If you follow the Russian watch industry even a little, you might have heard that in 2015, Raketa announced the production of a new automatic movement and a series of watches based on it. However, the announced prices for these new watches were quite high—especially for collectors of USSR or Russian watches who were accustomed to affordable prices. I believe many collectors had second thoughts about buying a Raketa watch priced in the €1,000 range or higher. I admit I was also one of those who hesitated to purchase a new Raketa. But this year's Black Friday gave me the opportunity to pull the trigger and buy one. I chose the Raketa Baikonur as my first "new" Raketa. Those who know my collection can surely understand why: it fits perfectly into my "Space" and "Russian" collections.
As mentioned, Raketa developed—or more accurately, refreshed—its automatic movement 2615 in 2014. The version with a 24-hour complication (used in the Baikonur watch) is called the 2624. Both designations still follow the former USSR classification system for movements. There is also a version with a date complication, but interestingly, it is not designated as 2627, which would be standard under this classification. Instead, it remains labeled as 2615—strange and unusual.
The 2615 movement consists of more than 240 parts, and Raketa claims that every single component is made in-house. This means that the entire movement—and indeed the entire watch—is produced entirely by Raketa, which is exceptionally rare in today’s watch industry. They also claim that the production process is almost entirely manual.
Raketa had ambitious goals for the new movement. They aimed to compete with the ETA 2824 and sought to enter the microbrand watch market by offering this movement as a better and more affordable alternative to the ETA 2824. I’ll quote what Raketa stated on their official website:
1. The winding speed of Raketa Avtomat is higher than ETA 2824. According to Cyclotest watch tester, Avtomat speed of movement is over 3.4 against approximately 2.5 in ETA.
2. Raketa Avtomat is equipped with a stopper of self winding unit, which is activated during manual winding (unlike ETA movements, the reversers are locked while the movement is manually winded). This reduce noise during manual winding process and prevents wearing out the reversers.
3. Unlike in many swiss automatic movements, Raketa Automat movement's reversing system is wear resistant, for it has no micro-teeth (being extremlely sensitive, micro teeth are worn out easily.
4. In the Raketa Avtomat the rotor winding is bidirectional. I.e. the oscillating weight winds the barrelr egardless of the oscillation direction. (while ETA's Valjoux 7750, the most popular of Swiss chronometers used by Breitling, Panerai and other brands, is unidirectional).
In 2019 they made one step forward and almost all movements are now decorated. What is unusual is that movements are decorated differently in different watch models, so decoration depends on watch to which the movement will be inserted. Some decorations are nice and well but on some decorations Raketa simply step over the limit of the good taste. At least for me those decorations are childish! Few examples from Raketa's booklet:
Of course, since the movements are decorated, watches equipped with them come with a display case back.
From the entire collection, I must admit that several watches caught my attention. To name just a few— all the Amphibia versions, the Baikonur, and the Ruskij Kod. My primary focus was on watches with leather or rubber straps. I prefer these types of straps over bracelets, as I find them more comfortable to wear, and in most cases, the leather or rubber strap versions are also cheaper than those with metal bracelets.
However, very few shops in the EU offer Raketa watches. Aside from the brand’s official boutique in Paris, I found a few other sellers: Page & Cooper (UK), WatchBandit (Germany, but with only a few models), and Timedix (Bulgaria). At the time I sent my initial inquiry, Timedix didn’t ship to Western Europe—they simply referred me to Raketa’s official web store and stated that they were responsible only for Eastern Europe. To make things worse, all retailers had the same prices and none had offered any discounts over the last two years. In fact, prices have even increased over the past year.
Well, this year’s Black Friday finally brought an opportunity. WatchBandit offered 20% off all watches in their collection—including Raketa. So I took advantage of the deal. Of all the watches I was interested in, they only had the Baikonur on a bracelet. On the last day of the sale, I decided to go for it.
At the same time, Timedix was also offering a 20% discount on all models, and I managed to negotiate shipping to my country as well. So it looks like another Raketa will soon be on my wrist (and maybe a short review will follow). Interestingly, although I bought the Baikonur from WatchBandit, the watch arrived just one day later, shipped from Bulgaria, and it was stamped by Timedix. This suggests that WatchBandit is likely a sub-dealer of Timedix and not a direct distributor for Raketa.
First, I have to mention the boxing and packaging. Everything is very professional. You receive a booklet with interesting information about Raketa’s history, all current models, and an explanation of why all modern Raketa watches display a 0 instead of a 12 at the top of the dial. (I’ll reveal the reason here: when Gorbachev visited Italy on an official trip, he wore a Raketa Big Zero watch, which, of course, featured a 0 instead of a 12. When asked why it had a 0, he explained that it symbolized the spirit of perestroika and the new way of thinking in the Soviet Union. Since then, Raketa has decided that 0 will replace 12/24 on all of their watches—not just on the Big Zero model.)
