Watch collectors and retailer AllTime team up for museum

An outstanding event took place in the capital: the Museum of Time and Clock was opened. It cannot be said that there were no such institutions in the country before: old-timers remember the collection of clocks of the Moscow Polytechnic Museum, which, as you know, has been closed for repairs for ten years (so major that it’s even scary to imagine). It is all the more gratifying that the new museum was opened through the efforts of a private company, the AllTime watch and jewelry retailer, and its exposition is based on items from private collections provided by the Watch Heritage Foundation, a legal entity of the Russian Club of Watch Collectors.

The starting exposition (it is assumed that it will be updated periodically) is dedicated to domestic watchmaking traditions. Among the rarest exhibits are pocket watches made in 1794 by one of the first watch manufactures of the Russian Empire, the Pyotr Nordstein factory; a clock entirely made of wood by carver Mikhail Bronnikov; watches of the trading houses of Pavel Bure, Henry Moser, William Gabu and other companies, whose names were well known to all subjects of the empire in the late 19th – early 20th centuries. The watches of the Soviet period are presented in a very diverse way. Along with the mass production of such brands as Poljot, Slava, Raketa, Vostok, Zarya, Chaika, Lightning, Agat, ZIM, Electronics, there are also rarities like the first Soviet wrist chronograph LF-S “Generalsky”, produced on the eve of the Great Patriotic War for the highest command staff, and the most complex Soviet-made watches – automatic “Rocket 3031” with a double calendar, an alarm clock and water resistance up to 200 m. The modern period is represented by significant models of the only Russian Manufactory of fine watchmaking Konstantin Chaykin. In general, the exposition is large-scale and interesting, deserving of a detailed story, which Kommersant Style will offer you in the coming year.

In the meantime, let’s add that the Time and Clock Museum, located on the third floor of the huge AllTime flagship store on Rusakovskaya Street, building 1, is, firstly, available for visiting daily and free of charge, and secondly, the collectors themselves, including the director of the museum and the president of the Russian Club of Collectors hours of Leonid Evropeytsev, conduct extremely informative and emotional excursions for guests.