Chaika 1301

Description

A typical 5 1/4 ligne, tonneau-shaped windup movement for ladies’ watches is the Russian Chaika 1301, which differs from Western movements not in its form but in its construction.

As the base plate already shows, the execution is very neat; all important bearings, even that of the minute wheel, are equipped with jewel bearings, resulting in a total of 17 jewels.

The gear train, with its rather large wheels, is typical for this type of movements: The mainspring barrel drives the central minute wheel, followed by the third wheel with a long axis, which runs above the minute wheel, then the seconds wheel and finally the escape wheel.

Unlike most competing movements, we have here a single-story construction; the escape wheel does not run partially below the seconds wheel bearing.

The balance wheel is a relatively thin, three-armed ring balance, protected against shocks by two three-armed Russian shock-absorbing bearings.

The balance wheel operates at a relatively fast 21,600 A/h, which can only be adjusted directly at the hairspring key, and acts on a Swiss pallet fork.

As with many Russian watch movements, the height of the balance cock in the Chaika 1301 is adjusted with the help of a spacer, a thin brass plate under the balance cock.

The beautifully curved setting lever spring is noticeable on the dial side.

Interestingly, this movement was (also?) offered with a container case, which was intended to protect it from dust and overly amateurish tinkering attempts.

In the lab

Timegrapher result

As expected, this well-used movement makes a very good impression on the timing machine. Apart from the two outliers in suspended positions, it runs almost at the optimum of what can be achieved with such a small movement.

Technical data

Usage gallery