Kirovskie Type 1

Description

In the 1920s, the american watch manufacturer Dueber-Hampden from Ohio got into trouble, which led to the sale of their machines and parts to the former USSR, followed by many years of intensive know-how transfer by their former employees.

Because of that, in the early 1930s, the Sowjet Union could start the production of pocket- and wristwatch movements, with the said caliber Kirovski Type 1, which bases on the size 16 model 5 caliber “McKinley” by Dueber-Hampden. It is also known as Poljot 4302.

The base plate of the 19 ligne movement looks familiar, so for example, all important bearings contain rubies (all in different color, no idea, if that was original, or if it is the result of a service), and also the lever limit pins are adjustable, like in many americal movements.

However, the execution is quite raw and and partially crude, how you can see on several occasions, which reveals, that the russian watch maker industry just started.

The Type 1 uses the common gear train with mainspring barrel, directly driven center minute wheel, third wheel, seconds wheel (here at position 9 o’clock) and finally the escape wheel. The latter two are beared together under a bridge, which looks, like there were two cocks.

On the movement side, pressed chatons are used for the bearing jewels, and as you can easily see, the bridges were manually shaped.

As escapement, a swiss pallet lever escapement is used.

The lever is made from one part, including its fork.

Whether the pallets were originally differently colored, is unknown. Maybe, this is also just the result of a leter service.

The Kirovskie Type 1 uses a bimeal screw balance, which is of course not yet shock protected. It beats loudly with 18000 A/h, which can be adjusted with a long regulator arm, on whose other end, the hairspring key engages with the Breguet hairspring.

A funny detail, which unfortunately cannot be seen here is, that there’s a flat piece of paper between the balance cock and the base plate to kind of adjust the its height play for the balance wheel axle.

On the dial side of this really loud ticking movements, you can see the simple, but functionally very well executed yoke winding system.

You can also see the two screw heads for the lever limiting pins and - typically american style - the two screws for the balance wheel bearing.

The Kirovskie Type 1 is one of the russian movements with the longest production run, with slight modifications, Slava produced it still in the 1980s.

In the lab

Timegrapher result

The poor timegrapher results are due to the high age and many problems of the movement, like a bent seconds wheel axle, a bent lever form, cracked rubies everywhere and a badly executed hairspring key, which is much too wide for the Breguet-type hairspring. Nevertheless, the very high and virtually absolutely constant amplitude in all positions is really remarkable!

Technical data

Usage gallery