Living in Budapest, I thought it wise to check out what lost little chronological treasures could be found while digging through piles of crap in the local flea markets. So this will be part one in a mini-series of me doing just that.

I struck out on a rainy Sunday to probably the biggest of the markets, Ecseri, to see what funkiness I could find from both sides of the Iron Curtain from days of yore. I wasn't disappointed. Without a doubt my favorite of the day was this old school Swiss Hanowa (pictured), from what appears to be the 1960s but I very much could be mistaken. If anyone can offer some insight on that please write me. And I love very much how it calls itself 'digital.'

One of my favorites is this Mani because I hate mornings too. Check out the numbers... afternoons only please! Unfortunately The Google was not able to provide any more information about this little guy, which is a real shame because i'd like to have a spot of tea with the manufacturer. In the afternoon, of course.

What's this? A timepiece made in Hungary? Apparently so as this "Grünbaum Karoly Budapest" inscription attests. Unfortunately the seller couldn't offer any details info on the otherwise straightforward looking pocketwatch. My guess by the name is a Habsburg holdover with an original locale more on the Austrian side of things (ergo, closer to die Swissland, ja). However there's really no telling if "Mr. Gruenbaum" busted out 10 of these from his garage, or had a minor production line... my guess is somewhere in between the two.

Ah...yes... nothing says "i love you" like a glamorous Cold War-era Soviet Pobeda now does it? I know that Pobeda was a line of Soviet cars also -- so was the watch a line made devoted to the cars? Or were they made independently? Or were there simply tons of Soviet products named 'Pobeda'? At any rate it nicely conjours up for me the image of civil servant Mikhail, dutifully putting in his time, and using his prized wristwatch to countdown all 49 years of his life. (52 if Ludmila gave him only half-servings of sour cream at the dinner table.)

Thiel Ruhla is an old old German manufacturer, from back in the 19th century, but dropped off the map for many years. I believe recently they've made a couple lines, of which the above is clearly not representative. This one is probably one of the last before they disappeared in the 1950s or so.

Old school Doxas: I know they are Swiss but they manage to look amazingly Soviet in this time period... of course it could've just been their surroundings at the market.

A pocket watch from CYMA, another of those 'tucked away in idyllic green Swiss valley' manufacturers dating back to the mid-19th century. Though, I must admit something slightly dodgy looking about this one, again maybe it's the company it keeps in some random suburban flea market district of budapest.

It's back to the USSR again with this Junost. Is it just me or could Pobeda and Junost joined forces and no one would've noticed? Then again if that happened there would've been no Pobeda vs. Junost company softball matches which I'm sure was a heated rivalry back in the day!

The second photo shows a Junost paired up with a Zarya: pride of Belarus! In 1956 the Minsk watch factory was opened, producing 56,000 identical copies of Zarya's generation one. However I'm sure most Soviet residents were holding out for generation two. Because you know, you can never be sure with gen one lines, maybe they'll scratch too easily, or the battery will be less than stellar. And, plus, in later years Zarya gave you two choices, silver or gold, so don't ever let yourself be fooled into thinking that the Soviet system didn't offer choices, ha.

Ahh, Poljot, probably the best known of the Soviet-era watch producers, and still existing today! Rumours of their demise a few years back were apparently premature... well at least they still have a functioning website. The one shown here though could be a "Poljot International" which were German produced using Russian or Swiss made movements.

Small, gold, "Lumige" I couldn't trace this one at all... Swiss? German? Antarctic? Kinda pretty, if girly.

And finally, more randomness from yore... if you can identify, contact me!

Stay tuned for part 2 when I hit Budapest's "city park" flea market.