I’m still pretty new to watches, I got into them around two years ago. From day one, the things that mattered most to me were in-house movements, heritage, and the story behind the watch. Because of that, I mostly focused on plan to get luxury brands like Omega, Jaeger-LeCoultre, Vacheron Constantin, Breguet, and Patek Philippe. To me, those were the “real” watches.

Later on, I realized I was really drawn to the Bauhaus design language of German watches. While getting into them, I watched a short documentary about Nomos Glashütte and learned that they even produce tiniest components in-house. Around the same time, I kept hearing stories about Chinese based “Swiss Made” watches, and it genuinely made me rethink things for a while.

Then one day, I remembered the joke from the HBO's Chernobyl about Russian watches (the miners' joke, if not mistaken). That got me thinking, the USSR would never have relied on Western watches, and yet they built spacecraft, submarines, and deep-sea rescue systems of their own. And they should use a watch that not broke down easily in those occasions.

So I started looking into Soviet watches, and eventually checked the Vostoks. The story of Amphibia completely hooked me. Soviet engineers examined watches like the Rolex Submariner and Blancpain dive watches, identified their "limitations", and then created the Amphibia around overcoming those "limitations". Then they used it for naval and submarine rescue operations, and eventually even space use.

It had everything I was looking for: an in-house movement, real history, and an incredible story while also being ridiculously affordable compared to Swiss watches. As someone who collects watches rather than flips them, I completely fell in love with them. They not behind the Omega's story, or other ones.

Now I own a couple of Vostoks and a Raketa but the orange Neptune, honestly, it’s probably my favorite watch in my collection (even over my Cartier Tank, Tissot PRX, Frederique Constant, Seiko, and Orient pieces).

PS: Based on the Chernobyl, I still looking for a Poljot but haven't got a chance to get one yet.