About the company

Russian watch manufacturer Molnija, founded in 1947, brings together and integrates the best innovations in Russian watchmaking today. The company’s mission is to produce high-precision timepieces and movements. Molnija watches are synonymous with reliability, accuracy and an impeccable reputation. Molnija chronographs, designed for aeronautics, can withstand extreme temperatures and shocks, and have unfailingly served the Russian aircraft industry for decades.

The history of Molnija’s watch factory and its watches can be traced back to the history of the American factory for the Dueber-Hampden Watch Company and the history of Moscow’s first watch factory.

In 1929, the Soviet trade mission to America – the Amtorg Trading Corporation – acquired two bankrupt watch factories: the Dueber-Hampden Watch Company in Canton, Ohio, which produced pocket watches and wrist watches as well as the Ansonia Clock Company in New York, which used to produce alarm clocks and wall clocks. These two companies laid the groundwork for the Soviet Union’s First State Watch Factory in Moscow and the Slava Factory (Moscow’s Second Watch Factory) of the Trust for Precision Engineering, which were already up and running by 1930-1931, manufacturing the first Soviet watches.