Sekonda Montreal 21mm Ladies Watch White

Sekonda was created in 1966, not as a manufacturer but as an export label. The Soviet state watch combine ChasProm needed a name under which to sell its output in the West, and Sekonda became that name — watches built at the First Moscow Watch Factory and the Petrodvorets Watch Factory in Leningrad, arriving in British shops as Sekonda rather than Poljot or Raketa.

That origin explains a curiosity of the vintage market: open a late-1960s Sekonda and you will often find a Poljot movement inside, stamped Made in USSR.

The quartz era changed the arrangement. Cheap, accurate Japanese movements undercut Soviet mechanical production, and after the breakup of the Soviet Union the brand cut its Russian ties entirely, moving manufacturing to Hong Kong in 1993.

What did not change was the position: reliable watches at prices most people do not have to think about. Sekonda had become the leading watch brand in the UK by 1988 and has stayed there, selling over a million watches a year, with Seksy, One and Xpose covering fashion and outdoor styles.

The brand is owned by Time Products, which also owns Accurist and Limit.