From Russia with love – The Indicator by Colibrica Design

On the shores of the Volga River, in an old Russian town named Uglich, there is a small watchmaking atelier, Colibrica Design Atelier, where a hand full of people with a big watchmaking heritage work in the shadows of the Chaika watch and watch parts factory, a factory that once had 10,000 employees and where the parents and grandparents of Colibrica’s team worked.
The first idea came in 2013, when the Atelier’s team thought that they also could make their own watch. Thinking of the tools they had around them as children the team created the Indicator timepiece, following the lines of the beautiful dial and the construction of the micrometres and other fine measurement Tools.

The Indicator watch comes in two sizes: 44mm and 38mm case diameter, both with 10.8mm thickness. Special things about this timepiece is that the case are made with titanium components: the case ring, the bezel, the screws, the crown and the strap pin manufactured in Colibrica Atelier. These parts are machined in lathe, milling machine and with the wire-edm machine. The side of the case ring, the “wall”, is treated with hydrofluoric acid to remove the sharp edges of the matte surface in order to obtain a smooth and non-abrasive surface.

The case edges are hand bevelled using ceramic polisher. All the surfaces of the Indicator watch are hand-finished, including the top edge which is mirror-polished – a finish hard to obtain since the titanium is very hard to process.
A unique serial number is engraved on the side of each case. The unusual cylinder shaped crown has an oil-gas resistant hypoallergenic rubber (the same type of rubber used in the food industry), made in-house as all the rubber seals used.

These timepieces are covered on top with a 1.3mm thick sapphire crystal with anti-reflective coating and on the bottom with a 1.2mm thick sapphire.

The dial is balanced, simple with an excellent readability and has something special. The brass dial is hand finished after machining in lathe and cave, has a colour of choice between vintage silver, pearl silver or white matte lacquer with bi-colour printing. The most beautiful detail of the dial itself is the hand-polished, hardened and thermally blued steel “0” applied index. The hours and seconds hands are manually polished, thermally hardened and blued steel with rhodium-plated bosses.
The Indicator watch is powered by the Poljot 3105 movement coming from the First Moscow Watch Factory (with small seconds, hours, minutes and date). All the movements used by Colibrica Design are overhauled and then tuned in the Engineering Bureau of Timepieces, by Valentine Erofeev.

The date module is removed, some of the movement parts are made in-house (like the winding stems) or finished and adjusted in-house: ratchet wheel, transmission wheel boss, cannon pinion, intermediate wheels etc. The bridges are decorated with Geneva waves (Côtes de Genève) having a nickel or gold-plated finish (on request) and fixed with steel blued screws. The movement has a 28,800 vph beating heart and a power reserve of 42 hours.

This interesting timepiece comes with a hand-stitched leather strap with a handmade stainless steel buckle, a traditional worked Oak wood watch box, like the ones used for vintage measuring tools and a lifetime warranty against loss of winding crowns and strap pins.

Plus, all the customers are added to a journal and, in case of need, helped with ordering parts and new straps for the watch. The Colibrica Atelier has an excellent availability of parts, meaning you won’t have to leave your watch to long for repairs. By request, another movement of 38.5mm or less can be used. The 38mm and the 44mm versions have the same price of 2500USD.
Please visit the Colibrica Design Atelier Website for more information.