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Poljot Logo Timeline

4170 Views 12 Replies 6 Participants Last post by jonachibazen, 12 mo ago

mroatman

Discussion Starter · May 21, 2015 (Edited)

Dear comrades,

Does anyone know of a source that includes a timeline for the use of the Latin Poljot logos? I think this would be very helpful for us new guys in trying to date watches (I hear they like flowers and a kiss on the crown at night). I'm guessing there aren't exact dates and there was likely some overlap as one logo transitioned to the next, but ballpark estimates would still be helpful.

In my experience, two logos are primarily found -- one serif and one sans-serif, as seen below:

My suspicions were recently verified that the serif logo predated the sans-serif brand, but by how much?

You will also find another style, let's call it the 'fat serif', sometimes embossed and sometimes printed, with slight variations (look at the letter width and 'tail' on the L):

I'm sure there are many other less-common variants, and feel free to contribute further if you're aware of any. However, I am mainly curious about the timeline for the first two logos, as these seem to be the most common.

By the way, in my search for these logos, I came across something I'd never seen...a serif Sekonda logo. Even the earliest Sekondas I own use the sans-serif Arial font, so I wonder when these were produced and for what market. My guess is the 1960s for the UK, but why, then, didn't all their logos match, and why is this serif version relatively rare? Never seen this variant, but I'm liking it!

Any insight you could offer would be greatly appreciated b-)

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Chascomm

· #2 · May 21, 2015

Sekonda is probably a useful starting point. The brand is (and apparently alwys has been) British owned and launched in 1966. Almost all Sekondas from that early period appear to be stock Soviet models rebranded (apart from a very few that may have been cased-up in the UK). The intended market seems to have been primarily the UK and secondarily the British Commonwealth. Sekonda-branded Poljots have the same dial markings with only the name changed.

Two things to be learned from that:
1. There are unlikely to be market-specific variations to the logo
2. Whatever version of the Sekonda logo found on the earliest Poljot-made Sekondas is likely to reflect the standard font usage by Poljot at that time.

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Arizone

· #3 · May 21, 2015

Polmax has this little guide for Sturmanskies, should help a little bit.

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shandy

· #4 · May 21, 2015

I have noticed this logo as well though it does not pop up often, least I don't see it that often! Sorry the image is poor!

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mroatman

Discussion Starter · #5 · May 21, 2015

Chascomm said:
Sekonda is probably a useful starting point. The brand is (and apparently alwys has been) British owned and launched in 1966. Almost all Sekondas from that early period appear to be stock Soviet models rebranded (apart from a very few that may have been cased-up in the UK). The intended market seems to have been primarily the UK and secondarily the British Commonwealth. Sekonda-branded Poljots have the same dial markings with only the name changed.

Two things to be learned from that:
1. There are unlikely to be market-specific variations to the logo
2. Whatever version of the Sekonda logo found on the earliest Poljot-made Sekondas is likely to reflect the standard font usage by Poljot at that time.

Thanks for this, Chascomm, very helpful. According to your information, I think it's safe to assume that the common serif Poljot logo was still being used in 1966. My logic is that if the serif Sekonda logo is real (and it does look to be), and if the Sekonda brand only began in 1966, and if the Poljot logos mirrored the Sekonda logos in terms of font, then there must have been similar Poljot logos at least in 1966.

Maybe this was right around the time that both brands began adopting the sans-serif Arial font for their logos? This would at least explain the scarcity of serif Sekonda logos if they were quickly phased out shortly after the brand was introduced. What do you think? Could we theorize that ~1967 was when the logos changed to Arial?

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mroatman

Discussion Starter · #6 · May 21, 2015

Arizone said:
Polmax has this little guide for Sturmanskies, should help a little bit.

Thanks, Arizone! This is a very helpful image to have. Saved for future reference.

I just wish it went a little further to the left there to reveal the mid to late-1960s

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mroatman

Discussion Starter · #7 · May 21, 2015

shandy said:
I have noticed this logo as well though it does not pop up often, least I don't see it that often! Sorry the image is poor!

