Russian mechanical watch «Mikhail Moskvin»: a review of the flagship model from Uglich

Good morning, dear readers, and today, in a sense, I was lucky: I love to travel, I like watches, and these two topics are intertwined, as it were. I invite you to look at the clocks of the Uglich watch factory.

In the review, we can say that the flagship is a watch under the Mikhail Moskvin brand, though written in Latin, but readable. Today it is one of the many brands of the plant, but still, I think that it is central, in a sense, the main one, and therefore it can show us not only what UCH has achieved, but also where it is striving !

Window to Europe?

And, looking at these watches, it seems that the vector is primarily for mass production! The exterior of the watch is quite «European», inside — a classic from Miyota, emphasis on design. The watch has a 42 mm case, made of steel, with a sapphire crystal above the dial.

The design is unusual, and you can guess references to modern culture in it, but if you describe it without looking at Transformers, Avengers or Batman, then first of all it is worth saying this.

The dial here is made quite «architecturally», voluminously. It opens the caliber, and its dominant feature is OpenHart at 6 o’clock. The remaining space offers different levels, and, not so easy, black has its own dynamics.

To create a pattern, different textures are used, and they overlap here crosswise, breaking the symmetry. It’s interesting because black is not so easy to work with, it’s not so easy to make it different and not boring. It borders, as it were, “holds” — a series of pointed marks that seem to cling to the claws, holding the structure. Again, if you interpret this as a reference to the Black Panther.

Why open caliber

Despite the fact that everything here is pretty nice, we will not overpraise exclusively UCH. You have to understand that today, in the mass segment, the design is very dependent on the caliber, so here too we can conditionally divide the merits as 70 to 30, where 30 percent can be safely transferred to Citizen.

Inside the watch is the Miyota caliber, designed for skeletonized dials, 82S0. This movement is a self-winding mechanical caliber of the 82nd series, which is well known for its multiple interpretations, starting from the very starting one — 8215.

This series is notable for its reliability, one-way self-winding, but until recently it lost to its main competitor — NH35 — one feature that since the current, it seems, just a year, is no longer a drawback.

So, drum roll, inside the new watch Mikhail Moskvin is the new Miyota, which has a stop second!

That is, in fact, really, very high-quality watches left the assembly line, well-assembled, decorated in decent, relevant materials, with a well-designed design and an updated caliber. We are used to getting this from brands that are massively imported in the first place, and now we have localized it here as well. There are no extra hints of «Russianness» here, which in a particular model is more of a plus than a minus.

And beauty and functionality are friendly side by side here. When I distributed the percentages between Citizen and UCH, I slightly tipped in our favor, and this is not national pride. It is clear that the merit will seem small to someone, but the crown was shifted here already at the factory. In the basic version of the caliber, it is “three-hour”, which, firstly, shifts OpenHeart to seven hours, and secondly, with this size, it would bite into the hand.

Here comes a good compromise solution that does not cut the palm and does not hurt the eyes.

Butterfly clasp and leather strap

The watch in question is, to a certain extent, pretentious, and this is understandable. But stylistically, they still rather pretend to be everyday, and here again, for ease of wearing, there is a practical clasp and a rather soft leather strap.

The strap is textured. It is also decorated with a star, the presence of which is still a mystery to me, especially since in the first versions of the watch there was the “MM” logo in its place.

How are they sitting?

The watch is light, it’s a casual watch and should be comfortable. Wearing them is easy and comfortable, there are no problems here. You don’t have to worry about safety, because after all, there is a protection of 50 meters: it’s suitable for autumn rains, the glass is sapphire, scratch-resistant, but black steel can be scratched, of course …

Traditionally, some angles, unpacking and a watch on the hand can be seen in the review video:

There are also some discussions about the design, and about what, after all, this watch looks more like: transformers or Black Panther.

First Impressions

• I think that in this case, this watch can be praised with the characteristic: “ordinary”. That is, they fit well into the modern watch context. You do not feel that you are wearing something biased, something that is trying to speculate on the former glory of the domestic watch industry.

• You have a practical model in your hand, with a good Japanese caliber, with a decent design, in normal, high-quality materials. This is good.

• Something, probably, was not enough, but it is rather a philosophy. There was not enough back work. Miyota has skeletonized calibers that are well-detailed on both sides, and if you use a transparent cover, you could take it a step further! Yes, few people will see it, but it’s more correct!

• In terms of readability, I did not see any problems, although this is a skeleton and a minimum of shades. Yes, there is no backlight here, you won’t see anything at night, but in the daytime I didn’t feel any problems with perception.

On the official website, this model costs approx. 30 thousand rubles, but it can also be found in other catalogs, and somewhere — and cheaper! But in this case, I would clarify which version of the mechanism is installed: now there are still a lot of old Miyota on our market, no stop second!

If you are curious about the notes about the clock, let me remind you that in my signature I have links to TG and VK.

Good weekend!