Pobeda
Pobeda
Pobeda (Russian: Победа, Victory) is a Russian brand of wrist-watches owned by the Petrodvorets Watch Factory "Raketa". The brand name was chosen by Stalin himself. In April 1945 he gave the order that the first watches be ready for the 1st year of Victory celebration. The first prototype came out of the Penza factory by the end of 1945, and the first model for the public came out of the Kirov Watch Factory in March 1946.
History
Based on a French design, the Pobeda's simple, 15-jewel movement was cost-effective, reliable, and easy to manufacture and maintain. Prior to World War II, during a period of rapid industrialization in the Soviet Union, the Soviet government sought international funding and expertise in developing a domestic industry for timepieces. Eventually the French watch manufacturer LIP was chosen; they established a new watch factory in Penza and licensed several movement designs to the new establishment. One design dating from 1908, the R-26 movement, was further developed and renamed the K-26, with significant alterations to the original design. World War II temporarily disrupted these plans, but after the Allied victory, this watch design was quickly finished at Penza, and full-scale production commenced at the First Moscow Watch Factory. Joseph Stalin chose the name Pobeda (Victory) to celebrate the end of the war.
Factories Having Produced the "Pobeda"
Pobeda watches before and after the fall of Soviet Union
During Soviet times
In the Soviet Union, a product brand was not necessarily exclusive to a particular manufacturing site (this changed though in the 60's when each factory got its own brands), and during its lifetime, production of Pobeda watches was shifted between the following plants:
- Penza Watch Factory (Пензенский Часовой Завод): for a few years from 1945
- First Moscow Watch Factory (Первый Московский Часовой Завод): 1946 to 1953
- Petrodvorets Watch Factory (Петродворцовый Часовой Завод): 1946 to nowadays
- Chistopol Watch Factory (Чистопольский часовой завод): 1949 to the c.1950
- Second Moscow Watch Factory (Второй московский часовой завод): 1953 to 1964
- Maslennikov Factory (Завод имени Масленникова): c.1951 to 2004
Modern Russia
In today's Russia, the Petrodvorets Watch Factory from Saint Petersburg is the exclusive holder of the historical brand Pobeda.
