Jake R. Kaywell

2023 was, with the incredible number of 100 watches and movements, the supporter year of Jake R. Kaywell from the USA, whom as a philantrop and supporter of the movement archive, was it a concern, to present the russian watchmaking in its full, broad range, but also show yet underrepresented areas, like american and japanese manufacturers. For this, he a arranged extremely carefully and thoughtfully a set of six donation packages in 2023 and even fifty more donated watches and movements in 2024, which show the following distribution according to the origin countries:

His family has an Hungarian family background and also worked in the Second Moscow Watch Factory (2MWF), where Slava watches and movements were made, therefor the special connection to Soviet watches.

The first surprise package came in march 2023 and handles important russian movements, which were not yet in the archive.

First, there are several Poljot 2609 and 2614B movements, whose spart angularity of the bridge plates reminds him of the Constructivist pieces, he makes, then are a few Zaria 2009 movements and watches, which are pretty rare in Germany. They are from the time, when his familiy used to work in the Second Moscow Watch Factory (2MWF).

Then, the parcel contained two Raketa 2603, for him the ultimate version of the base movement, the ZIM 2602, and last but not least, the very early Molnija ChK-6, a very beautiful predecessor of the well-known Molnija 3602. This ChK-6 movement was the first movement, he ever disassebled and started his fascination for watchmaking.

In June 2023, there was a fantastic second parcel, whose focus were especially rare and historically important russian movements, but also movements from India, China and Japan, which were not yet part of the archive. Such a donation is like a jackpot:

The donation contained a very early (1939) Kirovski K-43 (with the Type-1 movement) wristwatch with the first sowjet movement ever made, and also the earliest Chaika 3050-KR quartz movement, the first russian quartz movement ever made, and a the (compared to the previous one) Slava 2356 quartz movement from the 1980s, which was produced until 2011.

Next, there was a very nice and flat Poljot 2209 from the first series in 1963, also a true rariety.

The number of russian movements were completed with four Zaria movements of different age (calibers 1800 and 2009B) and three Raketa movements, caliber 2609A, 2609.HA and 2614.H.

Two specialities are the two HMT watches, the Vivek with the evergreen HMT 0231 and the Kaliash with the Citizen/Miyota-licensed caliber 8205, on which the differences to the “original” 8205 will be very interesting.

A very beautiful case with facetted crystal houses the (for Germany) rare Seiko 1520B, a very small, but long ladies' watch caliber.

Finally there’s a Certina pocket watch with the nice caliber 260 and two NOS Sea-Gull movements, caliber ST3600 and caliber 3621, which are beautifully decorated and technically really interesting.

In August 2023, the third and (at first) final donation reached the archive, after being stuck in the german customs for almost two months, which massively increased its anticipation. The aim of that donations was, to have every important russian caliber series documented to ensure, that russian watchmaking is not forgotten:

This donation again closes many holes in the archive, so that then finally, the large bandwith of russian watchmaking shall be covered.

It contained from Poljot the calibers 2415 (the legendard “Orbita” selfwinding caliber, with only 2.9mm the worlds thinnest movement from 1962 till 1969) and 2616.2h, from Agat the early stopwatch caliber 4282, from Chaika the grail caliber 1200, the tiniest movement ever made in russia, from ZIM the early ChK-6, still based on a LIP caliber, from Luch the calibers 1809 and 1814, both inhouse constructions, from Raketa the grail caliber 2209 (super flat and a very interestingly constructed), a pristine 2627.H and a 3056A (a rare quartz movement from 1985), and from Zaria the caliber 2014A and 1956 (again a rather rare quartz caliber).

Rounded was the donation by a number of non-russian calibers, a Buren 481, two Sea-Gull calibers, ST2130 and ST3620, a Seiko 7009A and two HMT calibers, 0180A and 1809.

