Unusual Raketa

Andrew Babanin
Russian version: Ракета с гильошированными мостами

Recently one of my pals gave me a box full of wrist watches. Supposedly it belonged to some wachmaker. Some vintage bimetallic balances kept separately, most of watches were in good condition, but did not have some parts: hands, crowns. But it's not a deal. Among this I'd say junk I found one inconspicuous watch. An ordinary Raketa in a chromed case. A plain cheap dial (recovered by stamping). After inspecting a special spring ring (to fix the movt in the case) you can be assured that all parts of this watch are original excluding the dial of course. Perhaps You are bored with a long prelude on a cheap Soviet watch. But I was amazed while inspecting this watch for the first time. Bridges of the movement were guilloshed! It's not a secret that in the Soviet Union was known about different styles of finishing parts of movement: circular graining, Cotes de Geneve, brushed finishing, polished screws, regulator, steel wheels. But I've met guilloshe from Raketa for the first time.

The movement is also a bit unusual. It's based on caliber Raketa 2609. Base movt has 16 jewels. Also there were luxury types: 2609A and 2609B - 21 jewels. Described movement is 2609I. It has 17 jewels - one additional ruby on the escape wheel. Besides there's a difference in shape of the pallet fork bridge - it is fixed with two screws instead of one in the base variant. Unfortunately, the balance bridge was changed. I think it's one of modifications of old base movement changed later on a newer caliber 2609H.