VOSTOK WATCH & PART SOURCES

Below you will find a list of suppliers that either I have used in the past, or are mentioned as reliable sources in well established forums such as WUS and /r/vostok on reddit.

CASEBACKS
Solid Casebacks, Clear Casebacks,  and Caseback retaining rings.

CASES
Bare Casebacks with attached crystal, gaskets, and case specific winding stem/crown assembly.

MOVEMENTS/PARTS
 New Movements, Used Movements, Movement Specific Parts and Screws, Movement holders

PARTS
Datewheels, crowns, stems, gaskets, crystals, gilt rings, movement holders, lug adapters. (Kind of a catch all for sites that dont have specific ranges per se)

DIALS
New or NOS vostok dials.

VINTAGE DIALS
Includes Dials that have been removed from doner watches.  May also include salvage for parts non working watches (dial doners)

HANDS
Standard New hands, new custom hands, used hands,

DIALS AND HANDS

Dials

There are many different standard dial designs for Vostok Amphibias and Komanderskies, there are hundreds of non standard Vostok produced dials out there too.  During the Soviet era, many companies and organizations commissioned watches with custom dials for events or special awards. Then you add in the military branches and government agencies who wanted specific dial designs, were looking at maybe even thousands of unique designs.

The standard size is 28.5mm, which also happens to be the same size as many Seiko dials. (Seiko dials anchor feet and date windows DO NOT match, so you can really only use the non-date versions and will  have to remove the dial feet and replace with adhesive dial dots or attach new .75mm  dial feet at the correct position) There are also tons of generic 28.5mm non-date dials on Aliexpress and ebay that will work with proper preperation.

On the 24xx movements, dial feet are positioned roughly at the 4 & 10 positions on the underside of the dial where they are anchored by pinch screws on the side of the case.  I have used also used dials from older 22xx Vostok movement’s dials by removing the dial feet and attaching with dial dots. I have been know to buy lots of old Amps and Komms just to harvest the dials. If you are cleaning an old dial use a soft brush, a bit of water and q-tips. DO NOT use any cleaners that contain any acetone or other thinners as this will remove any paint or varnish on the dial.

NOTE: If you find a really old dial where the the lume is super muddy brown and there is a lot of pain damage around the lume areas, there is a chance that it is Radium. Do not fuck with these dials, throw them away.  The radium dust can be inhaled, which is radioactive and highly toxic.  

Vostok “Lume”

The standard lume on a factory Vostok dial is not the brightest or longest lasting. In fact, after the ‘chocolate kiss foil wrap’ grade metal bracelets, Vostok lume is the weakest aspect of the watch. Ebay user FAVINOV offers classic style new dials (and hands) that have been re-lumed with Superluminova in both Green and Blue lume colorways. These are done by hand but are crisp, thick, and glow very bright.  Highly recommend.

You can also relume the dial (and hands) yourself using aftermarket lume, a toothpick and a steady hand. A good idea is to record your proportions of powder to medium mix as you practice on a dummy surface. Having the right viscosity is key, you will see what works best as you experiment.

If you want to repaint a dial, use acetone to remove all paint, give it a quick sand with 1000 grit sand paper, degrease and clean with more acetone untill water sheets on the surface, then use a self etching or metal specific primer coat before any cutom paint is applied.  It is better to do several light passes with the spraypaint than all at once.

 Custom Graphics

If you want to add your own applied graphics, there is a great laser printer waterslide decal product by Sunnyscopa that you simply apply, heat with a hair dryer, and then remove the substrate only leaving the ink on the dial.  Once again, practice on a dummy dial before you commit to your final application, there is a bit of a knack to getting the balance of heat, application gel (in the kit) amount, and timing to get a flawless application- which you really only get one chance at if you are applying it to anything painted. (I have painstakingly chipped a bad decal off once, I do not recommend unless you have no other options)  I have tried to do super small text but have not had success getting anything crisp enough to be useful smaller than 1mm.

Hands

Replacing hands requires a bit of patience but pays off.  I suggest only buying hands that are specifically designed to fit the specific movement in your particular watch.  The vast majority of newer vostoks out there use a variation of the 24xx movement and therefore almost all aftermarket hands will fit this movement. If you have an older watch with a 22xx movement there is different size needed that is way harder to find.   

For  great instructions- watch the video below by THE VOSTOKAHOLIC on hand replacement. Please go to his channel and watch all his videos, if we bump enough subscribers and likes, maybe he will start making videos again.  

Vostok Visual Service Guides