This watch comes from a place you probably don’t know or dislike – but it’s a hidden gem
But unfortunately I can't tell you how much it costs
Let’s face it no one, ever, is interested in stuff ‘Made in Belarus’.
And of course it doesn’t help that in recent years, this little country in Eastern Europe has made headlines for all the wrong reasons.
Having said that, if you’re into vintage watches, you’ve probably heard of the name Luch.
The brand was founded in Minsk back when Belarus was part of the USSR and like everything else in the Soviet-era, it was designed to be robust and simple.
With zero attention to style.
But not caring about the design of your product is actually a design language in it of itself and that’s why brands like Luch still exist today. In the crazy realm that watch geeks and watch collectors inhabit.
The logo, for example, simply consist of the Cyrillic script for the word ‘Luch’ in Italic characters.
It is completely intelligible to you and I because we use the Latin scrypt and we haven’t hand-written anything in Italic since school but that’s what it says.
Specifically, it says Л У Ч = L u ć. Or ‘ch’, as it is always transliterated into Latin.
Sorry. It’s getting geeky.
The Luch you see here is technically a Swiss watch, because the brand is now part of the Franck Muller family.
But that’s red herring, as ever, because the watch is still assembled in Minsk and the movement is a Miyota.
Nothing wrong with that. It’s solid and reliable, coming in with a 48-hour power reserve.
The Soviet ethos is long-gone here. And quite frankly that’s a good thing.
This is because in addition to the reliable movement and the beautiful guilloché dial, the watch features sapphire crystal as well as a sapphire caseback and – lo and behold – a deployante buckle.
It looks a little more expensive than you think.
Which brings me on to a sensitive topic.
This was a gift. So I’m not supposed to know how much it cost.
I wish I could you tell but I can’t.
All I can say is it slightly more expensive than a watch everyone’s been obsessed with for the past three months.
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