Vintage Raketa 24-hour watch

An interesting watch in my collection is this 24-hour watch from Raketa from the Soviet era It features 24 hours with numbers displayed every 2 hours(even numbers). But just so you don’t miss the odd number hours, there’s a rotating bezel featuring these. 

So how does it work? The minute hand’s speed is normal. It’s the hour hand that runs more slowly than a conventional watch’s. That means the hour hand will cover 24 hours in one full rotation and not 2 like in conventional watches. Why develop such a watch in the first place? One story goes that these were developed for people who wanted to keep track of the time of day (day or night) while not having the sun or moon as reference (i.e., they don't have a view of the outside world). That would likely include submariners who are literally unable to see the light of day for long periods of time. These 24-hour watches help them to not be disoriented.

Dial showing the 24 hour markers including those on the rotating bezel. There are no day or date features on this watch.

View showing the two crowns - one for adjusting the time and winding the watch, and another for the rotating bezel.

The other side view

Case back

The obligatory wrist shot. This watch is another big one at 38mm excluding the crown. I thought though that they could have made this with wider lugs. It only has 18mm lugs.

Here's a photos of the movement, which is a Cal. 2623.H running at 18,000 A/h and potentially 45 hours on a full wind.

This watch functions well, is in generally good shape for both the movement and the case, and keeps time. It is also something I would likely be keeping in my collection for now.

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