How many people in the UK have a “Made in Belarus” watch? I’m thinking not many.
Luch is a Belarusian watchmaker based in Minsk, nowadays 80% owned by Franck Muller, whose Swiss watches are both complicated and exclusive (ie expensive).
I particularly like the old fashioned/classic/retro look of some of the watches. Mine is the middle watch in the photo, a yellow watch, and cost 44 rubles (around £17). The black one was around 66 rubles (c£25), the steel one, 91 rubles (c£36).
These were bought in GUM department store, Prospekt Nezavisimosti/Independence Avenue (the watch department being conveniently marked in English on the in-store directory), which is diagonally across the busy, wide road from a fancy-looking Luch store. There is also a small Luch shop at Minsk 2 airport but it’s small and in the pre-departures area.
I have now discovered the watches can easily be bought on Ebay, Etsy … but I still maintain my stance that very few people in the UK, surely, have watches made in Belarus.
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(The linen tea towels, with traditional Belarusian patterns, are from Polotsk (3.5 roubles (,£1.30), from the souvenir/household shop on the corner of Prospekt Frantsiska Skoriny and Ulitsa Sverdlova) and the handmade Belarusian chocolate (bought departure-side at the airport, 3 euros) is (well, “was”) delicious)