Soviet Watches

This 24-hour watch is commemorating an arctic expedition. It is a very rare Raketa from 1988 in very good, almost new, condition.

The watch commemorates an expedition to the North Pole led by Artur Chilingarov.
In 1987 Chilingarov commanded a high-latitude voyage to the arctic on the atomic ice-breaker 'Siberia', which reached the geographic North Pole on 25 May 1987. 

The ice-breaker had to evacuate scientists from the floating pole station SP-27, floating around near the Pole. Because of the surface and size of the ice it was not possible to land a plane, while the ice kept collapsing it was no longer save for the polar explorers.
 
The ship left Murmansk on the 8th of May and arrived at the station on the 18th of May where they picked up the 14 scientists after floating around on a a large piece of ice for almost a year. Besides the practical part there were also scientist of the Antarctic Institute, the institutes of oceanology and geography and specialists from the USSR Ministry of Geology aboard the ship.













 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 


After a short stop on the geographic North Pole on the 25th of May the voyage continues to a rendez-vous point near Nova Zembla where they meet with another ice-breaker fleet to transfer the equipment and staff for the floating ice-station SP-29. On the 9th of June they reach the new location (80 ° 15 'N, 113 ° 27' OL) for SP-29.

After more than 40 days the atomic ice-breaker "Siberia" enters the port of Murmansk on the 19th of June 1987.