Poljot Gagarin

Soyuz spacecraft and Yuri Gagarin first man in space

Although one of the coolest looking Poljot chronographs of the 1990s, the association between Yuri Gagarin and the Soyuz spacecraft wasn't exactly a pleasant one...

In April, 1967, the initial manned flight of the Soyuz spacecraft ended in tragedy when his friend and fellow cosmonaut, Vladimir Komarov, died after numerous mechanical failures resulted in the spacecraft crashing into earth at high-speed. One year later, Gagarin himself would die when he lost control and crashed a MiG-15 jet while out on a test flight.

After this initial failure, the Soyuz spacecraft would eventually prove to be one of the safest human spaceflight systems with many years of operation. In fact, a Soyuz spacecraft named "Gagarin" was successfully launced in April, 2011.

Pressed display back

The pressed case back indicates that this chronograph was from the second (un)limited edition(s).