Vostok Amphibia: How I Learned to Stop and Love the Watch
- Jilliano Romano
- Sep 5
- 6 min read
Switzerland, Germany, and Japan. The unofficial holy trinity of watchmaking countries. These are countries with their own unique history of horology, and over a century (or in some cases, centuries) later, there are still people who are hopelessly enamored by a “Made in” label on their watch’s dial. However, I want to focus on a different country which we don’t associate with watchmaking historically, or even as an up-and-comer like China. I want to discuss an iconic Russian watch - the Vostok Amphibia.
I am relatively new to the horology hobby, or as I prefer to call it, financial ruination (only partially joking). When I first started collecting watches, my goal was to get the most bang-for-buck watches. I figured that if there was even a remote chance that this hobby wouldn’t be for me, then at least I can make a quick exit without a huge stake in it, so to speak. I was off to a good start because my first watch was a secondhand Hamilton King Khaki (that review will come another day), which was followed by a nice Seiko 5 from my girlfriend. At that point, I realized that this hobby was likely going to stick, much to the chagrin of my numerous other hobbies. But, I still wasn’t ready to get an expensive watch, however I wanted something different or unexpected. I had a Swiss watch, thanks to the Hamilton, and I had a Japanese watch. At the time, I was quite interested in a Junghans Max Bill, partly for how it looks great, and partly for the fact that it would represent German watchmaking. However, the cheapest one I could find in Japan for secondhand was at least 90,000 yen, so I looked elsewhere. How could I get a watch made in a different country from Japan and Switzerland, but it was fully automatic, and it wouldn’t make my bank account cry? It turns out, I just needed to look a bit more north from Germany.
Vostok: Russian Horology
The Vostok Amphibia has been in production since the heyday of the Soviet Union, and these divers with 200M of water resistance have remained largely unchanged since then. There is essentially no difference between a vintage Vostok versus one made only a few years ago. I guess the only difference would be the amount of arm hair or sweat it’s soaked up? Jokes aside, the fact that the Vostok Amphibia has been the same or almost the same for over five decades is one of its many charms. My model is the Vostok Amphibia Paratrooper, which uses their 420 Case. The case size is technically 40mm, but it definitely wears quite a bit smaller because of its tapered lugs. In fact, on my 6.5 inch wrist, it wears considerably smaller than I would expect if I were just staring at the stat sheet alone, so that’s something to consider if - like me - you’re considering one based off of mediocre eBay photos.
Before I move onto the bracelet, I want to first discuss the dial, and why exactly I chose this Vostok over the more popular Scuba Dude, which everyone grew to love because Wes Anderson is a genius filmmaker, and decided to slap that on a terrific actor’s wrist. English is not my native language, but one of the first things that inspired me to learn English was a little HBO miniseries called Band of Brothers, which depicted the true story of Easy Company paratroopers and their battles from D-Day to VE Day. When I first finished the show at the age of 3 (yes, I was a bit young to watch it), I told my parents I wanted to be a paratrooper (although I called it Parashooter) and fight Nazis. Imagine my disappointment when they informed me that the war had been over for several decades. So, with my dreams shattered, I lived life without any more hopes of heroics with parachutes… until I saw that the Vostok Amphibia made a watch with a somewhat plain dial with a bright red paratrooper design right at the center. It wasn’t D-Day, but at 100 USD and 5-7 days of shipping, it was as close as I would get.
When it arrived in a nondescript package, and I unboxed it, seeing that paratrooper design for the first time, my inner-child was over the moon, or at least over Normandy.
Anyway, sentiment aside, I loved the dial, and shockingly, I didn’t mind the frictionless, bi-directional bezel with red pips from 0 to 15, and black pips for the rest. I thought it was cool, and I still think it’s rather unique, especially compared to my other diver in the collection (the Doxa Sub 200, which I acquired a year later). The bracelet, unfortunately, was horrific. It is as if a Soviet scientist went into the lab with the goal of creating a bracelet that would pinch as many arm hairs as possible. As someone who grew up in Eastern Europe, I really have to wonder what Vostok was thinking, considering everyone I grew up with was even hairier than this Southeast Asian writer! So, I immediately swapped the bracelet for a bright red NATO strap to match the red accents of the watch, and it’s been great ever since.
The Vostok Amphibia uses a compression style case, which means that the case is meant to compress or shrink as you dive deeper into the depths of the ocean. The only places I dive into are my keyboard at work, or a camera, so I have yet to actually see that in action, but I think it’s quite neat, and again, different from many divers on the market today. It has a domed mineral crystal, too, and I admit that I didn’t care for this at the start, because it contributes to the watch’s 15mm thickness. I’ve become accustomed to it, but if they could have had the crystal completely flat, or even slightly less domed, I think it would have improved its silhouette without sacrificing the actual water resistance. The Vostok features an unremarkable in-house movement, and it doesn’t even have hacking, but I’m honestly just so amused by the novelty of having a watch with an in-house movement for a hundred bucks that I don’t really mind it. Now the biggest issue with the Vostok, and it is perhaps something I would mention to caution people from adding it to their collections, is the date window.
I’m a big fan of watches with no dates (speaking of which, have you read our article about this?), but I also don’t mind it that much if watches have a date. My problem with the Vostok is that it doesn’t have a way to quickly change the date, so that means I have to do it all completely manually. True story, I was late for work once because I had to change the date from 3 all the way to 31. Now, if I do want to wear the Vostok, I either wait for a date that matches the current date on the watch, or I literally wear it all the way to the office, and only then will I take 5 minutes to change the date and time. Is this a productive use of my time? No. Is it better than going out for a five minute smoke break like my other coworkers? Yes.
I’m not going to tell you that this flaw is part of its charm. It is absolutely not charming to have to go through such an inconvenience. But, I do take solace in knowing that this is an inconvenience that thousands of people have encountered for over five decades. I also remind myself that I literally have a Soviet watch with an in-house movement, and I barely paid over 100 dollars for it. It doesn‘t sound real or possible.
The Vostok Amphibia is an extremely flawed watch, and if your goal is to tell the time with as much accuracy and convenience as possible while having an in-house movement, then you definitely should not get this watch. However, you’re likely going to be spending at least another hundred dollars to get a Seiko 5, which has questionable accuracy straight out the box, as well. So, before getting one of these Soviet watches, ask yourself: why am I getting it? If you’re getting it because you’re a huge Wes Anderson fan, go ahead. If you’re getting it because you want a unique diver, go ahead. If you’re getting it simply because you like the novelty and you want a conversation starter, you should get it. I got it because I spent much of my childhood watching war movies.
In watch collecting, we often try to use logic when choosing a watch, but in reality, there is no logical watch purchase in the 21st Century, so what matters more is if this watch is interesting to you. The Vostok Amphibia, for all of its flaws, remains as interesting to me as it was back in 2023, logic be damned.
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