Watch: Vostok Amphibia 420526 "Zissou"
Movement: Vostok 2416 beater
Width: 39mm
Lug Width: 18mm
Crystal: Acrylic
How long owned: 6 years
Used price estimate (Dec. 2018): Just buy it new.
New price estimate (Dec. 2018): $70.
The Vostok "Zissou" was my first automatic watch. I found it from the affordable menswear blogs I was reading at the time (2012) and bought it due to its price and use in the Life Aquatic (big Wes Anderson fan).
There's plenty of info all over the internet regarding the background of Vostok watches, so I won't repeat any of that here. This thing is the quintessential automatic beater. I've worn it to do everything, including swim and waterski, and it just keeps plugging along. The acrylic crystal and plated bezel show the wear, but that's part of the charm of a watch like this. You don't buy it to keep in pristine condition, and at the price you can buy one new, who cares? I've found that polishing the crystal with Brasso and a microfiber cloth works wonders once its collected a fair number of scratches.
Once I bought a watch timing app, I found this baby was running about +18 spd. No worries: popped it open and regulated it down to ~ +4 spd. It's not going to win any accuracy awards, but again: who cares?
Due to the lack of a quickset function (you have to run the hour hand back and forth from ~3 am to ~ 10 pm to advance the date) the date on mine is rarely correct.
As my automatic beater, it sees regular use, especially in the summer. There are just many times when I'd rather have $70 instead of $300 strapped to my wrist.
As my first automatic, this thing will never leave my collection (for sentimental reasons, if nothing else). I suspect when it needs service I'll lean on my Orient Mako as my automatic beater (and then buy a new version of either the Mako or Amphibia to serve as a beater once they both die).
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