From A Soviet Workshop To Modern Manufacture with Raketa's David Henderson-Stewart

A forgotten factory. Old machines humming. A movement that comes back to life after being frozen in Antarctic ice. That’s the energy behind our conversation with David Henderson-Stewart, the lawyer-turned-restorer who picked up Raketa when it was on the floor and made it tick again.

We talk about why he refused the easy route—outsourcing movements, buying CNC, copying Swiss design—and instead doubled down on authenticity. David walked every line, learned every machine, and built trust with master specialists who could hit micron tolerances by hand. He opened a watchmaking school to train a new generation, credited makers by name in every box, and set a quality bar that could stand next to Switzerland while preserving a uniquely Russian character.

Design is where Raketa’s DNA glows. Born in 1961 to honor Yuri Gagarin, the brand leans into space heritage and real tool needs: 24-hour dials for polar stations and submarines, counterclockwise displays, bold legibility that serves survival over fashion. These are watches worn in the ISS, tested in South Pole conditions, and shaped by archives of watercolor concepts that still feel shockingly modern. We dig into why Raketa avoids fragile showpieces like tourbillons, how in-house movement making defines identity, and why robust engineering, not gimmicks, earns trust.

We also explore the business reality: growing from roughly 7,000 pieces a year without letting quality slip, navigating global markets through word of mouth and transparency, and planning future launches—from astronaut models to wild archival revivals—without losing the soul that makes the brand stand out. If you care about watchmaking, culture, and the craft that turns steel into time, this one will stick with you.

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Episode Transcript

SPEAKER_00 (00:01):
Hello, everybody, and welcome back to another
episode here of the Lonely WristPodcast.
I am your host, as always, BlakeRay.
And not only have we had so manyincredible people on the show,
but today we are hosting yetanother amazing watch brand.
Today's guest is not somebodywho built a watch brand, but

(00:23):
somebody who helped to bring oneback to life.
The brand we have today is noneother than Rakhetta, which is
one of the most storied watchbrands and born out of the Petro
Duretz, butchered the hell outof that.
A watch factory who's beenmaking time pieces for over a
century.
The modern Raketa is not only afully in-house manufacturer

(00:44):
building its own movements andassembling on site, but it's
also staking its claim withmodern and bold design language.
Today we are sitting down withthe man who took the leap to
purchase and revive Raketa,turning a fading legend into a
working, evolving watchmakeragain.
We're going to cover what itreally means to inherit legacy

(01:05):
and how you modernize it withoutred without erasing the brand's
identity.
And also what it takes to run ahistoric watch factory in
today's market, and why, ofcourse, you collectors should be
paying attention to what Raketais doing.
Everybody, please welcome theman behind the brand, David
Henderson Stewart.

SPEAKER_01 (01:29):
Hi.

SPEAKER_00 (01:30):
Welcome.

SPEAKER_01 (01:32):
Thank you very much for having us, for having me.

SPEAKER_00 (01:34):
Yeah.
Yeah, no, thank you for comingon.
This has been one that I thinkit's been about a year or so
since we've met.
Or maybe maybe less.

SPEAKER_01 (01:43):
We met in April last year.
We met at Watching Wonders, ifI'm not mistaken.

SPEAKER_00 (01:48):
Yeah, that's right, that's right.
So Ingenu.
Yeah, it's been been quite awhile.
And you know, something thatlike really kind of gravitated
me to you is first of all, likeyou're not traditional in the
other sense of other watchmakerswho are essentially just really
design forward.
You know, they're working on youknow, just putting their
products together, using thirdparties, things of that nature.

(02:12):
But you guys are actually likethe real deal.
Like you have your own movement,you have, you know, your own
factory, like you're you havemuch more strategic challenges
than other watchmakers, youknow.
And that was something thatreally stuck out to me.
And I think we talked about, andand something that I loved to
hear you say, like when wetalked was, you know, you talked

(02:33):
a lot about like stories, youknow, like you just kept saying
the word story over and over andover and over.
Not that that's a bad thing, butI just I loved it that that you
actually get it, you know, youget that people connect to
stories and not necessarilyproducts as much as they do
stories, you know.

SPEAKER_01 (02:52):
I mean, you've just listed every single reason why I
started Rakheta.
Raketa.
I actually I'm not a watchmakerat all.
I used to be a lawyer in a USlaw firm.
And just for just out ofopportunity, I moved to Russia
because they offered me a goodposition.
And then I discovered the RaketaWatch Factory just by pure

(03:15):
chance, and the reason I took itover are exactly all the reasons
you listed.
It's incredible manufacture,their own, they they make their
own mechanical movements,including the most difficult
components, which are thehairspring, the balance wheel, I
mean, all of the escapements.
The design is really cool, andthe storytelling amazing.
I mean, when I in Geneva WatchDays or in Watch and Wonders, or

(03:39):
I was lately in Dubai, WatchWeek, I mean, it's amazing.
I mean, every watch, I mean, Itell stories, as you said, all
the time.
And this is something thatreally makes us stand apart from
many other brands, is that everysingle watch that we do has an
incredible, authentic story totell.
And I I could talk about everysingle of our watches for at

(04:02):
least 10 minutes, and and Ibelieve that I did that with
you.
And this is something that makesus really different, and for all
of these reasons, basically, Idecided I thought, wow, this is
amazing.
And it was just lying on thefloor, it was dying, like you
know, these every single oldwatch Soviet factory just died.
It they didn't survive thisdifficult transition period from

(04:24):
the Soviet communist era to themodern capitalistic era, and
Rakheta was basically dying, andI just you know picked it up.

SPEAKER_00 (04:34):
And it it's crazy to see, like, you know, obviously,
like I have a couple Sovietwatches in my collection, I have
a Russian wife, but you know,Raketa is a brand that like most
watch collectors already know.
So because of the history,because because of the lineage,
like now you're just goingthrough the process of kind of

(04:56):
modernizing it and showingpeople like, hey, we're we're
going into a new a newdirection.

SPEAKER_01 (05:02):
It was huge in the Soviet times.
It was there were more than7,000 watchmakers, they produced
more than 6 million mechanicalwatches every year, and they
exported a lot of watches.
You know, the Soviet Unionneeded currency, hard currency,
they needed dollars.
And so they exported a lot ofwatches.
So there are a lot of watches onthe market.

(05:24):
There are still a lot ofcollectors of Soviet watches all
around the world, and thedesigns are really quirky.
I mean, Russian Soviet design isvery much different from very
often different from what youcan find in Switzerland, and
that's also one of the reasons Ithought, wow, this is so cool.
Yeah, and all of the designsthat you all of that designs,

(05:46):
all of the designs that I showedyou when we met in Geneva, we
didn't invent them.
These are old Soviet designs.
We were just inspired by theseold Soviet designs.
Obviously, we completelyredesigned them, but the
inspiration is still there.

SPEAKER_00 (06:02):
Something too that like really kind of stuck out to
me as like, you know, I thinkyou also understand that like
the people that work at thebrand are also the face of the
brand, you know.
And I remember you have like astack of business cards, and
like, you know, I I think I tooktwo, and then there was one
person, like one of youremployees on the back of one,

(06:24):
and then another employee on theback of the other.
And like, you know, people whohave been at the factory for
ages, it sounded like.

SPEAKER_01 (06:34):
Actually, it's not a business card, it's um we
cherish and we respect and wevalue so much our specialists, I
mean our watchmakers, because Imean, I I come from a system, I
mean, you you come from the samesystem, the Western system,
where you know, if you're not abanker, a consultant, a lawyer,

(06:55):
I mean, these professions arevery highly valued.
But if you're just a simpleworker in a factory, you are you
are at the bottom of the youknow of the social uh structure.
But what I discovered withRaketa is that these workers,
these specialists that we have,are so much more important than

(07:15):
even I am.
I mean, they do incrediblethings with their hands, they
produce these incredible smalllittle components that are then
assembled into a watch, and thenthe watch has to work.
What they do is so much moredifficult than what I did as a
lawyer, as a corporate lawyer.
And so we really value thesepeople, and in every single box
that's you know, a watch box, wewe randomly put a photo of one

(07:41):
of our watchmakers, and at theback of the photo we give his
name and what components heproduced in your watch.
So it really gives a human touchto the watch, and people
actually love it.
People collect these photos.
So we we invited a quite awell-known, actually British
photographer.
He's called James Hill, H-I-L-L,and he took a photo of every

(08:05):
single one of our workers, andso people collect these photos
now.