Early september, surprise donation package number four, and in mid october, the (this time for real) final surprise package number five were sent from the USA, which led to the curiosity, that in the end of october, first package number five and one day later, the fourth donation arrived. No one knows, that the customs did here…

The focus of the fourth donations was on american movements. From Waltham, there were the calibers 750B and Grade Sapphire, from (the for me yet competely unknown manufacturer) South Bend the caliber 411, from Bulova the caliber 8AC (which probably was still made in the USA and not in Switzerland), from Hamilton the calibers 748 and 995A, from Elgin the caliber 670 and from Illinois a caliber Grade 33.

As a rounding off, there were also a Junghans J24, a fantastic Citizen 4103, a Cortebert 677, a not yet identified 17-ligne Lip caliber, a Movado 250N (or 620N), and the rather funny low-end caliber Smiths PY.

The giant fifth package offered a wunderful rounding off across all areas, of course again with a focus on russian movements.

From the USA, there were a Waltham Grade No. 220, a Gruen 515SS (originally a french Jeambrun 26D), a Wittnauer 7TN (originally a swiss Revue 73), a Hamilton 911, an Elgin Grade 524, a Benrus BM1 (originall a FHF 60), and from Bulova the calibers 1000 11 (probably originally also FHF), 620 (a swiss Aurore-Villeret 120) and a caliber 7AA.

From China was the fascinating NOS Sea-Gull ST19, a column wheel chronograph.

Made in Japan were the impressing Ricoh 45722 with 45 jewels (12 among them as tiny balls for the oscillating weight ball-bearing), a Ricoh 259 and a high quality early Ricoh quartz caliber 510.

There were also a number of russian specialities, such as the legendary Elektronika B6-03 with its LED-Display, the no less legendary LCD Elektronika B6-02, a tiny Chaika 1301, a Zaria 1802 (the equivalent of the Lip T18) and the first russian selfwindig movement, the “Rodina” Poljot 2415A.

From France were the Lip T18 and the Jeambrun 26D. from Germany the compared with the PUW 60 pretty rare PUW 61, and from Switzerland besides the Benrus calibers described above, an AS 970, an AS 1287, a high quality 16 ligne Omega pocket watch caliber and a modern Ronda Harley 3572 quartz caliber.

A few weeks before christmas, there was again a fantastic surprise package, with which Jake reached the unbelievable number of one hundered donations within a single year.

This sixth package again contained a wonderfully curated donation.

From the COMECON (the socialist pendant to the Marshall plan between 1949 and 1991), there are an early chinese Sea-Gull ST5, a really rare Prim 200 quartz movement, and from East Germany an NOS UMF Hektor (later rebranded to UMF M69), a GUB 69.1 and a GUB 63.

From the USSR, there were the super rare calibers Zaria 2209 and Zaria 2015 (both with three specimen each), an early Zaria 2014, an early specimen of the ZiM 2602, the favorite movement of Jake, a ZiM 2608 with center seconds, a rare Molnija 3608 with center seconds, housed in a bulky Ural watch with aluminium case, an early Poljot 2414, a Poljot 2614.2H, a Poljot 2428.H, the legendary wristwatch alarm caliber Poljot 2612.1, the Slava calibers 2414, 2427 and 2428, all from the same caliber family with a double mainspring barrel, and finally a Wostok 2409.

From the western economic area, there’s an HMT 020 from India, a Seiko 5Y30A from japan (a typical quartz movement form the 1980s), a french Lorsa P72A, a german/swiss PUW 2501-2531 in a typical 1960s style american Hamilton watch from the 1980s, a swiss Unitas 6310 and a beautiful american Elgin 673.

A really incredible follow-up came in May 2024, when a package with 20 further movements and watches arrives, which are a fantastic addition to the archive.

Since Jake started attending the WOSTEP watchmaking school of the Richemont group (e.g. Cartier), he was able to source movements, which otherwise would be impossible to get for the movement archive.

