well we must have all seen the planets hands but what do we know of them well if like me not a lot have always found them interesting and thinking one day will take a closer look but the price are steep and getting more so..

I decide to look in to them a little as not a lot of us know them well found out some interesting facts :

1) Most of these watches on eBay are genuine, because the distinctive hands are not easy to fake.but off late not sure that this is still the cases or not .

2) there was two movement used the movement should be a 2609NP (which is in Cyrillic, so the N looks like an H, and the P looks like a Greek pi), rather than the commoner 2609HA (which looks like "NA").

3) There are a few variants (eg silver or black dial; with or without the hour numbers) but have started to see other colour dials and design.

Lets do a bit of history on them to start they began as :

Raketa Russian (paketa ,rocket,) watches have been manufactured since 1961 by the Petrodvorets Watch Factory in Saint Petersburg. The Petrodvorets Watch Factory is Russia's oldest factory, it was founded by Peter the Great in 1721 as the Peterhof Lapidary Works to make hard-stone carvings. Raketa watches were produced for the Red Army, the Soviet Navy, for North Pole expeditions, as well as for civilians.

April 12, 1961 Yuri Gagarin made the first flight in the history of mankind in outer space on the rocket Vostok 1. In honour of Yuri Gagarin the Petrodvorets Watch Factory named its watches "Raketa," or "rocket" in Russian. At the height of the Cold War, however, the name "Raketa" was perceived negatively in the West, as the word was associated with the latest generation of Soviet intercontinental ballistic missiles, the R-16.

The factory's own watches, sold under the brand name Raketa, first appeared in 1961 and the factory also began to manufacture its own movements, like the «Raketa - 2609N». Over the years, the Petrodvorets Watch Factory produced more than two dozen versions Raketa movements. Some were equipped with features such as automatic winding, calendars, 24-hour models for polar explorers, anti-magnetic watches (for use in case of a nuclear attack), as well as watches for the military. Mechanical Raketa watches produced in Petrodvorets were exported to many Eastern Bloc and communist countries and are considered one of the most durable and reliable movements in the world and by the 1980s Raketa was producing 4.5 million watches a year.


RAKETA kopernik

quick specs

It was made at Petrodvoretz Watch Factory.

Calibre: 2609.H? *
Diameter of watch: 35 mm
Diameter of watch with crown: 37 mm
Diameter of dial: 28 mm
Thickness: 10 mm
Band size: 18 mm

* (two movement was used in them will show them in detail)

Movement

As I said above there are know to sport either :
2609NP
2609HA

Apparently if looking for one the 2609np is the better of the two and early if I remember right

now the hands well they are the sun and moon.



The butterfly you see on some refers to darling as the watch is called a partners watch so the butterfly is suppose to make you remember a love one or so some say



and the watch has been call so many different names here's a few

partners watch

Cosmos

Kopernik

COPERNICUS

etc etc ..

Quite a few others so when searching make's it trick but also if lucky might mean you can snag a hidden gem for a great price ...



Then have seen these not that up on them, looks like newer one with older design ?.






So have you every own one or like me have looked but never pulled the trigger if not why not ?

As always Ismy

p.s have got one now ..... will do a pic later