Sep 14 2020 28 mins 1
Raketa was created in 1961 in honour of the first cosmonaut in the world, Yuri Gagarin. With its moving parts all produced in the Factory, and with a design marked by the DNA of three centuries of Russian history, the Russian brand Raketa acquired a strong reputation amongst worldwide collectors. The main sources of inspiration for the brand comes from heroic personalities and sensational achievements e.g. the Baikonur model has special features needed for space travel, and was designed in collaboration with famous Russian cosmonaut Sergey Krikalev. The Factory has also collaborated with the great Russian aircraft constructors Sukhoi and Tupolev to develop watches for pilots. Some models have achieved iconic status and are prized by collectors around the world, such as the Polar model with a 24-hour movement specially designed in 1969 for Soviet arctic explorers. Raketa is one of the few brands in the world whose mechanical parts are products within its own factory, including the spring (the beating heart) which is one of the most difficult parts to make. Each watch has no less than 242 separate components and manufacturing of one watch involves the work of 103 specialists, and 8201 separate manual operations. In this episode of the MenswearStyle Podcast we interview Raketa Watch Factory Managing Director David Henderson-Stewart about how he came to be involved within the horlology industry with no prior interest or knowledge of watches. David was attracted to the rich history of the Raketa brand and he had noticed his friend buying Soviet watches. He adopted the brand at a time when nobody was interested in it, describing Raketa as a "diamond sitting on the floor". Our host Peter Brooker and David also chat about the time and resources required to modernise a factory, the difficulty of making mechanical movements, making watches for cosmonauts, having a unique and "unconventional" brand identity, the emotional side of watchmaking, and the Russian tradition of gifting watches. Whilst we have your attention, be sure to sign up to our daily MenswearStyle newsletter here. We promise to only send you the good stuff.