SPEAKER_00 (08:10):
So cool, that is so cool.
Like, I love that.

SPEAKER_01 (08:13):
You know, it I think it starts.
But once again, the reason we dothat is not just because it's
cool to do it, it's just becauseit's we really value these
people.
Without them, we would notexist.
They produce uh uh watches, ourmechanical movements, and they
have an incredible know-how,which very few people in the

(08:34):
world have have, you know.
There are very few brands thatcan produce their own, for
example, Hairspring.
It's it's very it's a very raredifficult operation.
And we've invited over the past10 years so many watch bloggers,
watch journalists, I mean,mostly mainly from Europe and
the Middle East.
And a lot of them said, youknow, we never saw these
operations in Switzerlandbecause Rolex would never either

(08:56):
let you in, or if they do letyou in, they will just show you
how, you know, they assemble,but they'll never, never, never
show you how they produce a hasring, for example, and we show
it.
So these people are justincredible, and so we and so we
put try to put them forward asas much as we can.

SPEAKER_00 (09:13):
Yeah, I mean, especially I've I've toured a
lot of watch manufacturers, andand some of them are like really
proud about like stamping,right?
Like, because they're such smallparts, and it's like, you know,
it's much easier for somebody tooutsource those parts and get
them, you know, get them in thanit is for you to actually stamp
them.
So, you know, some brands are soproud that they're doing their

(09:36):
own stamping.
You know, hairsprings is youknow, the biggest supplier of
hairsprings for the longest timewas actually Bregay.
You know, they sold hairspringsto everybody, and now, you know,
it is something that they justthey buy right off the shelf.
There's no point to producetheir own hairsprings, but it's
it's insane that you guys aredoing doing that.

SPEAKER_01 (09:56):
Well, well, the reason one of the reasons why
the Soviet Union collapsed, itwas it was very badly organized.
Its economy was completelycentralized, and every
manufacturer produced everythingin-house, which is really not
really rational.
Wow.
Uh, it's not a very efficientsystem, and that's one of the
reasons why the systemcollapsed, I think.
It's much more efficient towork, as in Switzerland, where

(10:19):
you have a network of you knowultra-specialized suppliers, but
things are as they are, and sowe inherited a manufacture
which, under its own roof,produced everything, but it was
dying.
So we had to take difficultchoices.
What do we continue doing?
What do we you know discontinuedoing, and we just buy?

(10:39):
So we continue producingapproximately 80% of the
components that I wear on mywatch, which is quite amazing.
And out of these, the biggestpart is the mechanical movement.
We still produce 100% of ourmechanical movements, and it's
not just any, I mean, it's Ididn't want that, it's just we
inherited that technology andthe specialists and the machines

(11:00):
and the raw material and thetechnical drawings, the
technical process.
So I just they already did thatwhen they discovered the
manufacture.
And it's it's a miracle thatthat the manufacture didn't
collapse before.
Because most, you know, theSoviet Union had approximately I
think 10 watch manufacturers,very big watch manufacturers,

(11:22):
and all of nearly all of themcollapsed.
They all went bankrupt, nearlyall of them went bankrupt.
That's crazy.

SPEAKER_00 (11:28):
So I'm curious as to like you, corporate lawyer, like
living in Russia, like how didyou find out about Raketa?
And then where did youconsciously say this is
something that I want to do orsomething that I want to invest
my energy into?

SPEAKER_01 (11:46):
Well, as I said, I started as a as a corporate
lawyer in a US law firm in inEurope.
And then one of our clients, oneof our clients was was a Russian
oligarch, as you call, as youcall them.
And we and he offered me to joinhis group in Russia.
So that's why I left the lawfirm and I moved to Russia and I

(12:06):
started working for him.
And then eventually I got I gotbored of working for this big
Russian group, and I but Ireally liked the country.
And I said, you know, I have achoice.
Either I go back to Europe and Ibecome again a lawyer, working
difficult hours, you know, dayand night, weekends included,
you know, as people work in USlaw firms, or I stay a bit
longer in Russia.

(12:28):
And just to this, you know, uhworking for this Russian guy, I
worked so much also that I Ihardly had the time to visit the
country.
It's a big country, very richculture, very incredible, you
know, museums, uh, geography,landscape, arts.
I mean, and people are verynice.
And so I decided to stay a bitlonger, but I didn't want to

(12:50):
work in a group anymore.
I want to do something formyself.
And I was always surprised at acountry with such an incredible
culture, such a fantastichistory, and didn't have any
brands.
And I thought, you know, thiscountry should have really
brands because very often, youknow, big brands are based on

(13:12):
culture, legacy, history,traditions, and Russia has all
of that, didn't have any brands.
And I started looking for somebrands.
I didn't look into watchesparticularly, but everyone
pointed me in the direction ofwatches.
Everyone said, I actually, bythe way, I knew nothing about
watches.
I never wore a watch.
I knew absolutely nothing aboutwatches, but everyone said you

(13:33):
should look into the directionof Soviet brands because Soviet
brands are really cool, they'requite famous worldwide, and
maybe there's still somethingthat exists.
And I thought that's reallycool.
I started looking around and Idiscovered the braquetta.
And I did a little, I mean, thewhole thing is completely crazy.
I mean, I knew nothing aboutproduction, obviously, but I
thought, well, I kind of at thatpoint of time I kind of

(13:56):
understood that it was quitecool to have its own
manufacturer.
I understood that I did a bit ofresearch, I spoke to a bit of
people, a few people, andeveryone said, you know, no one
has manufacturers anymore apartfrom you know Rolex, Patek
Philippe, Oudmar Piget.
And so I so first I thought theyhave I discovered they had they
still had their ownmanufacturer.
I thought that was this isreally cool.

(14:17):
Then I started looking up thedesigns, and they had really
quirky designs, you know, withcounterclockwise, triangular
hands, 24 hours, and I thoughtthat's really, really cool.
And they also had thisincredible history, and I
thought, wow, this is amazing.
And I didn't really buy it, Ijust picked it up.
It was kind of dying.
You should try to try to imagineyourself, go back into the past

(14:41):
15 years ago.
No one would have invested adime into Russian watch brands.
And I was I had this kind ofirrational vision that there's
no reason why a Russian watchbrand should not become
interesting and maybe asinteresting as Swiss brands

(15:03):
because they have this themanufacture, the design, the the
history, the values.
And but I was very naive,obviously, at that time.
I mean, if I knew how difficultit would be, I would never have
started.

SPEAKER_00 (15:18):
Well, no, I appreciate your honesty.
And and yeah, I mean, I'm sureyou probably ran into a lot of
weird little things, especiallythe what the watch industry and
the watch community.
Like, we are like picky, likewe're geeky, like, you know,
obviously, like, you know, youtalked about how you just it it
just kind of like it seems likeyou know, you just kind of

(15:39):
landed in your lap is kind ofthe the the way that I took you
know your your words now, butlike you know, even acquiring
the IP and acquiring thefactory, and like, you know,
that all probably had to beincredibly difficult and
challenging work, you know.

SPEAKER_01 (15:54):
Well, I'm sure that uh the process of actually
acquiring of buying the companywas quite easy.
But I mean, my audit of theproduction of the factory was
very limited.
I just um I just walked aroundthe factory, I saw that um the
machines were running, and I sawthat they were assembling
mechanical movements, and I sawthat the hands turned around the

(16:17):
dial and the watches, you know,did tick tock, tick, tock,
tick-tock.
And I said, wow, this is reallycool.
The production you worksperfectly well.
I'll just do a bit of marketingand and I'll become very
successful worldwide.
Obviously, things turned out tobe like a billion times more
difficult.
Obviously, the most difficultthing was the production.

