Russia's oldest factory was founded by Peter the Great in 1721 first as a lapidary plant to help in the construction of the Peterhof Palaces but also other Palaces in St. Petersburg. It started producing equipment and parts for the watch industry in the 1920s. After World War II, the factory started to fully produce watches under the brand name Pobeda and from 1962 under the brand Raketa. in 1985 the factory had 7500 employees and was producing 5 millions mechanical watches per year. As of today it is the last watch factory in Russia producing its own movements from A to Z, though the production is much smaller than it used to be
