Vostok Amphibian Automatic Mens Self-Winding Diver Amphibia 710 Case Wrist Watch 710059

I did my fair share of reviewing before ultimately pulling the trigger on the Amphibian.This timepiece is oozing with rich history. A an interesting one, in fact. In a nutshell, the Vostok creators were directed by the Soviet Union in the mid 1960's to build dive watches that rivaled those of the Swiss. The problem, however, was Vostok did not have the readily available materials the Swiss did. Having to rethink and reimagine the dive watch, the Amphibian was born.UPDATE: I have now owned this watch for more than two years and feel like I have a great understand of it. Firstly, I love the size. Thick and robust, it goes fantastic with its roughly 40mm case diameter. It is thick and stands tall, but it's extremely light. It feels strong and durable on the wrist, but never a hindrance. It wears extremely comfortable throughout the day. Due to its short legs, it doesn't take up much wrist space. The sun burst turquoise dial looks phenomenal in the light! It rivals some watches that I have that are 5 times the price of the Amphibian. The applied markers are all beautifully accented with metallic accents. The scuba dude, well, looks like a pretty cool dude on the dial. It's a breathe of fresh air to see some uniqueness in a segment of retread watches that mimic the Rolex Submariner. The domed shape acrylic plastic looks and feels cool, surprisingly. It is 3mm thick and tough as nails. It will aquire some surface scratches but it's is made to take a beating. Very few broken Amphibian cases have been reported. They really are the G Shocks of the mechanical world. The orange NATO strap is surprisingly really great. I thought I was going to replace it, but I have opted to keep it long term, and it's still kicking strong (granted the orange has faded some).Unfortunately, there are a few things I do not love. The lume is not very good at all. It lights up decent enough, but it doesn't last. It's nowhere near on par with Seiko or Orient divers. The bezel is bi-directional. There is no clicking, so I don't think I would trust it with my life (in terms of oxygen tank timing) as it can be easily moved due to the lack of teeth indentions in the bezel. It quietly rotates, with almost a spinning feel to it. There is no quick set date function, so setting the date can be a real pain as you have to go from the 8 position to the 12 position back and forth to change. On top of that, you can only go forward. Drag! The wobbly crown concept is going to be a love or hate function. Personally, I think it's fun, as I love the innovation of it. If the crown were to break off, it would disengage from the movement allowing time to continue to tick away. Pretty cool huh? It loses/gains about 8 to 12 seconds a day, which is more than suitable enough at this price range for an Automatic watch. In fact, I'd call it surprisingly accurate.At the end of the day, the Amphibian is a whole heck of a lot of watch for under 100 bucks. It's history tells an interesting tale. It's funky, yet sophisticated. It wants you to accept it for all of its quirks. Abuse it, beat it and batter it. It begs for you to throw anything it's way. It's tough as nails, and you can respect that. I think everybody should have at least one vostok in their collection. Take the plundge... it won't let you down. Even horologists have serious respect for it. The G Shock of automatic diver world.

This is a great watch to have. I ordered it with a blue nylon Zulu strap, blue scuba dude dial with the date window, 710 ministry case. It arrived carefully packaged and with helpful instructions. I use it for swimming and fishing. So far, it has received more wrist time than my other watches. This is my first Russian watch and also my first mechanical/automatic watch after having nothing but quartz watches. After reading countless reviews and watching several videos about the watch, I quickly saw what everyone had pointed out about it. I am glad I did my homework prior to purchasing because it helped me understand how the watch is different from others. This watch is an automatic watch, which means that it does not require winding (although it can be hand wound). The watch stays wound as long as the watch is moved around through daily activity. The first thing I noticed was the "wobbly" crown and also the non-hacking movement. For those who do not know, a watch with a hacking movement means that the seconds hand stops moving once the crown is pulled out. This watch is a non-hacking watch in that the seconds hand continues to rotate even with the crown pulled out to adjust the time. This watch can be "back hacked" by simply rotating the hands counter-clockwise, which pauses the movement of the seconds hands. This is what I do when I want to sync the watch with my phone's time. The "wobbling" crown actually exists to better protect the watch's movement from impact damage. As for the date, it is easy to read. I saw what the reviews were referring to about the date change and the quick set option. This watch does not have the option to scroll through the date numbers, but the quick set feature sure did help speed things up. The lume is great and does not need a lot of light to charge the hands and indices that glow. The bezel is bi-directional (rotates clockwise and counter-clockwise) without any clicks, but I still use it to roughly estimate the elapsed time of my laps in the water. The watch did run about +15 seconds per day and was about two minutes ahead after one week. For me, this was not a problem, because that was what I already heard and read in the reviews. It now runs about +7 seconds per day (rough estimate, no phone app used to measure time). Either way, I would rather have the watch run a little fast and have to reset the time counter-clockwise after several days, rather than have the watch run too slow and need to keep up with the time.Overall, the watch is great despite all the features that make it different from other watches. After doing some research and knowing what to expect from this watch, the features the watch has (or lacks, in some cases) make me appreciate the watch even more.

I was hooked on Russian made mechanical … things .. some years back- see also Zorki cameras.So as I started to become enthralled with wrist watches after breaking up with my Apple Watch after 5 years (she became consumed by her job and neglected me) and exploring various watches on Amazon- I saw a Russian made mechanical dive watch??I was like anyone listening to any politician making promises. Skeptical. Seriously. All of them.So I read. 1942 military manufacture and design. Re-release on the last decade but - it’s the same design? That sounds Russian. Take a 60 year old design and just. Keep making it. Don’t fuss if the comrade isn’t broken.So I bought one. I mean - 100 dollars for -and here’s a list of the things about her that I noticed Versus my Seiko or timex watches.Screw in crown (I think that’s a defining feature for being a legit dive watch)Powering it up is like my love life. Wind it up or shake it. Most of my autos only shake and bake. Not both.The bezel goes both ways. Giggity.It keeps time well- but she needs to be on your wrist or wound pretty much daily. I mean. A woman has needs and if you’ve ever married one you know the routine.Setting date and time- pretty near! Unscrew the crown. Pull her out- wind it past 12. Then back (to about 9 o’clock) then forward to 12. It clicks over a date number every time you bump the 9 or 12. Pretty simple.The only thing I didn’t love- the strap. It’s legit just a thin piece of nylon type material. Rigged, functional-sure but I’m too pretty for that. But she’s a 22mm lug and an orange replacement was easily had.And now I’ve purchased two more Vostoks!