(16:39):
I I completely underestimatedhow difficult it would be to
modernize this the Soviet oldschool factory, especially that
I knew nothing about it.
I had no idea how to from whichyou know how to start the whole
thing.
And obviously, I completely alsocompletely underestimated how

(17:00):
much people no one wantedRussian watches at that time.
And first and foremost, Russiansthemselves.
You know, it was a time whenRussians were a bit ashamed of
their country and they allwanted all the Russian guys
wanted to move to the West, allthe Russian girls wanted to
marry.
I mean, I'm exaggerating,obviously, but everyone wanted
to.
Right, right, right.
It was a time when the Russiansreally looked up to the West and

(17:22):
and were kind of really ashamedof their country.
So they didn't certainly didn'twant to buy Russian watches, and
basically the market for Russianwatches were basically tourists
coming to visit Russia, and youknow, as a tourist, you always
want to buy a souvenir, andthere was nothing much to buy
except you know for Russian furhats and the Russian Metroski
dolls and Soviet watches.

(17:43):
So really that was the market,and so but I was very extreme
naive, but the idea was reallycool.
So basically, what drove me wasthis incredible idea that
there's really something we cando out of it.
You know, there's no reason.
We have the manufacture, we havethe incredible design, the
history.
I mean, this is incredible.
It's like a gem that's justlying on the floor, it's dirty,

(18:06):
it's ugly.
No one pays attention to it.
I just picked it up and I'vestarted you know cleaning it up,
clean, clean, cleaning it up.

SPEAKER_00 (18:14):
That's so cool.
Something too that like so I'mcurious, it brings up the
question, and then I haveanother follow-up, but it's
transitioning.
You know, you talked aboutmodernizing the manufacturer.
Like, like, how did you evenlike start that process?
Like, like how like how did youlook for inefficiencies when you
don't even know what to lookfor?

SPEAKER_01 (18:35):
Well, I mean, as as everyone else, I thought that
you know, I wouldn't trust theRussians, the guys at the
manufacturer, to tell me how tomodernize it because I thought,
you know, only the Swiss knowhow to properly produce watches.
So I flew to Switzerland and I Istarted looking for consultants,
someone who could, you know, whocould advise me what to do.

(18:57):
And that was very difficultbecause no one took me seriously
when I said, you know, I have myown, I own my own manufacturer
in St.
Petersburg.
They said, Come on, that'simpossible.
No one has no one has his ownmanufacturer.
And then eventually I found someconsultants and they came over.
And I mean, to make it reallyshort, they basically said, you
know, you have to throw all ofyour Soviet machines, buy a

(19:20):
super excess expensive Swissmodern machines, you know, CNC
machines.
And but that was too expensive.
I didn't have that money.
You know, every CNC machine islike half a million dollars or a
million dollars.
And that was one problem.
Second problem is all of my guysin Russia, they didn't know how
they did not, they did, they didnot know how to operate CNC
machines.

(19:42):
And so I ended up saying, youknow, what should I do now?
And eventually I had a choiceeither to shut down the
manufacture and do as many otherbrands just by like the
movements in Switzerland or therest kind of in India or China,
and just to keep like A littleatelier open to pretend that I

(20:02):
do something, or I could choosethe difficult path is to keep
the manufacturer and try to,based on the existing machines,
the existing know-how, theexisting technical process, try
to gradually step by stepmodernize it.
And that's what I did.
And today, 90% of our machinesare still servite machines.

(20:22):
And what at first seems to be adisadvantage, a liability, has
become like a really big assetnow in terms of because we still
produce old school.
It's a very old schoolproduction process where we set
the machine by hand, you operateit by hand.
It's a really semi-manualproduction.

(20:42):
And we've invited so many uhbloggers and Swiss journalists
and specialists to come andvisit our manufacturer.
And they all said, Wow, youknow, we you you still produce
watches like we produce watchesin Switzerland 60 years ago.
And please don't change anythingbecause this is really unique.
This is really old schoolproduction.

(21:03):
And this is one of the thingsthat you know our community
really appreciates and likesabout Raketa is that we're not
only just a manufacturer, butit's manufactured old school,
it's semi-manual.
And anything that is done byhands, as you know, is more
precious than something that isdone by a machine.
Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 (21:23):
So something too that kind of brings this up or
perfectly segues is I think inthe watch community, watch
collectors kind of have thisstigma that Russian watches are
like, and and you look at otherwhat Russian watches out there,
right?
I'm not gonna say names, butgenerally they're cheap, they're

(21:44):
generally unreliable, right?
And you know, you buy them, youwear them for two years, and
when they break, you just throwthem away.
You know, that is not a Raketawatch.
Like you're doing the exactopposite.

SPEAKER_01 (21:57):
Well, I mean, the vision from the very first day
was there's absolutely no reasonwhy Raketa could not be at the
same positioning as a Swissbrand.
And the mechanical movement thatwe have is perfect, you know,
the construction is veryreliable.
It was just a question ofrelearning how to produce every
component exactly in conformitywith the technical drawings and

(22:20):
to assemble it in the bestconditions.
So that's what we did, and uhthe the vision from day one was
to reach to reach twist quality,not just in functionality, but
also in design, marketing, andeverything else.
So we did a very difficult jobactually of you know, whilst

(22:45):
keeping this old schoolproduction process, we kind of
we we did the best that wecould, and we still do the best
that we can to produce everysingle component exactly in
conformity with technicaldrawings and to assemble the
whole thing, you know, in theperfect conditions.

(23:06):
So the quality of our watchesnow is completely up to
standards, completely up to youknow Swiss standards.
And that's and that's basicallyone of the reasons why, despite
the whole situation, we arestill invited in in the most
prestigious watch exhibitionsall around the world, is because
Raketa is recognized, isacknowledged as a very serious,

(23:27):
reputable brand, a premiumbrand, in terms of you know
marketing, design, quality, andso on, so on.
Otherwise, we would not beinvited.
Yeah.
And actually, very often Raketaprice-wise is is is at a very
attractive price point, and veryoften we are one of the first

(23:50):
entry prices in all of these bigwatch exhibitions where you have
all of the biggest brands, butin position-wise, they
acknowledge that we are the samelevel, you see, because we are
as you know, as as I'm not goingto name any other brands, but we
have an incredible history,manufacture our own like we
produce our own, you will notfind our mechanical movements

(24:11):
anywhere else.
You know, we are like Rolex, weproduce our own mechanical
movements for our own brands.
This is really, really unique.

SPEAKER_00 (24:19):
Yeah, I mean, it's crazy.
It's crazy just your story andto hear this.
And you know, something too thatprobably you had to deal with
and maybe you've never talkedabout, is you know, putting
yourself in the shoes of of yourwatchmakers, right?
This foreign investor guyscoming in, trying to change the

(24:40):
brand, a lot of uncertainty.
Like, like, how did you get inthere and modernize the brand
without breaking the soul thatlike was already there?

SPEAKER_01 (24:51):
Well, I mean, first of all, I very quickly
understood that they did likemagic with their hands.
They produced, like, actually,just to go back, when I realized
that I couldn't afford buyingSwiss machines and that I
decided to keep the Sovietmachines and try to build on

(25:13):
that, when all my family went onholiday during the summer
holiday to Europe, I stayed fortwo months and I lived in the
manufacturer.
A bit like I mean, without any abit like Elon Musk and Tesla.
I mean, every time I hear ElonMusk saying, you know, I sleep
at the factory, that's exactlywhat I did.
I worked at the factory, Iworked behind every single

(25:34):
machine, I did myself everysingle operation to try to
understand what's wrong withthis machine.
And very often, nothing waswrong with the machine itself.
Something was wrong with youknow, the temperature, the
environments, the humidity, theraw material that they used, the
cutting instruments, and so on,so on.

(25:55):
And actually, I forgot what'swas the question.
I'm sorry.

SPEAKER_00 (25:59):
Oh, like how how did you step in?
You know, obviously.
Oh, yeah, yeah.

