about watchmaking, but was con- vinced that his project – to relaunch an important, tru- ly Russian luxury brand for a market that buys mainly foreign high-end goods – was valid. With Raketa, you enter a different watchmaking world, which grew up independently without repro- “In 2010, I took a plane to St. Petersburg. It was the first ducing western canons. And it holds numerous sur- I’d ever visited a factory. There were about prises, such as the Russian Code model, equipped twenty little old men and women there, the windows with a allowing the hands to turn “back- were broken, it was freezing cold… I picked up the wards” (to follow the natural movement of the plan- . They were going tick-tock. And I said to my- ets in the solar system); or the round hands of the self that with new designs, it would work,” recounts Copernic model; or the triangular hands of the Avant- David Henderson-Stewart, before adding: “If I’d been Garde line. The latest model launched by Raketa is a a specialist, I would never have got involved. It was all re-edition of the Polar watch from the Soviet era. much more complicated than I’d imagined.” The independent watchmaker Konstantin Chaykin is Founded in 1961 in honour of the space exploits of Yuri another face of the new beating heart of Russia's hor- Gagarin (Raketa means “space rocket” in Russian), the ological scene. His latest project is not to go to the large watchmaking factory from the period of Soviet Pole, but to... Mars. A few ago, convinced that centralisation, which produced millions of time- the red planet was the new horizon for both human- pieces a and employed thousands of workers, kind and watchmakers, he launched a progamme had shrunk to a tiny brand producing $100 souvenir called the “Mars Project”. The latest watch to emerge watches for Western tourists in search of Soviet “mem- from this project can be seen on the next page – it is orabilia”. But in actual fact, its history dates back truly mesmerising! much further than the Soviet era. Raketa is the heir to Raketa and Konstantin Chaykin both embody the best the former Imperial Peterhof Factory, founded in 1721 of Russian watchmaking: different, quirky and surpris- by the Czar Peter the Great. ingly heartwarming.

62 POLAR by Raketa The Russian brand relaunches the famous MARS CONQUEROR MK3 FIGHTER “Polar” watch that equipped Soviet polar by Konstantin Chaykin explorers, on the occasion of the fiftieth an- The Russian watchmaker is convinced that niversary of the model. This limited re-edition “sooner or later, in order to survive, humanity of 200 pieces is based on the original design will have to expand out into the universe.” The and technical drawings kept in the archives planet Mars “currently rates as the best option of the brand. In order to allow explorers to tell for a space base." This was all it took for him the time when they had no way of knowing if it to develop a horological programme dedicated was or night, Soviet engineers developed to this perspective: the “Mars Time” project. The a movement that made the hand perform dial of his new Mars Conqueror Mk3 Fighter one rotation of the dial in 24 (instead of displays the , supplemented by the conventional 12 hours). the 24-hour indicator hand, while the patented “Martian” wheel movement provides a precise indication of Martian time with two hands, without requiring an additional watch movement. As for the model’s design, it is equally worthy of the red planet. Only 8 pieces in a titanium case will be released.

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