Amfibia

[1] Writing for The Moscow Times in 2017, journalist Matthew Bodner noted that the Amfibia had become a major Russian cultural icon among international watch enthusiasts.

According to Mikhail Novikov, the name “Amphibia” was chosen in a contest among the watch factory’s employees.

In 1967 the first batch of the Amphibia watches rolled off the factory line; it could withstand 20 atmospheres of pressure.

The divers practiced submarine rescue while wearing these watches that could withstand pressure at depths up to 300m.

This is a design similar to the western compressor case, a patent for which was filed at least as early as 1954, and granted in 1956[7] The advantage of the compression design is that you do not need to tighten any of the seals to a pressure that would withstand 20 ATM, it also eliminates several pieces required to create such a seal.

The Amphibia's crystal is 3 mm thick lucite (50% thicker than standard) that is individually cut to a high level of precision.

This solved a problem found during the design where when surfacing, the gasket which had been compressed by 20-30% decompressed slower than the pressure on the caseback, critically weakening the seal.

This clutch gives the stem a wobbly feel as it doesn't engage unless you pull the crown away from the watch.

However, this luminescence is significantly weaker and of shorter duration than on comparable Japanese and Swiss watches.

[8] Raketa Amphibians were produced in small batches (according to some accounts, 15,000 pieces per year) and were characterized by several design flaws.