Mechanical movements of the Cold War: how the Soviets revolutionized wristwatches

[cah]

Rumor has it that within the USSR, Soviet citizens also favored the export watches. To my eye, they’re identical. By and large, they were just duplicate models, with different writing on the dials. But native Russians preferred the export watches, or so I’ve heard, possibly thinking they were somehow superior or better designed—that the watches the state was producing for Soviet citizens was not as high quality as those for the rest of the world.

The same rumour holds true for FSU camera equipment: the export versions are considered by some to have a higher degree of quality control than the domestic models. Though in my opinion/experience, export vs. domestic doesn’t make that much of a difference; the date of manufacture is often more important than what alphabet is on them, at least when it comes to photographic equipment.