SPEAKER_01 (26:03):
And one of the facts, yeah, I'm sorry, I'm so
so exact.
Yeah, and and I lived with thewhat with the specialists and I
started really valuing them.
I I really understood that theseguys did an incredible job and
they produced magic with theirown hands.
So I respected them from dayone.
And when I kind of understoodthat I couldn't go into the

(26:28):
direction that the Swissconsultants told me to go, you
know, you know, buying Swissmachines, then I didn't have any
other choice than to work handin hand with the Russian guys,
the Russian specialists, becauseI knew nothing about
watchmaking, so I had to learnhow to trust them.
And and that's what I did.
And it took me some time to beaccepted, obviously, because

(26:48):
especially at the beginning, youknow, most of these specialists
watchmakers were very oldpeople, obviously.
And for you know, as any oldperson, for them, what was in
the past will always be betterthan the present.
There was this kind of mentalitythat okay, he's trying David is
trying to do something, butanyways, it'll never be as good

(27:08):
as it used to be in the Soviettimes.
And it's kind of normal, everyold person is like that.
But very gradually, we startedhiring young people.
We we opened our own watchmakingschool because that there are no
more watchmaking schools inRussia, and very gradually they
started seeing results, and theystarted seeing that our watches
were being sold, not only inRussia but worldwide.

(27:29):
And step by step they startedseeing wow, something you know,
maybe there is a future for thismanufacturer.
Wow.

SPEAKER_00 (27:37):
But it was difficult.

SPEAKER_01 (27:39):
Sorry.

SPEAKER_00 (27:40):
No, go ahead.
Go ahead.

SPEAKER_01 (27:42):
Uh obviously, I'm just making it really short, but
I went through very difficulttimes, you know, and uh it
required a lot of determination.
I mean, there were a hundredvery good reasons every single
year for the first first sixyears why I should just shut
down the whole manufacture andjust just buy Swiss movements
and just pretend that they'reRussian made, just tweak them

(28:05):
around, add a bit of you know,maybe a complication, change the
decoration and just pretend it'sRussian made.
But I didn't like this directionbecause it was fake.
And I really understood that thereally, as you said correctly,
the soul of the project ofRaketa was the manufacturer, it
was our legitimacy, it was, andthat's what people really valued

(28:27):
and cherished in Raketa is thatit's really authentic.
When we say it's Russian-madeand it's has its own mechanical
movement, it's reallyRussian-made with its own
mechanical movement.

SPEAKER_00 (28:37):
Did you have any resistance from?
I mean, obviously, you havethese RTs and you know,
watchmakers, legacy craftspeoplewho like have been in the same
conditions, the same factory,under the same leadership for so
long.
You know, like how did you getthe buy-in and support from
these people?
You know, okay, this Britishlawyer is coming in to take over

(28:58):
our company.
Like that, you know, like howdid you legitimize yourself to
your your staff?
You know, did you ever have anyresistance or like yeah?

SPEAKER_01 (29:08):
I mean, the kind of difficulty that I had is there
were two kinds of difficulties.
Like during the first three,four years, I completely I was
completely dependent on theseold watchmakers.
You know, when I say old, it's70 plus, because all the young
ones had left.
So it took me took me some timeto find young people, and all of

(29:30):
these young people wereuntrained, so we had to train
them.
So I completely relied on theseold people.
And whenever I told them,listen, we'll work a bit
differently now.
I mean, I came from acapitalistic system where you
know I required efficiency, Irequired long hours, I required,
I had a business plan, Irequired results, targets, none

(29:53):
of that works.
You know, and I that was one ofthe reasons I said I'll just
shut it down because they kindof lived in the past.
And and I thought, and I wascompletely incapable of bringing
this manufacturer into themanagement system that I was
taught, you know, in these lawfirms and so on, you know,
efficiency, productivity,targets, results.

(30:15):
And I had to adapt to they had avery slow pace of doing things,
you know.
In my first business plan, youknow, new models had to come out
every two months.
Today, do you know how long ittakes to to to to to uh release
a model?
A year and a half, two years.
A year and a half, two years.
And it and it's not just me,it's every single brand that I

(30:37):
know.
Every brand.
It takes between the idea andthe release, a year and a half,
two years, sometimes even more.
And the reason for that is it'swatchmaking is incredibly
difficult.
You know, the tolerances that weuse to produce our components
are sometimes a micron.
A micron is you take amillimeter, you divide, you

(30:59):
divide it by a thousand, that'sa micron.
So, and it's incrediblydifficult, and they have to
reach these tolerances, youknow, with a semi-manual
production.
So, watchmaking is extremelydifficult.
So, I had to adapt to that slowpace of time, literally.
And and I started respectingthem because, as I said, they

(31:21):
did incredible things.
You know, I very quicklyunderstood that producing
mechanical movements is is is anincredible achievement, and they
did it every single day.
So I started listening to themand I started listening to their
advices, and very gradually,step by step, we did some
progress.

SPEAKER_00 (31:43):
That's crazy.
Yeah, I mean, which makes iteven more impressive that you
guys are still doing things theold school way.
You know, you're not bringing inthese crazy automated computer
CNCs that like you can justliterally dial down to those
microns, which is absolutelycrazy.
This is a question for the watchnerds, but now that you're in

(32:04):
the watch industry, like how hasyour relationship with watches
kind of changed from you know,not only just being like an
outsider, but I mean, do youconsider yourself as a watch
enthusiast now, or do you justI'm just a guy just trying to
try trying to run a watch brand?

SPEAKER_01 (32:21):
I I do, but I'm I'm kind of special, I'm kind of
apart from many people I meet inSwitzerland.
Is that I never wore anotherwatch than Raketa.
I never wore watches beforeRaketa.
And since I've started Raketa,obviously I never wore a single
other watch.
So all of my knowledge ofwatchmaking came from Raketa.

(32:41):
Obviously, I didn't have anyparticular feelings towards
watches when I started.
I just I just thought the ideawas cool.
But very gradually I discoveredthat watches are very sacred,
and I'm not ashamed of usingthat word, a sacred product,
because it's linked to it'slinked to time.
Time is one of the most sacredthings that we have in life.

(33:04):
Our ancestors read time, thedial of our ancestors was
basically the sky, and time camefrom them, you know, when they
read, they looked at themovement of the planets, the the
stars, the moon, the sun.
And they believed that all ofthis was given to them by God.
So there was something reallysacred about it.

(33:24):
And a watch literally gives youtime, gives you the most
important things that you havein life.
And that's I also discoveredthat you know all of the things
that we use in our day-to-daylife, most likely we will lose
them, sell them, break them.
But even the cheapest watch,even when it breaks down, like a
quartz watch, I don't think thatanyone throws it away in a

(33:45):
dustbin.
You don't throw a watch in adustbin.
Why?
Because it's something to dowith time, you know, and as
Patek Philippe really rightlysays in that slogan, very often
the watch is the the only thingthat you give to the next
generation.

SPEAKER_02 (34:01):
Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 (34:02):
So there's something very special about watches that
I gradually discovered.
And that was actually one of thereasons that prevented me from
shutting down this manufacturer,is because a manufacturer that
produces watches is basicallyproduces an instrument that
gives you time.
It produces time.
There's something very specialabout it.
So I have a lot of respect forwatches now.

SPEAKER_00 (34:24):
Yeah, I'm curious too.
You know, you you just allude oryou just mentioned, you know,
like so you have this Rakhettaway, if that's what we're gonna
call it.
And and now you're modernizingthe company, the the
manufacturer, and you'reteaching these like newer
watchmakers, like you know, theold traditional ways.

(34:45):
Like what would you say is likethe most challenging skill that
you've seen to pass fromgeneration to generation, you
know, within your manufacturer?

