Free post­cards as a mar­ket­ing ploy.

In 1959, a Soviet watch­maker Mash­Pri­bor­In­Torg had what’s now called a solid mar­ket share of all watches and clocks made in the USSR. This ugly acronym stood for Machin­ery and Gad­get Over­seas Trade, and the fac­tory made all the famous Soviet brands of watches which could be found in every house­hold: Polet (Flight), Slava (Glory), Raketa (Rocket), Chaika (Seag­ull) and more pompous names, which in real­ity were good sturdy reli­able watches: my Grand­dad had his Slava for more than 20 years, and never there was a com­plaint! For some rea­son, these goofy dolls were picked to adver­tise the watches, and today we have found a col­lec­tion of post­cards pic­tur­ing a good set of such dolls wear­ing the Soviet trib­utes to fine watch­mak­ing. Enjoy!

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