Russian Medical Watch 1989 : pre-Wall Soviet relic.

This is a vestige of the old Soviet Union. A mechanical hospital watch from Слава, March 1989. Watch was unused, with papers and tags, large at 37 x 45 mm (more below.)

The watch has a lovely, clinical looking dial with white background, and marks in red and black. Scales are present in red on right and left. When the seconds hand reaches either zero or 30 seconds, you begin your timing. Count 15 heartbeats, and see where the seconds hand was at the end of the experiment to get the heart rate. With two scales, you must never wait more than 29 seconds to time the patient's pulse. (more below)

Look at the features. Dial has an inner sunken central portion, giving a dramatic depth appearance. The red symbol of The Staff of Asclepius is present above the 'Слава' name, said to be pronounced Slava. For the benefit of doctors who speak both Latin and Russian, you can see that there are instructions for the timing experiment, in Latin and Cyrillic. GRADATUS AD XV PULSUS it is written on the right side, which gives this watch some grandiose medical gravitas. The seconds hand has a red circle at the end.

The watch has 26 jewels, which is more than most watches, and generally more than needed. Winds and sets smoothly, keeps very good time. Day window in Cyrillic alphabet so once the doctor knows the patient's heart rate, she can chart in down in the official medical record (more below.)

(Side button for rapid advancement of date.)

The paperwork is interesting. Firstly, the watch was made in March 1989, about eight months before the fall of the Berlin wall. Note the way the sides had to be created using exclamation points. The handwritten portion is 122801, the serial number stamped on the caseback. The watch is said to keep time to +40 to -10 seconds per day, and said to run for 42 hours on a windup. I cannot tell what most of this says.

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The watch is large. Here you see it, alongside another Soviet era watch, a Vostok from 1989.

RUSSIAN WATCH PAGE