SPEAKER_01 (34:56):
The most difficult challenge that I've had was to
hire to persuade youngergenerations to join the
manufacturer.
Because I would first of all,they came without any knowledge.
It's not like in Switzerland,you know, these manufacturers
they hired people who wentthrough watchmaking schools, so
they have the basic knowledgealready.
In our case, I just hired peoplethat came from you know other

(35:18):
professions or without anyprofession, and we had to teach
them the science of watchmaking.
That was incredibly difficult.
Because to become a you knowvery highly qualified
watchmaker, you need at least uhfive, six years.
Very, very difficult.
So it was a big challenge topersuade young people to come to

(35:39):
us and to learn a professionthat no one else in Russia
really would use.
So if we went bankrupt or if weyou know fired them for any
reason, no one else would needthe qualification that it would
take them so long to get in inRaketa.
That was very, very difficult.
In terms of what operations arethe most difficult, they're all

(36:00):
very difficult.
I mean, I wouldn't say theheadspring is more difficult,
produced in the headspring.
Like in Switzerland, you know,everyone says, oh, the
headspring is like the mostdifficult component.
It isn't really.
When you know how to do it, whenyou have all the technical
process, the machines, and theraw material.
The raw material actually islike gold, it's very difficult
to get, either you have it ornot.

(36:20):
Basically, we have 80 kilos ofraw material to make the
headspring, so that's enough forthe next 200 years.
Wow.
But making the headspring is notmore difficult than any other
operation.
Basically, the other thing thatwas difficult with the younger
generations, you know, all theyounger generations come from
this you know modern world whereTikTok, Instagram, YouTube,

(36:43):
everything has to be quick.
And being a watchmaker requiresa lot of patience, a lot of
focus, all of these qualitiesthat don't really exist in our
modern world.
So that was a big, big, bigchallenge, I would say.

SPEAKER_00 (36:57):
Yeah, something too, like, you know, obviously, I'm
gonna step back here.
I I jump I jump around so muchon my podcast, but I think it
keeps the conversationinteresting.
You know, you sat down in theseroles at every, you know, you
said that you sat down at everysingle machine in your in your
manufacturer, you sat down onroles, you know, you slept at

(37:20):
the manufacturer, which iscrazy.
What do you feel like is themost human step at your factory?
Like the most maybe you can callit romantic or you know, but
human, right?
That that you will never, ever,ever, ever look to automate.

SPEAKER_01 (37:44):
But that's a difficult question because
there's there's a lot ofhumanity in the manufacture
because you have all of theseincredible people doing
incredible jobs with theirhands, they all work with their
hands.
This is something that's veryimportant.
Raketa is is it's it's it's it'sa handcraft job.

(38:05):
I was uh I and the whole thingis is extraordinary.
All of these people are amazing,and they're all very important
because every single componentis important, you know.
Even if like in the watch, I I'mwearing on my wrist
approximately 300 components.
I wouldn't say every singlecomponent is important, even if

(38:26):
there's just one single littlescrew that's missing, we will
not be able to assemble thewatch.
And there's not a singleprofessional specialist that is
less important than anyone else,even someone who's working in
the department that is you knowcleaning the components because
they have to be very cleanbefore, you know, one would
think you know that's his easyjob, it's not so important.

(38:48):
It's not, it's very importantbecause even the most minute
that has to go away.
And this is I don't know if Ireally answered your question,
but uh it sounds like it soundslike none of it.

SPEAKER_00 (39:02):
Like it sounds like you, you know, obviously, as
technology advances, you know,you have to at some point
probably, or maybe not in yourcase, advance the manufacturer,
you know.

SPEAKER_01 (39:12):
No, no, no.
I mean, obviously, verygradually, yeah, we we will
bring in some modern machines.
I mean, now it obviously it's abit difficult because it's a bit
difficult because of the umgeopolitical situation for us to
buy machines from from uhoutside Russia, but uh

(39:33):
eventually we will start buyingmodern machines.
But you know, we have 400machines, like we've counted
every single one of them fromthe biggest to smallest, we have
400.
So it'll take a lot of timebefore we actually one of the
advantages, one of the biggestadvantages that we still use is
old service machines is thatthey don't have any software, so

(39:56):
we so we don't depend onsoftware.
Upgrades, for example, they'revery simple to operate.
In a hundred years, they willstill be working because that's
so simple.
So, on the one hand, we rely uhthe difficulty is that to
operate, you need to be veryhighly qualified specialists who

(40:18):
know how to set them and tooperate them.
But on the other hand, themachine itself is unbreakable.
In a hundred years, every singleone of our machines will still
be working because there's nothere's no electrical system,
there's no hydraulics, there'sno software.
It's crazy.

SPEAKER_00 (40:35):
It's insane.
I want to talk about designbecause when you think of a
raqueta watch, like design, youknow, we've already we've
already talked about theartisanal craftsman, like high
quality like products that youguys are putting out, but design
is what sticks out, and youknow, raqueta literally just

(40:56):
translates to like rocket, youknow, space a space rocket.
Yeah, yeah.
Like, you know, how does thatspace age kind of like
symbolism, you know, shape thethe creative direction of of the
brand?

SPEAKER_01 (41:14):
Yeah.
So the brand was created in 1961when the first man flew into
space.
That was Yuri Gagarin.
He was a Russian Russianastronaut or cosmopot as they
called him in Russia.

SPEAKER_00 (41:26):
One of the most famous, too, right?

SPEAKER_01 (41:28):
I mean, he was the very first guy in space.
So and that was such anincredible event for humanity
that the Soviets decided tocreate a brand in honor of this
his fight in 61.
So they created the Raketabrand, which literally means a
space rocket.
And so in the DNA of the brand,space is obviously very, very
important.
So we have quite a lot ofwatches that are linked or

(41:52):
inspired by space because it'sso important.
And once again, we didn't inventthese designs, they already
existed.
But design that that was one ofthat was a big challenge,
obviously, because it took ussome time to because at the
beginning, when I startedRaketa, the Russians, as I said,

(42:13):
they wanted uh Swiss watches, sothey wanted Swiss design.
The tourists, they wanted youknow Russian kitsch design.
They wanted, you know, theSoviet star, they wanted
Balikis, they wanted somebasically I had two markets.
I had the foreign market and theRussian market that saw the
brand completely differently.
You know, the Russians theywanted Swiss design, the

(42:34):
foreigners they wanted some kindof Russian kitsch design.
And it took me a lot of time tofind the thin red the thin line
that would be good for the forforeigners and Russians.
And but that was very difficult.
But basically, every singlewatch that we have now is we
didn't have any normal watches.
You know, if you went throughour collection, if you remember,

(42:57):
we didn't have any normalwatches.
All of our watches are reallyquirky, and all of these designs
are completely inspired fromsurvey designs.
It's the big zero instead of the12 at the top of the dial, it's
24 hours instead of 12 hours,it's counterclockwise, it's uh,
and so on, so on, so on.
We don't have any normalwatches, and that's what really

(43:18):
sets us apart from and that wasreally the vision from the very
beginning.
I did not want to do, I did notwant to copy Swiss design
because I thought that'scompletely uninteresting.
Swiss, they do Swiss designsmuch better than we do, and we
have to remain.
I mean, we have to we have tokeep a look.

(43:42):
I mean, they did such incrediblethings in the past that we have
to we have to keep thistradition.
So we have incredible designhere.
And all of this design is notjust designed for the sake of
design, it's very often designedbased on a storytelling.
You know, 24 hours is not justoh wow, it's cool to do a
24-hour dial.

(44:03):
No, they did 24 hour dialsbecause people working in
extreme conditions uh with verydifficult professions, like in a
North Pole, South Pole, insubmarines were in space, they
need to survive a dial a watchto distinguish day from night.
So that's why they need 24-hourwatches to survive.

(44:23):
So it's not just a fancy watchwith a 24-hour dial, it's
actually a real tool watch.
So it's a complication that isserves a real functional
purpose.

SPEAKER_00 (44:32):
Yeah, I I read that, you know, because obviously
where there's you know, there'snot the same solar calendar or
solar rotations that we live on,where people have no idea if
it's going to be day or night.
Well, no, no.

