cover Story
The ea
by Zub rlier Naviga
develo voskij and htor watches
pment
b
is
of the team, led touilt for Pojot
N1 Ro
cket m the
odel.
Examples
of Poljot,
Navigator and
Buran watches
Zubovskij and
his partners
built for Poljot
and the 1st
Moscow Watch
factory in
the 1990s.
economic upheaval surrounding them.
Zubovskij headed to the market with his suitcase of watches
three partners agreed that watches could be a way to weather
the economic situation they found themselves facing. Within a few
in tow. Within two days, he sold all the watches and was able to
weeks, they set themselves up as the distributors of Poljot (the
pay the salary of all 15 members of the institutes team.
largest watch brand in Russia at the time) and Vostok for the new
Zubovskij realized that his skills as a physicist and engineer
of radiometric equipment would not have any practical value in the
current situation on the ground in Eastern Europe.
“I came back and spoke to the people I worked with at the
west they were becoming part of.
They operated in this fashion for some time, but came to realize the watches built in Russia did not suit the taste or demands
of the customers in the west they were servicing. The team then
institute and told there there may just be a future in watches,”
approached Poljot about the possibility of actually building new,
Zubovskij says with a grin.
different models in Lithuania under the Poljot name that would be
After the successful sale of the watches, Zubovskij and his
28 FUNCTION | AboutTime Magazine
exclusively for their market. Watches with styling, features, and