The highlight of the seventh donation is for sure the ultra flat Piaget 9P, one of the most flat movement ever, which for sure can be labelled as “haute horlogerie”. Also spectacular is the Bulova 2240, the so-called “Accuquartz” caliber, the first tuning fork movement in the archive, which marks with its quartz oscillator the peak of the development of the tuning fork technology.
Two high class LeCoultre movements, the calibers K480/CW and K490/BW are also fascinating, and the same applies for the Citizen 2B/9200, one of the finest Citizen movements ever made. The counterpart, the very cost-efficiently constructed Citizen 2510A is a great addition, too.

One movement, which was also long sought after is the Lip R148R, an electromechanical movement, whose coil usages reminds already of stepper motors, which became standard in quartz watches. The other Lip movement, the fine ladies' caliber Lip T15 is very intersting, too.

From switzerland are the two beautiful IWC calibers, IWC 431 and IWC 92, and from Great Britain, there’s one of their best wristwatch movements, the rare Smiths 82.

Of course, russian calibers must not be missed, like the Raketa 2601.H from the will-known blind watches, the rare Molnija 3600 without seconds indication and the late, a little less elaborate (compared with its predecessor), but still spectacular Wostok 2809B.

From Asia, there are the chinese calibers Sea-Gull ST6, the last windup caliber before halting and the first after restarting the production of mechanical movements, a selfwinding Sea-Gull ST6D in an earlier execution and an Allwyn A6319, a Seiko licensed selfwinding movement from India.

Three quartz movements round off the donation, a modern Luch 16853 with a lunar indication, an Indian Titan caliber 7321 and a Titan 510YAC (or T420). The first of the two was so successful, that it runined Allwyn with their mechanical movements and almost brought down HMT.

An incredible, final (this time for real) package was donated early September 2024.

Besides a wonderfully designed appreciation card, it contained again a wonderfully and thoughtfully curated donation with no less than 30 movements, which can be classified into the following countries and regions:

From Japan, there is the Seiko 6349A, a budget selfwinding movement, a Seiko 5606A, which is one tier up, a Seiko 4633 from the legendary 4004 series of quartz watches, a wunderful electromecianical Seiko 3703B and a small, high class Seiko 2559A. From Citizen, the ladies' quartz watch caliber 6000A from the 1980s was donated, and there was also a yet unidentified, small ladies' windup caliber with center seconds and date indicatio from Ricoh.

A large part of the watches is of US original, starting with the masterpiece Elgin 760, one of the very few native american selfwinding movements, then the tiny Elgin 702, the standard caliber Elgin 681 and an Elgin 671 with shock protection, being in fanatstic condition, and there was even the original box donated, history at its best!
From Hamilton, the top quality caliber 928M was donated, one of the finest american wristwatch calibers ever made, and then two further nice examples of american wristwatch history, the calibers 747 and 770.
Finally, from the USA, there’s the beautiful Illinois 807A and the true american (and so pretty rare) Gruen 335.

From the GDR, there was a Thiel pocket watch with an unusually (with three jewels) executed Thiel Vineta II alt, a GUB 70.1, which fills an important gap in the archive as well as the UMF 14-33, which was the second generation quartz caliber from Ruhla.

From (West) Germany, there’a very old Junghans J80 with 16 jewels, and with a case in very good condition. From France, an ultra-flat Lip R136C was donated and from former Czechoslovakia the caliber Prim 66.4

Of course, a russian caliber must not be missed here, a Raketa 2609.HA, which was until now only in non-working condition on the archive.

From Switzerland, there were two calibers, being roundabout 70 years apart: A yet unidentified bumper automatic of a Baume&Mercier gents watch and an ETA 955.112, which was used for WOSTEP education, but is now replaced by the ETA E61.111.

From China, there’s a yet unidentified selfwinding caliber, based on the Chinese Standard Movement, then an early and rare Shanghai SS1 and as special goodie a Zuanshi MJI-BE, the first stopwatch caliber, which was even donated with its original “Diamond” (translation for Zuanshi) box!

Last but not least, two Indian quartz watches were donated, showing the transition to quartz watches, the calibers HMT 2150 and Tital 7121.

All these wonderful movements, donated by Jake R. Kaywell will be added to the archive from around fall 2024 on and of course they will be linked from here, too.