When David Henderson-Stewart first visited Russia's Raketa watch factory, its few remaining watchmakers were huddled in winter coats over vintage equipment.

The British former lawyer knew nothing about watches, but his love of Soviet design led him to see potential in the ailing enterprise, which once employed 7,000 workers and produced timepieces for astronauts and the mass market.

President Vladimir Putin now wears a watch made by its bespoke offshoot, Imperial Peterhof Factory.

"I would never have found something as interesting as Raketa in the West," said Henderson-Stewart, who did not wear a watch until he took over the factory outside St Petersburg with a partner in 2010.

A yearning to live abroad drove Henderson-Stewart to move to Russia to work in law after studying at Oxford and at Paris's Sorbonne University. He has stayed, raising three children, who all have Russian citizenship.

Under his leadership, Raketa's pivot to high‑end watches with an emphasis on their "Made in Russia" credentials has paid off.

Western sanctions imposed over the war in Ukraine squeezed trade and shuttered foreign luxury stores in Russia from 2022, but domestic demand rose for the largely unsanctioned company, while sales continued to Europe and the Middle East. Its own supply chain was little affected.

"We don't depend on the West for components. We produce most of them ourselves," Henderson-Stewart said at the revamped Raketa facility, whose industrial roots date to 1721. "That's what our community likes ... that it's a Russian-made watch."

PUTIN BOOST

In the factory, some of the over 200 employees use refurbished machinery to fashion tiny cogs, wheels and springs, continuing the rare practice of making all mechanical parts in-house. Elsewhere, watchmakers with magnifying eyepieces work painstakingly, pop music blaring in the background.

Raketa received a boost in 2022 when Putin was spotted wearing his Imperial Peterhof Factory watch. Some local media read it as a signal of support for domestic production after the invasion of Ukraine.

Putin has since worn the watch regularly, spurring demand for similar designs, said Henderson-Stewart.

"We were told that it would be better not to replicate this exact model," he added.

Public records show Raketa posted profit of 109 million roubles ($1.43 million) in 2025, over 15% more than in 2024.

Priced from around $700 to $3,500, Raketa watches are mostly based on Soviet designs, including the steely-faced Baikonur, named after the cosmodrome from which Moscow still launches crewed space flights.

The hands of another of its watches sweep counter-clockwise. This unique model has become a bestseller since it was brought to Henderson-Stewart's attention by head engineer Lyudmila Voynik, 86, who has worked at the factory since the 1950s.

Voynik pulled out a hand-inked technical drawing, patched with tape, from a filing cabinet - one of many she kept safe throughout Raketa's post-Soviet troubles.

"Our Raketas remain the same. Maybe some small changes in details here and there," she said. "I have lived my life here. I am proud that we managed to revive it all once again."

($1 = 0.8490 euros)

($1 = 76.0000 roubles)

-Reporting by Dmitriy Turlyun and Lev Sergeev, Writing by Alessandra Prentice, Editing by Timothy Heritage/Reuters