I've fallen in love with a Russian

I ran accross this watch today by accident. I was actually searching for a different watch but fell in love with this one. It uses a 3133 caliber. Does anyone have any experience with this russian movement or know of the best place to buy? I found a couple on ebay but I'm concerned about counterfiets and thought maybe it might be cheaper somewhere else. Here's a couple of borrowed pics.

Very nice,vintage chrono look. I like it.
Unfortunately the non quick-set date is a deal killer for me. I have a couple of Russians that I like but never wear because of the date issue.

Nice looking Strela, doc. The Poljot 3133 is the Russian version of the Valjoux 7734 (the Commies bought the rights and machines to make them.) I've owned a couple of them, and they're pretty good hand-crankers. One nice thing is they have an absurdly high power reserve (one of mine ran for over 60 hours on a full wind.)

Practically every Russian-made chrono uses the 3133 or some variant (they made them with mechanical dates, 24 hour subs, and I've seen some that even have moonphases.)

Beware of a lot of the ebay sellers, particularly a guy named Juri Levenberg, who Frankens the shit out of these things. I've kinda fallen out of love for the Russian stuff, so I can't give you a great place to buy them. A nice export Strela like that should run you, I'm guessing, around $400, maybe a little more.

@ Fog. Damn, I didn't realize it also lacked the quickset date. I had a Vostok 3 hand like that and it drove me insane. I might live with it for a while for this one though.

Thanks Conjourer for the info. I was a little nervous about ebay sellers from Russia especially. I read in another thread where a ton of counterfiets come from there as well. $400 sounds pretty reasonable.

Ditchdoc wrote:@ Fog. Damn, I didn't realize it also lacked the quickset date. I had a Vostok 3 hand like that and it drove me insane. I might live with it for a while for this one though.
Thanks Conjourer for the info. I was a little nervous about ebay sellers from Russia especially. I read in another thread where a ton of counterfiets come from there as well. $400 sounds pretty reasonable.

John makes a very good condensation, I may add 3133's are but bullet proof, here is a place I like...
http://www.russia2all.com/

Thanks for the link Eddie!

eddiea wrote:

Ditchdoc wrote:@ Fog. Damn, I didn't realize it also lacked the quickset date. I had a Vostok 3 hand like that and it drove me insane. I might live with it for a while for this one though.
Thanks Conjourer for the info. I was a little nervous about ebay sellers from Russia especially. I read in another thread where a ton of counterfiets come from there as well. $400 sounds pretty reasonable.

John makes a very good condensation, I may add 3133's are but bullet proof, here is a place I like...
http://www.russia2all.com/

Craig Hester's company (Russia2all) is a great one to deal with; you're sure to get a real (as opposed to Franken) watch, and his service is superb. Some of his prices, however, are pretty high. There're a lot of threads at WUS talking about the best dealers and so forth.

Yeah. I was just noticing the prices were a bit high. I've read some good things about a couple of ebay sellers but they have limited selection. I'd almost rather pay a little more to assure I get a genuine watch

I bought a few Stramanski (sp.); one in the mid 95 and one around 03. The second one came from the pre-Hester owned Russia2all. Didn't have a lot of luck with them. The materials in the movement seemed subpar and they only lasted a few years. I got in when they we're cheap so no big loss. I'd like to get them fixed but no one will work on the Russian 3133.

That's disappointing. I thought the 3133 might be built a little better than the average chinese stuff. I liked the look of it and hoped it was a HQ alternative to Swiss. I had heard that it was basically a 7734. The power reserve reports (50-65 hours) were impressive as well. Thanks for the info betterskills.

betterskills wrote:I bought a few Stramanski (sp.); one in the mid 95 and one around 03. The second one came from the pre-Hester owned Russia2all. Didn't have a lot of luck with them. The materials in the movement seemed subpar and they only lasted a few years. I got in when they we're cheap so no big loss. I'd like to get them fixed but no one will work on the Russian 3133.

Try emailing this guy, BS: vr2001@gmail.com. His name's Vitali, and I met him once at my store. He's a Russian trained watchmaker who works in the Pac NW. I haven't emailed him recently, nor have I used his services, but he seemed like a nice guy.

Thanks for the heads up! I'll look into it.