SPEAKER_01 (44:44):
Well, actually, it's more interesting than that.
Is a normal 12-hour dial willsay like it's three o'clock,
right?
But it doesn't say is it threeo'clock in the morning or at
night?
Yeah, yeah.
To know if it's a m or p.m., youhave to look through the window.
If it's nice time, if it's dark,okay, it's 3 a.m.
If it's light outside, it's 3p.m.
That's how you understand it.
But if you're in a submarine orin space or in a south pole, you

(45:08):
can't look just look through thewindow.
Anywhere in your submarine,there's actually no window.
So you need a 24 hour, a 24-hourdial.
So if it's 3 p.m., the hour handwill be pointing towards 15.
And if 3 a.m.
it will be pointing towards 3.

SPEAKER_00 (45:24):
Also in space, space, yeah, amazing.

SPEAKER_01 (45:27):
Same in space.
Yeah, because if you live in theISS in a space station, you root
the orbit around the earth 16times every 24 hours.
So you're completely confused.
You can't look through thethrough the little window to see
if it's day or night.
So you need a 24-hour watch.

SPEAKER_00 (45:42):
It was my understanding when I was doing
research for this podcast thatyou know, obviously, you talked
about the 24-hour dial,beautiful watch, and you know,
the Arctic expeditions that kindof like uh were the inspiration
behind producing this tool, youknow.
And then it was also myunderstanding, you know, that

(46:05):
the challenge became making amovement that can withstand like
the harsh like conditions ofAntarctica.
Is do I understand thatcorrectly?
Or exactly.

SPEAKER_01 (46:18):
And all of our tool watches, not just as I said,
fancy tool watches, they'reactually worn by by by by by
submariners.
They, as we speak now, they areworn by Russian astronauts in
the ISS at this very minute.
And as you correctly said,Russian scientists living in a

(46:40):
South Pole in very harshconditions, they were our
watches and they sent us filmsand videos and messages saying
that our watch withstands youknow temperatures going down to
minus 60 degrees.
And we have videos showing thatthey still continue working.
They actually did an experimentwhere where they put our watch

(47:00):
in a glass of in a in in a canof water and it froze, and they
kept it like for three hoursoutside by minus whatever 40
degrees in the South Pole.
Then they took it back into thestation, they broke dice, and
and the watch started workingagain.
And we have this video becausebecause because the raketal
movements is very robust, youknow.
Anything that the Soviets didwas very robust.

SPEAKER_00 (47:24):
You should use that in your marketing, like that
right there is a marketingboard.

SPEAKER_01 (47:29):
Yeah, yeah, yeah.
Actually, we should, yeah.

SPEAKER_00 (47:30):
Yeah, get on it, get on it.
Yeah, I mean, it's such astoried brand, you know.
Like, you know, I guess thechallenge becomes like how do
you balance the nostalgia, youknow, that that you live in
every day, you know.

SPEAKER_01 (47:48):
Well, we are completely, you know, we are
true to the past, and everysingle watch is based on on this
design, but it's a modern watch.
You know, we look towards thefuture, and the watch are
completely up to standards interms of quality, design,
marketing, the modern standards.
And it's not there's nonostalgia in our design, you

(48:10):
see.
When you look at the watches,they're completely modern.
You wouldn't see any nostalgiain our designs in the colors
that we use.
Do you see what I mean?
Yeah, it's a completely modernwatch.

SPEAKER_00 (48:25):
It yeah, it definitely expresses that.

SPEAKER_01 (48:29):
I mean, I I mean, I Russian astronauts wear our
watches in space, so uh theywould not wear them if there
were just you know watches, justuh retro watches, uh small
manual movements, small caseplastic um glass.

SPEAKER_00 (48:44):
Yeah, yeah, watch watches are really modernized,
especially you know, within thepast 30 years, 35 years.
Like you you see a lot ofcollectors that are really into
vintage pieces, but but youknow, owning a vintage watch and
taking care of a vintage watchis another challenge that us

(49:05):
watch collectors face.
Curious, and you kind of touchedon this very briefly, but you
know, I got the idea that thatcommunicating that like, hey, in
Russia we take watchmakingseriously at Raketa, you know,
like how do you communicatethat, you know?

SPEAKER_01 (49:28):
Well, I actually in Russia apart from Raketa, you
have Chaikin.
Chaikin is quite famous.

SPEAKER_00 (49:34):
Oh, yeah, yeah, yeah.

SPEAKER_01 (49:35):
You have Anton Sukhanov.
I mean, Russia has a very stronghistory of watchmaking, very,
very strong history.
For many, many reasons.
Obviously, there are very few ofus left in Russia making
watches, but historicallyspeaking, that there was a lot,
and our marketing is verytraditional, by the way.

(49:55):
I mean, we we use a lot ofsocial media, we we before like
up to like three years ago, wedid a lot of press tours, like a
lot of you know, journalists,bloggers, people came to visit
our manufacture, which is in St.
Petersburg, one of the mostbeautiful cities in the world.
St.
Petersburg is a city, it's a bitlike Venice, it's a city built

(50:19):
on the sea, so there are a lotof canals, very beautiful city.
So we, I mean, we communicate.
Obviously, communicating now forus is a bit more challenging in
the West, but we still sell allover the world because we don't
touch politics, uh, we just doyou know very nice mechanical

(50:41):
watches.
So we we don't have anyparticular problem now, and uh
people really appreciate the thecraftsmanship, the history, the
manufacturing side, thestorytelling, the design.
And if you look at our content,the content that we do is yeah,
I lots of people say you doreally good content, and we do

(51:04):
films, really good photos.
Every year we try to do betterthan the previous year.
Do you and and we've learned allof this from scratch because
none of no one in the designteam, in the marketing team, in
the contents produce productionteam came from the watch
industry.
No one.
So we had to learn from scratchhow to you know take photos of

(51:25):
watches.
Just a simple photo of watch isextremely difficult, as you may
know.
You know, very difficult.

SPEAKER_00 (51:32):
Yeah, no, yeah, it's it's like uh it's like lighting
a teapot, you know.
It really is.
I I I I always I obviously havelike my own little system here,
and and I see people that aredoing it way differently, but
you know, you know, I'm not I'mnot a media outlet that sells
watches, you know.
I don't I don't get monetizedoff the content that I produce,

(51:54):
you know.
I'm out here as an enthusiast, apassionate enthusiast.
You bring up something reallyinteresting.
You know, you talked aboutinternational, the international
market, international sales.
Like, do you generally thinkthat people are buying Raketa,
not only just for the story, butthe aesthetics and the
engineering?
But like, have you noticed thatthe reasons why people buy

(52:17):
Raketa are different, like fordifferent regions of the world?

SPEAKER_01 (52:23):
Well, a lot of people, you know, when I when we
exhibit when I exhibit in theseinternational watch exhibitions,
a lot of people say, you know,thank you very much for
continuing producing watches inyour manufacturing St.
Petersburg, because thewatchmaking world would be much
you know sadder without muchmore boring without Russian
watches.
If every single watch was justSwiss Swiss, it would be very,

(52:46):
very boring.
So thank God you have Englishwatchmakers, German watchmakers,
Japanese brands, Russian brands,because every country, every
watch is based on traditions,legacy, culture, you know,
mentalities.
And obviously, since we makeRussian watches, this obviously

(53:06):
has it translates into thedesign, the storytelling, the
way they make the mechanicalmovements, the way they decorate
the mechanical movements, and itjust makes the watchmaking world
so richer.
So people really like that.
And the watches are all aboutemotions.
You know, very few people nowbuy watches just as a uh as a
time-measuring instrument.

(53:28):
And people like raqueta for manydifferent reasons.
First of all, they kind ofappreciate that the mechanical
movement is very different fromwhat you get in in Switzerland,
like eta movement, for example,it looks different, it's
decorated differently, thefunctions are different, like
the counterclockwise function.
Some other people just like thedesign, which is really quirky.

(53:50):
Other people like and so on andso on, or the storytelling.
They like, you know, when we dowatches for astronauts,
cosmonauts, people know thatit's we actually Russian
cosmonauts actually really wearthem.
So it makes the the brand isreally authentic.
You see what I mean?
When we say that we make watchesfor cosmos, they are really made

(54:11):
for cosmonauts.
When we say we make watches forand so on, so on, we don't lie
about the origin of the brand.
It's really made in Russia.
We don't lie about themechanical movement, it's really
our own mechanical movement.
We don't lie about thestorytelling of the watch, the
purpose of the watch, the designof the watch.
It's really a 360-degreemarketing, which is makes the

(54:32):
brands very authentic.
And that's what I think peoplereally appreciate in Rakheta
because it's a very small nichebrand, very different.
We stand out from the big crowdsa lot because we're very, very
different, very quirky, and butvery authentic.
And that's why we kept themanufacturer life, otherwise, we

(54:53):
would have lost thisauthenticity.

