Does anyone know what the Russians called their company or watches after the Hampden factory moved to Russia?

Are the Molina watches related?

Do we know what Russian watches have American roots?

Poljot- First Moscow Watch Factory ,and they produced from low end junk watches to the finest quality chronometers and deck watches,copied off the Ulysse Nardins, and I believe those precise timekeepers to be the equal of anything manufactured elsewhere in the world

A very good write-up can be found here; Sometimes It's Worth Looking On The Other Side...

great article Werner too bad he didn't include photos of his Russian Poljot and Kirova deck watch and chronometer variations

Vladimir Gelfer, My watchmaker friend here in San Diego Area did his apprenticeship at the Moscow Watch Factory #1, spending nearly 4 years there in the mid-1950's learning watch and clock making (they did all that stuff).

As for the Hampden production line, Vladimir told me it was moved about 10 times during WWII because the Germans were bombing everything around Moscow that moved. He also said the names of the watches (and Chronometers) were changed to the latest "Favorites" of Joe Stalin.

Hampden prior to the move made some great watches, as good as any out there. After John C died and the series of recessions, depressions leading up to the big depression it probably became clear from the heir's of view that selling Hampden to the Russians was a good business deal. So if you take a good watch to start with and just remove the eye candy that added nothing to the performance, one could expect some decent watches to be made after the move.

Great stuff, very interesting.

Surfing the links, I could actually make out a couple that looked very much like a Hampden Model V.

Paul I collect Hampdens and Dave Abbe has been very helpful to me in my collecting. I have several Russian Hampdens including a deck watch and the better quality Russian Hampdens are excellent even if the finish is not up to Swiss standards. I will say that my first Russian Hampden did not work very well after the unfortunate trip thru the washer!

At one time the factory was named Kirovsky. Verified by several Russian/Ukrainian watchmakers here in MN.