I've seen a couple come up for sale recently and they look to be good value, is there a UK importer or do you have to bring in from Russia etc?
Any thoughts on quality would be greatly appreciated.
Barry
You need to buy them from abroad, typically Russia or Germany.
I have bought a number from Zenitar on eBay and have found him reliable and efficient - there are other suppliers. I bought one from a German dealer, good service but more expensive.
In my view materials and build quality are excellent - Ive bough a fair number over the past 20+ years and never had a bad one.
Last edited by Velorum; 15th March 2014 at 23:39.
As Velorum has already said, Zenitar is probably the best Vostok seller on ebay. Meranom.com and boris_gvb (ebay) are also well respected. There is one UK seller http://www.russia4u.co.uk but his selection is pretty poor and prices aren't great. No idea how good he is as all the new Vostoks I've ever bought have been from Russia.
Personally I've never had a duff brand new Vostok but it does happen occasionally. Vostok quality control still isn't on par with the Swiss but the sellers above are known to sort any problems out without any quibbling.
edit: Oh yeah - while the watches are excellent, the straps and bracelets are garbage. Especially the bracelets!
Last edited by Lampoc; 16th March 2014 at 00:42.
Have you read the famous Watchuseek post about the engineering that goes into the Vostok Amphibia watch? Damn, the engineering in this machine is really impressive. Unlike probably all other divers the Amphibia gets more water resistant the deeper it goes by using the water pressure to its advantage, rather than the submariner approach of just being incredibly tough.
I have just one small disappointment.
I have a blue surfer dude that I bought new around 5 years ago, recently I had a couple of problems with it - running a little slow and the crown not disengaging from the hand setting position when I screw it in. Watchmakers are not cheap in the town where I live, as it would cost me at least 50 euros to have it looked at I decided it would be easier and more or less the same cost just to buy a new one.
The new one arrived from Zenitar in super quick time and it works flawlessly, the only little disappointment is that the old one has a beautiful blue sunburst dial which really catches the light, the new one has a flat blue dial - it's nice enough but not half as attractive as the old one.
Erm, no - the compressor and super-compressor cases designed and built in the sixties by Ervin Piquerez's Swiss company EPSA did just that.Originally Posted by ArghZombies
Well yeah, that's why as I was writing that post I went back and added in the 'probably' because I figured that it's likely others have done something similar. There's not really anytihng that's totally new these days; everything has either been done before or is an improvement over earlier ideas. Still, you can't deny the engineering effort that went into the Vostok, especially considering the price these watches sell for. There are probably crappy Debenhams quartz watches with nothing interesting aesthetically or technologically that sell for more than a new Amphibia!
Oh yes, forgot about that particular UK dealer. I havent visited his site for ages mainly due to the limited range but also the higher prices. I have never seen him stock an Amphibia without a date window so am not particularly interested in his stock
Totally agree re the standard of bracelets and straps - though I am pleased that it is here they have made economies as opposed to the watch itself! I usually put mine on a good quality leather strap or occasionally a NATO or MIL strap when I fancy a change
Zenitar and Meranom, are both the most valid and more secure options.
Julian at Poljot24.de has some, but not a huge selection. He's a bit more expensive than Meranom, but the watch arrives in just a couple of days as opposed to a couple of weeks
Julian is a great seller but his Vostok prices are ridiculous. You're better off buying from P.Maier GmbH if you need a Vostok quickly. Zenitar is normally pretty quick due to the fact he's near the postal hub in Moscow.
I think that I might have bought an Amphibia from him at some point - very good service, though as you point out quite expensive
http://russischeuhrenvostok.de/shop/...ne05e3mogbfll0
Got my first Vostok from a UK seller years ago but I have not seen them since. I have bought from Russia there is a seller in Kazan where they are made and they seem to arrive in a couple of weeks.
Mine have been running between 5 to 15 seconds fast which is not too bad. I did have a Seiko 5 once but for the life of me can't remember how accurate that was.
I bought a scuba dude from Zenitar a while back. The watch was as described and to my surprise kept great time.
That thread on WUS was really interesting, how do they do it for the money? My thanks to all who increased my knowledge.
Barry
Idiosyncratic, some of them, and some of the chronos are over £1000. Not sure I'd want to pay that.
Bought mine there. Very happy with the service, however price was higher than others. Though I'm guessing it also has to do with the compulsory 2 years warranty the EU forces on everyone and of course VAT, while the Russian dealers have none of those (if they even offer warranty they'll be pretty sure no one will be sending watches back to Russia due to the shipping costs).
Major benefit with the German shop is that it arrived in around 3 days, rather than the weeks it may take from Russia.
My recent purchase from Zenitar took 6 working days Moscow - Paris.
If your going to buy one make sure your happy with the wobbly crown. It was a deal breaker for me as I just hated it and the funky way to change the date. It was just really frustrating trying to change the time and date.
Wobbly crown is a protection feature - once I'd learned that I was much happier with it.
There are no-date versions too.
There certainly are - all of mine are no date
Posting Permissions
Reply With Quote