SPEAKER_00 (54:56):
Do you do you feel that you know navigating like
the global luxury market thatlike you know made in Russia
like means something?

SPEAKER_01 (55:09):
Yeah, I mean, anyone who knows about watches and
knows uh knows that uh Russiahas a strong legitimacy in
watchmaking, I think.
So it's not like out of theblue, we made a Belgian watch,
for example.
You see, Belgium has nolegitimacy in watchmaking, or
like that would be a bitstrange.
In our case, people know thatthere is a history of

(55:30):
watchmaking, so they're notsurprised.
And we've been around, we'vewe've been gradually building up
our marketing, our communicationover the past you know, 10
years.
So people have gradually heardof us.
And I very much believe inorganic growth.
You know, we don't have thebudgets as these big brands, you

(55:53):
know, to buy billboards and tobuy articles in you know these
big media corporations and soon.
So the way we do our marketingis very much actually, it's the
best marketing, is the is theone that you can't buy.
It's just word of mouthmarketing, you see what I mean?
And in the case of in the caseof Raketa, it really, really
works.
Our best ambassadors are peoplewho wear our watches and say

(56:16):
listen to to their colleagues,to their friends, to their
family.
Look at our watch, it lookscompletely different.
Look at the design, look at thestorytelling.
And someone who wears a raquetawatch can actually talk about
his watch for at least fiveminutes, really.
There's so much to say about wehave a very small collection.
We have, I think, one of thesmallest collections of models
in in the market.
We have like 12 active models,that's it.

(56:39):
But every model has a verystrong storytelling, very strong
design, very strong decoration,and there's so much to tell.
That's so that's that's the wayI see our groove is very step by
step, word by in a mouth kind ofphrase, organic groove.

SPEAKER_00 (56:59):
Something, you know, that maybe maybe or has or
hasn't happened, but you know,obviously you're taking a
storied manufacturer,modernizing it, and kind of
revitalizing it in the sense,you know, you know, there's tons
of vintage Rakheto watches outthere everywhere, you know.
I'm curious if you've gotten tosee the reaction in real time,

(57:22):
you know, from maybe you know,somebody a watchmaker at your
manufacturer, or maybe acustomer who, you know, has only
worn a racket watch for as longas they live, and then you know,
seeing what you're doing nowwith the brand just you know
inspires them or you know,creates a new sense of of glory

(57:44):
for them, you know.

SPEAKER_01 (57:45):
Are you talking about foreigners or Russians?
Either.
Either.
I mean, well, no, I I'm I onceagain, I just came back from
Dubai in November.
There was this big Dubai watchexhibition, and a lot of locals
came up to me and said, Hey, Iwas given a servant racket to
watch by my father, and we Ilike it so much, and we're so

(58:07):
curious to see what you what youdo, and uh and it's really
great.
And they won't necessarily buyone of our modern watches
because they think that whatthey have is really cool, and
I'm perfectly fine with that,you know.
But uh, people are very curious,and you're perfectly right.
You know, there are a lot ofRaketa watches from the old
times, and so the brand isrelatively well known amongst

(58:31):
quite a few people, so it makespeople very curious to see what
we do now, and they reallyappreciate that we kept the link
with the past.
You know, it's not when you lookat our modern watches and the
Soviet watches, you see thelink.
It's not like we decide to donew brands.
There is this legitimacy fromthe past, which I think is very
important and which I think mostpeople really appreciate.

(58:55):
And and in terms of it in andpeople, yeah, are very happy, as
I said, that the manufacturehasn't closed and that it still
exists, these the movement isstill produced.
Yeah, I think I think it's it Ithink it's really great in terms
of it brings a lot of you knowit makes, as I said, you know,

(59:18):
the world of watches moreinteresting.

SPEAKER_00 (59:22):
Where where do you want the modern Raketa brand to
kind of sit in thoseenthusiasts' minds, you know,
not necessarily whether it belike like a tool watch or design
object or like a culturalartifact or just well something
that we didn't even list.

SPEAKER_01 (59:41):
Everyone says, you know, since you have a
manufacturer, why don't you dotourbillon watches, for example?
And I say, you know, tobillon isnot is not a is not a Russian
thing.
Toubillon is a very fragile,complicated complication, and
that's really a Swiss thing.
The Russian thing is morerobust.
More so we will not go into thisdirection, you know, very

(01:00:03):
difficult complications.
Actually, we will not evennecessarily go into the
direction of complications atall.
For the moment, we only have twocomplications, it's a 24 hours
and counterclockwise becausethey fit in our storytelling.
But we will not do acomplication for the sake of
doing complication just to provethat, hey, we can do things.
You know, many brands they docomplications because they buy

(01:00:25):
the base movements and they haveto prove that they also do
something.
So they just add on top a layerof uh complications.

SPEAKER_00 (01:00:31):
Modules, yeah.

SPEAKER_01 (01:00:32):
We don't have to do that because we do the base
movement, and the base movementis so much more difficult than
any kind of complication thatyou add on top.
You know, the escapement justgiving the right time is so
difficult.
So we would not necessarily gointo the direction of difficult
complications.
We will stay, we will keep thelegitimacy in terms of design

(01:00:55):
with the past.
That's I think is veryimportant.
And in the past, they produce,as I said, you know, more than
six million watches a year.
So we have an archive of designsthat will keep us going for the
next 50 years.
There are so many incredible,for example, oh, I won't even
tell you because we're workingon so many different designs at
the moment, but basically we wewe have a lot of in terms of

(01:01:17):
design.
Like we will never do a watch,for example, linked to golf, you
know, golf like Odmar Piget.
Why?
Because it's not a Russianthing, it's not a Russian sport.
So what we will continue doingis always tell Russian
storytelling.
And that's we have enoughmaterial to keep us going for a
hundred years.
You know, Russia, and everyoneknows about it, has done

(01:01:39):
incredible achievements inscience, in art, in in in
ballet, in science, in space, inunder the sea, in basically in
every single direction, everysingle field, Russia did
incredible things.
So we can we can connect to toall of that.
And also we will not go intoexpensive watches because one of

(01:02:02):
the reasons why a racketa watchis you know affordable is
because we produce in Russia thecost of production producing in
Russia is way lower than inSwitzerland, because obviously
for salaries in Switzerland arethe most expensive in the world,
I think.
So people appreciate that youcan buy a manufactured watch
with strong design, strongstorytelling at a very

(01:02:25):
reasonable price point, and wewill try to keep it that way.
I mean, obviously, prices do goup because there is inflation
worldwide, and so on and so on,but we will it'll always be
reasonable.

SPEAKER_00 (01:02:38):
What would you say the next like five-year strategy
for you know the brand is whatyou know, you you alluded to
like you know, you just talkedabout complications, not on your
roadmap.
What about new, like, you know,more output, or like, you know,
you talked about using modules,you know, you didn't seem like
you're interested in that, butlike maybe new movement design

(01:03:01):
or you know, just this deeperdesign integration and deeper
all deeper cultural integrationwith Russia.
You know, what you know whatwhat makes the next five years
look exciting for you?

SPEAKER_01 (01:03:15):
Oh, for example, in our collection now, we don't
have a watch with astronautsbecause we discontinued the last
model uh to a year and a halfago.
And for the past two years,we've been working on a new
design that will come out earlynext year, hopefully.
That's a big, big model.
Really cool design forastronauts.

(01:03:36):
In the archives, there's amanufacturer, there's a really
cool model with a Geigercounter, you know, a counter
that measures the level ofradioactivity, and the watch is
really, really quirky.
Like the design of the case.
I I would love to reproduce it,and I really want to do it.
There are so many things that wecan do.

