Editor's Rating
The Vostok Amphibia is a classic automatic diver’s watch, and a special piece of wristwatch history. It’s also my top pick for a mechanical, affordable dive watch under $100. In my review of the Amphibia I’ll show you just why that is.
This article contains affiliate links. As an Amazon Associate, I earn commission from qualifying purchases.
Many people have an almost strange fascination with the Amphibia, a recent search I did on WatchUSeek (a major online forum for watch enthusiasts) returned almost 600 results mentioning the Amphibia.
Whenever someone asks the question “I don’t know anything about diver’s, which dive watch should I start with?” online, you can guarantee the Amphibia is going to be mentioned, along with the Seiko SKX007, and usually the Orient Mako II.
It’s because of all of these overwhelming recommendations for it, as well as my need for a watch that can take a beating while I’m out giving kayak tours, that I chose the Amphibia for my first diver to review on this site. I’ll get into my thoughts on the watch in just a bit, but first some history:
History and Design of the Vostok Amphibia
The Amphibia was first designed in 1967 at the Chistopol watch factory in the Soviet Union, by Mikhail Novikov and Vera Belov. It was designed to specifications from the Soviet Defense Department, who needed a cheap, rugged watch that would be reliable to 200m.
Due to the available equipment on hand, Novikov and Belov could not simply replicate any of the current Swiss watch designs. The equipment simply couldn’t provide the needed accuracy when machining small parts. The standard method for designing a watch that could withstand great depths was to purely use brute strength, relying on strong materials and extremely accurate machining to fit the parts together.
To get around this problem, the Amphibia was designed to actually flex, the caseback pushing in more and more onto a large rubber gasket as the pressure increased. The water resistance actually increases that deeper the watch is taken, and the flexibility allowed the watch to be built with much looser tolerances.
You can find more in-depth information on the Amphibia at Hodinkee, and this excellent forum post about the design methodology behind the Amphibia.
Vostok Amphibia Variations
Above is only a small selection of available styles. Click here to see many more on Vostok Watches store page on Amazon.
Vostok Amphibia Review
Specifications
- Vostok caliber 2416B automatic movement
- 200m (660ft) water resistance
- Bidirectional diver’s timing bezel
- Acrylic crystal
- 40mm case diameter
- 46mm lug-to-lug distance
- 14.4mm thick
- 18mm band width
- Date window
- Luminous hands and hour markers (cheap, short lasting)
Out of all the different bezels and face designs available on the Amphibia, I decided to go with the one commonly called ‘The Zissou’. This nickname came about after Bill Murray appeared in ‘The Life Aquatic with Steve Zissou‘ wearing this style of Amphibia. It is also often marketed as the ‘Sea Captain’.
The face has an old style ships wheel located at noon, and an anchor at the 6 o’clock position. Around the edge of the face appears a stylized 3-strand braided rope. Being a sailor, this specific watch looked like it would fit in with my boat-centered life-style.
The biggest complaint you’ll hear about the Amphibia is due to the horribly cheap bracelet it comes with from most sellers. I’ve heard people claim it has physically injured them while wearing it. As soon as it arrived I immediately took the bracelet off (which was sized way too large for my wrist) and replaced with this NATO style strap from the NATO Strap Company. I like how the colors on this strap match pretty closely with the colors of the watch dial.
First Impressions
When I first pulled the Amphibia out of the box, I was impressed with how good it looked. It was slightly smaller than I had been expecting, which is really a good thing as I’ve got pretty small (6.75″) wrists. The coloring on the bezel and dial really pop. The acrylic crystal has a curve to it, and pops out beyond the bezel a decent amount.
I’m especially happy with how it looks now that I have the NATO strap on it. While the Amphibia doesn’t scream out ‘high-end watch’ it’s definitely a decent looking, quirky little diver.
Bezel Operation
Straight out of the box I had a hard time using the bidirectional bezel. The knurled edge is very thin, making it hard to grip properly, and the bezel was very stiff to rotate. I actually had the bezel completely freeze on me for a couple weeks after a trip into the surf on a sandy beach. No matter how much I cleaned it I couldn’t get it to loosen back up.
