00:00Before David Henderson Stewart took over Russia's Raketa watch factory,
00:05he had no passion for watches.
00:07In fact, he didn't even wear one.
00:10My idea was just to find a Soviet brand, just any brand.
00:12It could have been clothes, it could have been a Hoover,
00:15it could have been just anything.
00:17The British former lawyer was interested in Soviet industrial design
00:21and now counts Russian President Vladimir Putin among the brand's fans.
00:26Putin wears a watch made by Raketa's bespoke offshoot, Imperial Peterhof Factory.
00:32I thought Soviet industrial design was really, really cool.
00:35It was very unique, something that I had never seen in the West.
00:41On his first visit to the factory outside St. Petersburg,
00:44Henderson Stewart says its few remaining watchmakers
00:47were huddled in winter coats over vintage equipment.
00:51In the big times, in the 70s, the 80s, Raketa was a massive factory.
00:54There were 7,000 watchmakers, they produced more than 5 million mechanical watches every year.
00:59When I first stepped into Raketa, it was a dying manufacturer
01:03with not more than 25 very old watchmakers working in terrible conditions.
01:09It was winter, I remember it was very, very cold.
01:11In the 16 years since his takeover, Raketa has pivoted to high-end watches
01:16with an emphasis on made-in-Russia credentials that has paid off.
01:21Public records show Raketa posted profit of $1.4 million in 2025,
01:27over 15% more than in 2024.
01:31While Western sanctions imposed over the war in Ukraine
01:34have squeezed trade and shuttered foreign luxury,
01:38domestic demand rose for the largely unsanctioned company.
01:42We don't depend on the West for components.
01:46And sales continued to Europe and the Middle East.
01:50Now, more than 200 employees use refurbished machinery
01:54to continue the rare practice of making all mechanical parts in-house.
01:58It would have been much more logical just to shut down the factory,
02:02to buy every single component from Switzerland, from China,
02:06and just to maybe assemble it.
02:08That would have been much more logical.
02:10But it was not interesting for me.
02:13The sole of the project of Raketa is the manufacture.
02:17A manufacture is 300 years old, so we had to keep it.
02:19Hasn't been full-time.
02:19So we have to make a difference.
02:19We have to make your own the patent.
02:20Besides the patent, the patent is really easy.
02:20We have to make a difference.
02:20And we have to make sure about this.
02:20The patent is very easy.
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