I just received an appraisal request for a pocket watch apparently quite old. Here is the email:

Passed down to me from my grandfather. Tried researching in the intenet but couldn’t find much since the pocket watch has Russian charcters.

After doing my research, I realized first at the bottom of the watch that it was made in the USSR which we all know was the era of the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics from (1922 – 1991). I recognize that the watch is fairly old due to the scribing of the Watch Name font. The first character is easily can be made out to be an “M”. So I did my research for Russian watches that begin with the “M” character and found the watchmaker “Molnija” to be a match. The Russian characters are “??????”

This watch maker is pretty famous in Russia and dates back to November 17, 1947 which the company was opened. The main customer was the USSR Department of Defense. The companies main watch is the pocket watch and from this appraisal request, it is a Molnija watch. The year of the watch is unknown, but from looking at the font it does not seem too modern and the pocket watch does appear to be silver.

The Molnija watch has several collections: Nature”, “Classics”, “Victory”, “Sport”, “History”, “Who is who” and “Religions”.

I’m not sure which collection this falls under but it is a classic and dates back to an important era in Russia.
Here is a similar Molnija watch from the Internet Encyclopedia