Mysteriously it loosened up at some point, and now is usually quite easy to use. I’m not sure why, but sometimes it’s still hard to turn. Possibly temperature variations are causing it to expand and contract. I’d love to hear if anybody else has had this problem with the watch.
The Crystal
The amphibia comes with an acrylic crystal, and like all acrylic it is very prone to scratches and scuffs. I’ve been wearing mine during all waking hours, and it’s been on my wrist for a lot of activities – from SCUBA diving to working on a diesel engine.
Needless to say, it’s not looking pristine any more. I have yet to put any actually deep scratches into it so far, it’s all just light scuffing. The dial is still easily visible, and I don’t think anyone would notice the scuffs unless they were looking closely.
Even though acrylic scratches easily, it’s also relatively easy to polish the marks out and bring it back to new. I’m planning on doing a watch crystal polishing tutorial here soon, so stay tuned!
The Dial
The dial is my favorite part of this watch. I’m constantly surrounded by boats in my life, and love the nautical theme of the ‘Zissou’ Amphibia. The dial features a stylized ships wheel at the 12 o’clock position, and an anchor at the 6. Around the edge of the bezel is a stylized 3-strand braided rope, a very common thing to find on ships.
Looking closely at the dial however, you’ll notice how cheaply made it really is. The luminescent dots marking the hours are slightly out of alignment with the silver markers. The date window on the right side looks out of place, somehow not fitting in with the rest of the design.
Luminosity
The luminous markings on the hands and dial frankly sucks. Extremely bright at first when entering somewhere dark, it quickly fades to almost nothing, in less than 10 minutes.
Basically, completely useless for actual use as a dive watch if diving at night or with poor visibility. OK for entering into a dark space from outside, while your eyes are adjusting.
Winding & Setting
While the Amphibia is an automatic and self-winds from any movement, it can also be manually wound. After unscrewing the crown until it’s free, you apply light pressure outwards (to keep the crown from screwing back in) and turn the crown clockwise to wind.
I have yet to have problems with keeping the watch wound just from normal daily wear, and the power reserve (how long it will keep ticking when not being wound) on it is close to 2 days.
Setting the time is easy. After unscrewing the crown, it just needs to be pulled out further than the winding position. You’ll feel a slight click and then the hands are free to move. While technically the Amphibia’s movement doesn’t support ‘hacking seconds’, I found a trick where if you turn the crown clockwise, the seconds hand will freeze, allowing for more precise setting. From what I understand this is not harmful to the watch.
Setting the date is also pretty simple. While in set mode, spinning the hands through a full 24hr period will click the date over. But there’s also a short cut: moving the hour hand back and forth between 8 o’clock and the 12 o’clock position will also advance the date window.
Russionwatchguide.com has a translation of the original manual available here, so be sure to check that out if you’re at all confused on the operation of the watch.
Timekeeping
Out of the box my Amphibia was gaining about 40 seconds a day, which was quite a bit more than what I’d read online from others, who gave the impression that 15-20 seconds a day was to be expected. After digging around online, I found a recommendation to let the watch wind itself down and sit for a day before wearing it again. Supposedly this could bring the watch back in line with expected accuracy. After attempting this one time, it’s now gaining ‘only’ 30 seconds a day, which I can at least live with.
Conclusion
My main issue with the Amphibia is the poor rotation of the bezel, as I actually find it extremely useful to have a quick timer available on my wrist for keeping track of many things. I know a lot of people never use the bezel on their dive watches, so this probably isn’t a big issue for most.
Overall, I’d recommend the Amphibia for anyone looking to buy their first mechanical watch, or for someone who’s looking for something cheap and quirky that can take quite a bit of abuse.
If you’re interested in one for yourself, below are some links to the various models available around the web.
Buy it from Amazon.com
Related Posts
8 Comments
I received the scuba dude 3 weeks ago and it was running +21 SPD out of the box. Over the 3 weeks it dropped to +14, +10 and today it averaged +5.5. On the wrist it’s +10, crown up is +2. Hopefully it maintains at +5 to +6 spd. At this rate is within COSC specs for a $60 watch with in-house movement. The bracelet’s links kinks up and at the smallest is a bit loose but quite comfy. Prefer it to the rubber strap which makes the wrist warm and sweaty. There was a slight problem with the date change on day 1 and the clutch dies but engage but shaking and banging the watch against my palm seems to fix it and no further issues since. Highly recommended!
