Independents

This watch is a reproduction (or really just continued production) of a digital watch made back in the soviet days. The history of these watches is complicated, involving various state owned brands and factories, and periods of time where production ceased. As I understand it, this watch is produced in one of the old soviet factories in Minsk, but now under private ownership (Technochas). The LCD module comes from a company called Integral, which also dates back to the soviet times, and is also based in Belarus. The russian watch forum on watchuseek has some good threads on this topic:

The functions are as follows:

24-hour time (including seconds)

Day/Date

Chronograph w/ split timer

Alarm (with your choice of 5 melodies, or a standard alarm tone)

And the really exciting feature: a digital rate trimmer to regulate the watch

Disadvantages are the lack of backlight, lack of water resistance, and small display. Still, this is all authentic to how this watch would have been produced in the 80s, so I don't mind. Technochas also sells some models with a bigger display and backlight, but I preferred the aesthetics of this one. 

It seems to me that the same story in Soviet design plays out over and over again. The west creates some new technology, and Soviet designers are put under pressure to compete. Without the resources of their western counterparts, they simply steal and reverse engineer western designs, with special attention towards finding a way manufacture them with lower quality tools and materials. That is certainly the story that played out with the Lada/Zhiguli automobile and Tu-144 airliner. I have no evidence of it, but I have a feeling this watch was designed in a similar way, with western LCD watches from Japan being the 'inspiration'. Although I have no russian or belarusian heritage, I find this watch charming and nostalgic somehow. 

Some more shots:

I normally avoid bringing up prices, but for this watch it is a positive thing: only $24 USD for the watch, and an extra $3.49 for the milanese bracelet. Shipping, despite being international, was only 10 or so dollars (it is a small package). The case is chrome plated brass, and the worksmanship is not perfect, but for the money it is very hard to complain. Sure, a modern Casio has more features for even less money, but this is far more fun.

For anyone who is interested, here is the technochas site:

technochas.ru

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