Link to article if anyone is interested: https://www.ablogtowatch.com/an-introduction-to-vintage-soviet-watches/
The comment section is a shitshow in general, as you can probably imagine.
This reminds me of the time r/CommieWatch got taken over and was filled with posts about soviet timepieces.
Wasn't CommieWatch also the sub with the famous post "Where are there more posts here complaining about jews than communists?"
Let's check the top comment
This will be my final post on this matter. My critics are missing the point. Of course the US was founded in conquest and its original sins were the subjugation of the indigenous peoples and the ‘peculiar institution,’ slavery. The US also gave us a positive model or two, no? The Declaration. The Bill of Rights. And so forth. There is a tension between the forces of liberty and oppression at the heart of US history. The Swiss enabled the Nazis during the war. The French committed crimes against humanity in Algeria. I’m aware of all that. No nation is perfect. Most nations have complex histories but that’s less so with regard to Russia and the Soviet Union: as Maxim Gorky used to say, Russia was a prison of peoples. There’s no tension at the heart of Russian history because there was no great liberal tradition—the tsars made sure of that. The zemstvo men never had a chance. The Bolsheviks were hardened by a history of repression—the abused became even greater abusers. Voices of moderation like Lvov were doomed to fail.
Those of you who have raised criticisms are missing the main point. The Soviet regime was an abomination. Forced collectivization of farms. Mass internal exiling of millions. Slave labor. Millions killed as enemies of the state. Millions starved (Ukraine etc). Millions press-ganged into labor camps. The exportation of this horrible model. Its spread across the world. No Lenin, Trotsky and Stalin, no Mao. Terror was the order of the day in the USSR for 35 years, then slow steady rot and moral numbness.
And you brush it off with sophomoric hair splitting about other nations’ warts? Again, it’s unimaginable that we’d see a tribute to Nazi watchmaking yet the double standard applied to the USSR persists.lmao
USAmerican: "Every country in human history did a genocide, so that means we're not bad, we're just normal, trust me bro"
I'm not a watch person, but this one is sick! https://www.poljot24.de/en/sale/8176gbl.html
"It's called an opinion"
A garbage one that nobody asked for, but you can't seem to stop cramming down people's throats when it's not wanted.
It's called :freeze-peach: sweaty. You know that thing that is disapp- :stalin-gun-1::stalin-gun-2:
Wow, that's one way to comment. How'd he even show up if he's so uninterested?
Soviet watches are cool, of course they're not a Rolex but they were made for practicality. My interest is vintage cameras and thankfully I've not really seen much at all of this red scare mentality in that space towards USSR and DDR industry.
People scour the local equivalent to craigslist for "Superfest" cups made in the GDR because they're super thin and also nigh indestructable. And as such no one makes them anymore because best economic system.
I think it's fascinating what gets designed when profit isn't the only priority
I just realized how long it has been since I have seen a Ken M post.
free speech is when you say anything and everything that pops into your head with zero delay or restraint
Yeah, I might normally think people who obsess over watches as a status thing are a bit cringe, but these watches seem pretty neat as historical collectors items and are relatively affordable. I also think vintage mechanical calculators are pretty interesting.
They have a problem though. They aren't meant to be only worn occasionally. If you don't wind them up every day and move them around at different angles like you would if you wore them as your daily watch, they start to have issues.