Amtorg was a Foreign Trade Representation of the Soviet Union.
The 1924 founded Amtorg Trading Corporation with headquarters on Broadway in New York was a trade representative of the Supreme Economic Council of the USSR, which, under the slogan “catch up and overtake America”, should manage know-how transfers from West to East and which provided the financing needed.
1)<ref>Social Network for Amtorg Trading Corporation (as of: 28.12.2007)</ref>
On December 20, 1927, the Soviet government took the decision to set up its own watch industry.
In 1929 all machines and parts of the Dueber-Hampdon Watch Co. were sold to Armand Hammer of the Amtorg Trading Corporation for about 325,000 USD. 1930 the Amtorg Trading Corporation organized the shipping of the entire inventory to the former Soviet Union. 21 American employees of the company relocated to the Soviet Union and taught watchmaking to the Russian workers. In the same year 1930, the newfound knowledge was brought into the foundation of the 1st Moscow Watch Factory (Poljot) by the Russians.
Another American watch manufacturer, which was acquired as part of this project, was the Ansonia Clock Company.
After the end of World War II in 1946/1947 all the technical drawings of the Glashütte Marine Chronometer had to be presented to Moscow specialists and the translator. The preparation instructions were revised and translated into Cyrillic. The Moscow Chronometer with 3 columns, which hereby resulted, were changed in the surface grinding, cock forms, steel screws, case, gimbal, handles, hinges and bezel. In addition, the rest spring was secured otherwise. The wooden cabinets were made from local wood. Because of the high temperature errors these chronometers had not been accepted at the examinations of the German Hydrological Institute.