The US and USSR going "Band for Band"
We talk about the Cold War on our store so often, it's become one of our defining aesthetics.
But the grand armies and weapons are arguably less than half of the story. Many of the battles from the 50s through the 90s took place in the minds and on the wrists of millions of people. Some might say they certainly still do...
Rogue media campaigns, protests & activism, black ops — they defined the hottest parts of the Cold War. But what if we told you that the watch you were wearing was just as important? The Soviet Union sure thought so...
We've gotten sucked into the almost endless lore rabbithole of watches, and the first thing that we sought to bring back from obscurity was the Elektronika 55B — the soviet union's most popular digital watch that went the way of... well, the Soviet Union... When it collapsed in '91.
Above all else, there's one story about this watch that truly stands on its own, a story that made us realize we had to dig deeper into this little watch that jovially plays chiptune soviet music...
It involves two of the most powerful men in the world, Leonid Brezhnev and Henry Kissinger convening and comparing their new digital watches.
Ok, they weren't really wearing the watches in that photo, but such an encounter really did happen between the two gentlemen in the early 70s, one that subtly let the United States know that the Soviets were right on the US's tail for semiconductor technology.
On a somewhat-routine visit to Moscow, US Secretary of State Henry Kissinger wore a Pulsar P2 Watch — one of the very first digital watches. Known for it's striking red LED display and appearance on none other than James bond.
It also carried a hefty price tag, with the 21k gold edition costing enough to buy you a car in today's money.
You tell us, is $1800 in today's money worth it for one of the two base models?
The meeting was with Leonid Brezhnev, General Secretary of the Soviet Union. He remarked that he did indeed like Kissinger's watch, being a man of taste.
Then he told Kissinger that the USSR had already developed a prototype using the very same technology.
Kissinger was reportedly astonished — and was presented with a functioning Soviet-Made digital wristwatch, the Elektronika B6-02. Featuring CMOS circuits, it was blocky, brutalist, and affordable enough for practically anyone to buy when it officially launched.
The whole Elektronika series carried this statement — the latest fancy tech of the west is cool, but when it's done the soviet way, for way cheaper, it's not a luxury to be worn by only the elites.
It didn't take a horology enthusiast to buy and wear this watch. It's Kalashnikov-esque ubiquity meant it was worn by everyone from party members to coal miners.
Sure, in 1969 we brought a luxury-watch masterpiece, the Omega Speedmaster, to the Moon before the Soviets were able to. But as a tool of propaganda, the USSR might have had us beat, and the Elektronika 5 appeared in space several more times...
We found it intriguing and somewhat disheartening that Elektronika, what seemed to be the people's choice, was snuffed out much in the same time period as the Soviet union.
In a world full of Casios & Timexes, we couldn't help but succumb to the charm of the plucky Elektronika, so why not give it the wrist time it deserves...