(01:03:58):
Uh uh, you know, in my office atthe factory, I have all of the
old archives.
Today, all of our designers theydesign on computer.
Back in the past, they designedusing watercolor.
So I have these, you know, morethan I have 300 watercolors of
different designs.
And sometimes I just look atthem and I say, Wow, this is so

(01:04:19):
cool, this is so cool, this isso cool.
My my biggest problem is todecide what to do.
I mean, we we have such a hugechoice in terms of designs, in
terms of uh storytelling.
There's so much we can we can wedidn't have any lack of ideas.
The biggest difficulty is to umchoose which ones to do.

SPEAKER_00 (01:04:39):
Yeah.
Well, it's a great place to bein.
You know, obviously, as abusiness owner, like you have to
keep the manufacturer doorsopen.
And I promise, you know, I'msure you're ready to get to
dinner with your wife.
This is the last couplequestions here.
You know, how do you as abusiness owner measure success,
you know, outside of you know,like units sold or like brand

(01:05:04):
awareness, or like like what youknow, what is it for you that
you say, hey, okay, cool, likewe're on the right track.
Like, how do you measure that?

SPEAKER_01 (01:05:11):
I I I obviously I come from a world where the
measured success was alwaysmeasured, the standard of
success was always measured bymoney.
Yeah, yeah.
Um it took me a few years tounderstand that uh watches is
not about money.
I would have been much, muchricher if I stayed a you know, a
US corporate lawyer, uh workingfor a US corporate law firm.

(01:05:33):
So watchmaking is definitely notabout money.
And and everyone will say thatto you in Switzerland, I think.
Watch is about something else.
Watch is something that'sterribly interesting.
I mean, when I get up in the Imean, I had so many, I had so so
many good reasons to shut downthe whole thing.
What kept me going was just thispassion of when I get up in the

(01:05:54):
morning instead of beingdepressed by all the problems
that I encounter every singleday in the manufacturer and in
watches in general, because it'sdifficult.
I I won't uh it's difficult.
What keeps me going is just it'sincredible, incredibly
interesting.
You know, we talk, we we dealwith culture, design, history,
craftsmanship.

(01:06:15):
It's just incrediblyinteresting.
And that's that's my measure ofsuccess now.
I'm we're very proud that we uhwe modernize the manufacturer,
not in a sense of new machines,but we just made it um, it
works, it doesn't lose money.
Uh we hire new people, peopledon't you know leave us, people

(01:06:35):
are enthusiastic to learn a newskill, to produce incredible
watches.
So the that is an incredibleachievement in itself,
incredible achievements, andthat makes me really proud.
Then there's something else thatwe can be really proud of, is
that as I said, when we started12 years ago, no one would have
put a dime in uh in Russianwatches.

(01:06:57):
Today, Russian watches are verylegitimate in the watch,
worldwide watch industry.
We sell all over the world.
That's incredible achievement,by the way.
Incredible.
Because and and but it'scertainly not about money.
It's not about money, it's aboutother things that maybe it
taught me that money is not themost important thing in the

(01:07:18):
world.
And I really insist on thatbecause I come from a world
where everything was based onmoney.
But uh Raketa and any watchbrand and watch manufacturers is
so much more than that.
And the success and the levelthe the measure of success is
the the standards of success arecompletely different.

SPEAKER_00 (01:07:37):
Yeah, that makes sense.
You know, obviously, you know,you're talking about 64 years.
I think it's 64 years of 1961.
Um what do you hope, you know,another 64 years or maybe even
another 150 years down the road?
You know, I know it's hard foryou as a as a logical business

(01:07:59):
owner to think about that, butlike, you know, how do you
preserve a brand that's alreadybeen preserved as you as you
acquired it?

SPEAKER_01 (01:08:08):
Well, what's what's difficult is every every model
that you that you launch has tomake people, you know, has to
bring emotions to to uh topeople.
And that's quite difficult, youknow, because it's not just the
design, it's also thestorytelling, it's the content,
communication, marketing.

(01:08:29):
Watches are about emotions, soyou have to give emotions to
people.
People don't buy watches to readthe time really anymore.
So you have to keep that emotionalive, and every time you have
to, whilst being you know, uhtrue to the past, you always
have to surprise people withsomething new to bring new
emotions, and that's the mostthat's one of the challenging

(01:08:50):
things, you see what I mean.
Every model has to bring a lotof emotions to the to the to the
community, and that's quitechallenging, by the way.
So so so so I would say I meanour ambition is not to become
like Rolex, obviously.
We we we still produce only weproduce 7,000 watches a year.

(01:09:12):
The reason we produce so fewwatches is because we having
your own manufacture is on theone hand an incredible marketing
tool, you see.
On the other hand, it's it's ahuge bottleneck because if I
need more watches, I cannotproduce more watches.
So we increase our productioncapacity by maybe you know 10%

(01:09:32):
every year, but we can't do morethan that because that wouldn't
require hiring new people,training new people, buying more
machines, which we can't, and soon and so on.
So we will never produce amillion watches like Rolex.
So yeah, so sure.
The ambition, as you within thenext few years, is to gradually
ramp up the production withoutaffecting the quality.

(01:09:54):
Because one of the biggestenemies in watchmaking is to put
press.
I could very well say to mymanufacturer this, I want you to
produce two times more watchestomorrow, next year, but it will
be to the detriment of quality.
So you have to find this rightbalance between increasing the
production without affecting thequality.
So once again, the strategy isvery step-by-step, organic, slow

(01:10:18):
growth, and obviously openingnew markets.
The fact that we don't haveenough watches prevents us from
opening the Asian market, forexample.
There's a strong demand forracket in Asia and China, but we
just can't, we don't have enoughwatches.
All the seven watches that 7,000watches that we produce are
completely sold between ourthree existing markets.
It's Russia, Europe, and theMiddle East.

(01:10:42):
And obviously, we sell in theUS, we sell in all the rest of
the world through internet, butwe don't have any points of
sell.
And the reason for that is justwe don't have enough watches.
The demand is higher than whatwe can produce.
So that's one of the challengesfor the next you know, 10, 20
years is to gradually increasethe production.
That's difficult.

SPEAKER_00 (01:11:04):
Yeah, yeah, I can only imagine.
David, I want to thank you somuch for spending so much of
your time with us, like justlearning about the journey that
you've been on, you know, thebrand.
Obviously, we're gonna link theyou know, Raketa here in the
show notes, you know.
Obviously, for everybodylistening who's made it this
far, you know, I would highlyencourage you to go check out

(01:11:27):
Raketa.
You know, it didn't take me verylong to realize that you know,
you have something special andand and you're doing something
special, and you have a veryspecial product, and and to see
the you know, passion, you know,that's something that kind of
stuck out to me that lives withyou, you know, reviving this
brand that you know you didn'tyou didn't found, but you know,

(01:11:50):
I can see that the passion isthere for you, you know, which
is what sticks out.
So thanks a lot.
I think that's a great place toto leave you, and I'm sure
you're ready to get to dinnerwith the wife.
So nice.

SPEAKER_01 (01:12:05):
And I would love to come and visit you in in Las
Vegas.

SPEAKER_00 (01:12:08):
Please.

SPEAKER_01 (01:12:09):
I've never I've never been there, never.

SPEAKER_00 (01:12:11):
Yeah.
And next time you're here, Iwill certainly show you the city
and show you everything we haveto offer.
That'd be amazing.
So I think people people knowthat like I'm I'm the watch guy
of Vegas.
So it's the thing, I think, Ithink.
But but no, it's it's a coolcity, it's a great, it's a great
market to be in.

(01:12:32):
And and yeah, I just love beinghere.

SPEAKER_01 (01:12:35):
So cool.
Thanks a lot for having me.

SPEAKER_00 (01:12:39):
Yeah, thank you for coming on.
I'm glad we were able to finallyget this scheduled, and and I'm
certainly gonna gonna follow upwith you here very soon, of
course.

SPEAKER_01 (01:12:46):
So okay.
Let's keep in touch.
Thanks a lot, sir.
Bye bye bye bye.