Yes, another well-spotted variation, shandy, thanks! Though my suspicion is that the cursive Poljot logo came much later, well into the 70s or 80s. I have no basis for this aside from the styling of the watches on which this logo is generally found. Check out this gem....nothing 'subtly sixties' about this one

Watch Analog watch Watch accessory Fashion accessory Strap

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schnurrp

· #8 · May 21, 2015

This 1970 catalog: https://plus.google.com/photos/113098239036073221216/albums/5814459305017418737?banner=pwa appears to have about every Poljot printing available including this one, a Latin cursive:

Watch Analog watch Watch accessory Fashion accessory Jewellery

Also what looks like the rocket ship cursive Cyrillic "Poljot"

Also there are a mumber of "Sekonda" dials and some I can't really tell what they are. A real gold mine with more variety than I expected but with problems as noted below.

When you started your thread I thought it would be a simple matter of going through the catalogs and compiling which printings were available at a given time. Unfortunately the reproduction of the catalog pictures, which weren't that great to start with, produced pictures which really don't have enough detail for the type of investigation I had in mind. Too bad.

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mroatman

Discussion Starter · #9 · May 21, 2015

I knew it was only a matter of time before Paul showed up with his arsenal of catalogs in tow!

I appreciate you looking into it, and you may have been more helpful than you realize. That catalog is such a gold mine -- so many watches I've been looking for are in there. I guess I missed it as it's not labeled Poljot or Полет.

This helps the timeline in that we can assume the Arial version was around at least by 1970, but also confuses things as there are just so many variations, as you mentioned: Cyrillic, Latin, cursive, serif, sans-serif....clearly Poljot didn't follow the 'out with the old, in with the new' principle.

Oh, well. It was worth a shot. It seems likely it was sometime between 1966 and 1970 that the Arial logo was introduced, but that may be as close as we can get. That's still better than where I started yesterday, so thanks all for your input!

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Chascomm

· #10 · May 22, 2015

mroatman said:
Maybe this was right around the time that both brands began adopting the sans-serif Arial font for their logos? This would at least explain the scarcity of serif Sekonda logos if they were quickly phased out shortly after the brand was introduced. What do you think? Could we theorize that ~1967 was when the logos changed to Arial?

That makes good sense to me.

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Chascomm

· #11 · May 22, 2015

The rocketship logos of various 1MChZ brands predate the corporate Poljot brand. So it seems that what we are seeing in the 1970 catalogue is a listing for old stock that was manufactured back when 'Poljot' specifically meant a watch with a 2414 movement. That would mean they were still trying to clear stock from 8 to 10 years previously! Would they really have been advertising watches that would be due for a service by the time their buyers received them? Or did they have so many production lines running that they just never bothered to update the logo on that one dial for that particular model?

Once again we are confounded by the Soviet practices of overproduction and the long persistence of legacy models (i.e. products manufactured in parallel with their successors). If we're lucky we can find a start date, but an end date is likely to remain elusive.

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mroatman

Discussion Starter · #12 · May 22, 2015

Chascomm said:
The rocketship logos of various 1MChZ brands predate the corporate Poljot brand. So it seems that what we are seeing in the 1970 catalogue is a listing for old stock that was manufactured back when 'Poljot' specifically meant a watch with a 2414 movement. That would mean they were still trying to clear stock from 8 to 10 years previously! Would they really have been advertising watches that would be due for a service by the time their buyers received them? Or did they have so many production lines running that they just never bothered to update the logo on that one dial for that particular model?

Once again we are confounded by the Soviet practices of overproduction and the long persistence of legacy models (i.e. products manufactured in parallel with their successors). If we're lucky we can find a start date, but an end date is likely to remain elusive.

Yes, I've come to the same conclusion. There were so many logos circulating in 1970, it doesn't seem like a useful practice to try to date watches by the logo alone -- which is a shame, because that's exactly what I had hoped would be possible. I have learned a lot more, though, so not a total loss. But my take-home is that trying to estimate the production date of a Poljot watch from the '60s or '70s based on the logo typography alone will be an exercise in frustration!

Thanks all for your contributions |>

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jonachibazen

· #13 · 12 mo ago

HI. I FOUND THIS VINTAGE PIECE AMONG THE OLD WATCHES MY DAD USED TO LOVE LONG AGO. I WAS ABOUT TO THROW IT TO A GARBAGE CAN WHEN I TRIED TO SET IT UP AND SURPRISINGLY IT STARED WORKING AFTER 26 YEARS LIKE IT WAS NEW. NOW I'M LOOKING FOR A GOOD SERVICE SHOP TO REVIVE IT ENTIRELY. SAME THING I WILL DO WITH A FORTIS 7205.

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