Petrodvorets Watch Factory

Founded in Saint Petersburg by Peter the Great in 1721 as the Peterhof Lapidary Works, to make hardstone carvings; the factory produced luxury objects in semi-precious and precious stones for the palaces of the Tsars. In the Soviet era, the plant continued to work on precious stones.

During the Siege of Leningrad, the factory was destroyed by Nazi troops. It was rebuilt from 1944 at the liberation of the city. In 1945 Joseph Stalin—who wanted to reduce USSR's dependence on imports from the West—gave the order to the factory to manufacture watches. The first watches were produced in the factory under the brand Pobeda and Zvezda.

In its glory years after the war, the plant employed 8,000 people, produced 4.5 million watches per year for Soviet citizens and the needs of the Red Army. The plant was equipped with two atomic bunkers that could accommodate 8,000 people in case of a western nuclear attack.

After 1991 the plant dramatically cut production following the troubled years of privatization and the collapse of the Soviet Union.

Today, the factory—that was considered as strategic, and closed to visitors during Soviet times—is opened to tourism. Peterhof has an average of three millions visitors per year, the factory has become a popular tour. Guides show around the production facility that gives a feeling of traveling back to the USSR, but also to learn about clock manufacturing.[2]

• Since 1949, Petrodvorets Watсh Factory or - Petrodvorets Watch Factory "Raketa" or - Peterhof Watch Factory

• Sukhorukova A. E. / Watches: The Case of a Masters, Publisher: Det. USSR 1983. 108 pages;
• Tioutenkova A. G. / To Make the Time, Publisher: Lenizdat, USSR 1986, 181 pages.