Watches in this #710 case are highly sought-after by collectors because of their impressive look. According to the urban legend, this larger and more massive case was developed by the Chistopol watch factory specially for one Soviet Ministry (it is not precisely known which one, most likely not related to military). The lug width here is 22mm instead of the usual 18mm.
Model number: 710***
Movement: Vostok 2416Б (automatic)
Lug width: 22mm
Case: #710 “Ministry” case
Period: 1980’s
There were many vintage variants of this watch. To keep things short, there were two variations of the case: the old one (early 80’s) with a bevel on the lugs, and the new one without the bevel (mid-late 80’s). I am borrowing below a picture from the excellent capannelle’s website:
As you can see, my watch doesn’t have the bevel on the lugs, it’s a newer one. Newer ones came with arrow hands and flat crown, whereas older ones usually had “paddle” hands and domed crown. You can check these earlier variants at the link provided above.
The only known catalog scan of this watch concerns the older variant with paddle hands:
Would you like me to source a Vostok Ministry for you? Please get in touch.