Chelyabinsk Watch Factory "Molnija" (sometimes transliterated ''Molniya''; russian: Челябинский часовой завод) was a Russian

watch A watch is a portable timepiece intended to be carried or worn by a person. It is designed to keep a consistent movement despite the motions caused by the person's activities. A wristwatch is designed to be worn around the wrist, attached by ...

and

clockmaker A clockmaker is an artisan who makes and/or repairs clocks. Since almost all clocks are now factory-made, most modern clockmakers only repair clocks. Modern clockmakers may be employed by jewellers, antique shops, and places devoted strictly t ...

based in

Chelyabinsk Chelyabinsk ( rus, Челя́бинск, p=tɕɪˈlʲæbʲɪnsk, a=Ru-Chelyabinsk.ogg; ba, Силәбе, ''Siläbe'') is the administrative center and largest city of Chelyabinsk Oblast, Russia. It is the seventh-largest city in Russia, with a ...

Chelyabinsk Oblast Chelyabinsk Oblast (russian: Челя́бинская о́бласть, ''Chelyabinskaya oblast'') is a federal subject (an oblast) of Russia in the Ural Mountains region, on the border of Europe and Asia. Its administrative center is the city ...

. ''Molnija'' (Молния) is the

Russian Russian(s) refers to anything related to Russia, including: *Russians (, ''russkiye''), an ethnic group of the East Slavic peoples, primarily living in Russia and neighboring countries *Rossiyane (), Russian language term for all citizens and peo ...

word for ''lightning''.

History

The Molnija

clock A clock or a timepiece is a device used to measure and indicate time. The clock is one of the oldest human inventions, meeting the need to measure intervals of time shorter than the natural units such as the day, the lunar month and the ...

and

factory opened on November 17, 1947. The company's main customer was then the

Soviet Union The Soviet Union,. officially the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics. (USSR),. was a transcontinental country that spanned much of Eurasia from 1922 to 1991. A flagship communist state, it was nominally a federal union of fifteen national ...

Department of Defense, providing them with wristwatches, pocket watches and table clocks. Molnija's main product were mechanical

pocket watch A pocket watch (or pocketwatch) is a watch that is made to be carried in a pocket, as opposed to a watch, wristwatch, which is strapped to the wrist. They were the most common type of watch from their development in the 16th century until wr ...

es with military, religious and historical motifs. The Molnija movement is basically a copy of a

Cortébert Cortébert is a municipality in the Jura bernois administrative district in the canton of Bern in Switzerland. It is located in the French-speaking part of the canton in the Jura mountains. History Cortébert is first mentioned in 1178 as ...

movement used in Swiss watches from around 1940. About 80% of the work on most of the watches was done by hand. Some Molnija movements were used in oversized men's wristwatches. Early Molnija pocket watch movements (from 1947 to c. 1960) normally had 15 jewels. Later ones (from around 1965 to 1997) normally had 18 jewels. However from around 1997 they started to produce lower quality watches with fewer jewels. The company ceased production in October 2007. A few employees continued to sell Molnija watches assembled from unused stock, and 'new' Molnija pocket watches were still available on the market for some time afterwards.

Modern revival

After the closure of the factory in 2007, a small group of people revived the Molnija brand with new designs. As of 2021, the factory "Molnija" produces technical watches for aircraft and ships, and is actively developing new markets.

Products

Image:Molnija pocket watch.jpg , Molnija pocket watch Image:Russian-Aviation-chronograph.jpg , Molnija AChS-1 cockpit

chronograph A chronograph is a specific type of watch that is used as a stopwatch combined with a display watch. A basic chronograph has an independent sweep second hand and a minute sub-dial; it can be started, stopped, and returned to zero by successive ...

mechanism Image:000 0rysdf251 edited.jpg , View of a finished Molnija watch movement

Notes

External links

* Defunct watchmaking companies Watch manufacturing companies of the Soviet Union Watch manufacturing companies of Russia Companies based in Chelyabinsk Cultural heritage monuments in Chelyabinsk Oblast {{Russia-company-stub