Sounds like you got lucky with a well tuned movement. I get the impression that the time-keeping on these can be very hit or miss, I imagine whoever sets them at the factory has a very limited time to get it right.
I guess so, the QC can’t be too good at that price. Had to switch back to the rubber strap though as the bracelet cuts into he skin after a few hours and it gets uncomfortable.
Hi, great rave. Scratched crystals are easy to fix, I have a polishing wheel set for jewelry/watches etc, takes me about 10mins and they look brand new. The bezel problem is also easy, just pop the bezel off and give the inside and the spring clip a clean and put back together with some silicon grease, sweet !
😉
Hi John, thanks for the tips!
I just received my second Vostok, a kommandirskie “1945” manual wind. Its running +40 SPD while the 6 months old Amphibia has stabilised to +7spd. Hope the manual wind will improve after breaking in for a few weeks. Another 2 kommandirskies were lemons which I exchanged. Both had the date stuck and one couldn’t set the time! Quality is really suspect at the factory! I guess once we get a good one, it will run years without problems
I love all of my Vostok watches. The time deviations are a shock to a person that’s never owned a mechanical watch before. Every mechanical watch picks up an “average” from the owner. How you move around, your body temperature, etc will affect how the machine runs. When buying a new mechancial watch you should wear it for a few days. Note how much time it’s gaining or losing and see how steady that number is. If a watch consistently gains 2 minutes a day, every day, then it’s a great watch that runs consistently, but needs to be regulated so that it is accurate. If your watch deviates -2 minutes one day, +1 the next, and -5 the third, then it has a problem that needs to be fixed because it’s not consistent. A consistent watch can be regulated for accuracy, an inconsistent watch cannot.
My vostok ran +5 minutes every day when I first got it. Yes, 5 minutes. Every. Day. Regular. I took it to my local horologist (that’s a watch doctor by the way) and told him how much it was deviating. He then adjusted it to compensate for the deviation and now the watch is accurate to within +/- 10 seconds a day. Apparently, when my watch was assembled it was in a Soviet era unheated workshop in Siberia in the middle of winter. Probably ran perfect in those conditions. In any event, it now ticks away rock steady and only loses maybe a total of 1 minute per week depending on how active I am while wearing it. That’s damn good for a $60 watch by the way. I have a $3k Venus 200 Swiss that doesn’t do much better than that.
In any event, I love the mechanical watches because they have soul. They are little machines that you can wear on your wrist and are tuned to your biology. But like most everything else, chosing a watch that you would actually like to wear is highly subjective to the individual. Some like modern, some like retro. It’s all cool if it pleases you.
I’m in two minds about Vostok.
I used to collect them, about 20 years ago. In those days there were very few western importers and a chap called Stuart ran a site based in Yorkshire called russianwatches. I used to buy vostok because they were cheap.. Very cheap. The most expensive in those days was a square faced automatic executive called the Attache. I had one of these and still do.. It dosent work anymore though and I can’t be arsed fixing it.
Most of my Vostocks were amphibias which all had the same basic shape and were differentiated by the design on the dial. They ranges from about £14 ($20) to about £40 $60. The finish was crude, the timekeeping variable but at twenty quid for an automatic watch, this was very decent value indeed. When one broke I simply binned it and bought another.
I eventually got fed up with the poor timekeeping and wore a pre ww2 omega for the next few years before the emergence of microbrands peaked my interest.
So I thought I might give Vostock another chance. Except they were no longer bargain basement. In fact some of them were up there with the upper end of the micro brand pricing eg. Chris Ward, Steinhart etc. For what appears to be, under design and decoration, the same amphibias that I wore in 2000. Only rather than £20 we were looking at £200.
Now when you consider you can get a Seiko SK007 for that it dosent not resemble the value for money it seems. In particular if the movements, build quality and finish are still anything like they were 15 years ago!
A Vostock, at £200?? Save your money and buy a Seiko!!