The box is once again extremely colorful—too much for my taste. It feels somewhat childish, but in a way, it’s typically Russian. If you’re a fan of USSR or Russian watches, you know what I mean. Colorful dials were very common in the Soviet watch industry.
My first impression was very positive: an excellent 43mm case diameter, and an extremely well-made bracelet—far beyond anything seen on old USSR watches. Sapphire glass is used on both the front and the back. The crown is large—perhaps even too large. The titanium bezel is bidirectional and rotates smoothly, without clicks. In my opinion, this turns out to be a design flaw, since it rotates too easily and without control. The bezel features azimuth or compass markings. On the wrist, the watch wears well, and the bracelet doesn’t pull on arm hair.
The dial is a story of its own. I fell in love with it at first sight.
The numerals are applied, creating a beautiful raised relief effect. As already mentioned, like all modern Raketas, the Baikonur starts the dial with 0 rather than finishing with 24. The watch, of course, features a 24-hour complication.
When viewed at an angle, the numbers shimmer with a light blue hue. I tried to capture this beautiful effect in a photo—hopefully, you can see it.
The lume on the hands and dial is quite unique. At first glance, it appears almost non-existent. But what’s strange is that its brightness stays the same after five minutes and even after five hours. Initially, you criticize it—then you start to appreciate it. But to be clear: this is not the kind of lume you’d find on a diver’s watch, not to mention the Seiko ones.
The watch was supposedly developed for use by cosmonauts, with input from Sergei Krikalev, who spent a total of 803 days, 9 hours, and 39 minutes in space. Impressive! But to be honest, I really don't see what his added value was in this watch.
Why would a cosmonaut need a bezel that rotates freely and cannot be locked, and that’s equipped with an azimuth scale? Perhaps to orient himself if he crashes in the middle of Siberia or a remote village, like Gagarin did? But how would that be helpful in space?
Okay, the 24-hour complication—that I can understand. Even Scott Carpenter suggested to Breitling to add such a function to the Navitimer, which led to the creation of the Navitimer Cosmonaute. So yes, the 24-hour feature is reasonable. But you don't need to spend three years in space to suggest something like that.
The watch can be hand-wound, since automatic winding doesn’t function properly in zero gravity? Sure, a logical feature. But that's nothing unique, and I doubt hand-winding was added solely because of that advice.
So, apart from being a good marketing move, I really don’t see anything that proves this watch was genuinely developed with the help of the most experienced cosmonaut. That said, if his involvement allowed Raketa to print “Developed specially for Russian cosmonauts” on the dial, decorate the movement with constellations, and engrave a cosmonaut and Gagarin’s famous “Poehali” (“Let’s go”) on the rotor—then I guess the cooperation was worth it.
If we put aside the marketing angle, I was genuinely and positively surprised by the watch. It far exceeded my expectations—I simply did not expect this level of quality from a Russian watch, regardless of its high price. I can easily compare the overall quality to that of Poljot International watches, which also use Russian-decorated and upgraded movements. Of course, their prices are similar as well. But if I’m already comparing it with Poljot International, the fact that Raketa manufactures every single part in-house gives it a significant advantage.
The movement is officially rated between -10 and +20 seconds per day, but so far, after four days on my wrist, the watch has gained only 5 seconds.
Now, let’s talk about the price—something I’ve mentioned multiple times in this review. The base price of this model is €1,350, or €1,250 with a leather strap. With the Black Friday discount, I paid €1,080. For someone with prejudices against Russian watches, that price might seem very high—too high. I don’t have any such prejudice (as anyone can see from my website), but I still think it's quite a lot. If I hadn’t been so drawn to the space theme, I might not have purchased it.
But the watch really is excellent. I asked myself: why is it completely normal for me to see a microbrand watch with a Sellita SW200 movement priced at over €1,000, yet I hesitate to accept that a fully in-house Raketa with similar or even better quality could cost that much? The issue is that Raketa ends up being compared to watches using Seiko, Miyota, or even Seagull movements—watches that are significantly cheaper. And that raises the key question: who is the target buyer for a Raketa at this price point?
The problem lies in the brand’s history—mass production, relatively low quality, and cheap prices. It will take time, smart marketing, and consistent quality for Raketa to break free from this legacy. At least outside of Russia. And currently, Raketa is simply not making that effort. I’m quite certain Raketa doesn’t face these challenges in its domestic market, where the market is large enough, financially strong enough, and well protected to absorb all of Raketa’s production. That might be why their presence in the rest of the world remains minimal.
Of course, I don’t expect this article to change anything overnight. I don’t expect it to suddenly attract a wave of non-Russian buyers or to prompt Raketa to expand more aggressively into global markets. But as for me personally—I’ve decided I’ll definitely go for more Raketa watches in the future!
First published at "Portal Satova" watch forum on 9.12.2019
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Nice and detailed review. Pleasure to read.