Contemporary presidents and prime ministers, always with an eye on the opinion polls, can only envy the popularity of Russian President Vladimir Putin.

Described as a "source of inspiration" to artists of all genres by Russian television, Vladimir Putin, to his own embarrassment, has become the subject of a Soviet-era style personality cult in his country.

The image of the president is a symbol of the state like the flag, the coat of arms or the anthem

Senior manager, Chelyabinsk art workshop

To date Russians have given the name Putin to a cathedral, a collective farm, a bar, a kind of cake and even a tomato - despite the refusal by officials to register it.

Apparently not satisfied, the latest item they have named after their president is a handcrafted pocket watch adorned with an enamel portrait of him.

Putin the timekeeper

A firm making souvenirs in Russia's Chelyabinsk region produces the pocket watches decorated with pictures of a half-smiling Putin.

And now the demand for the product has outstripped supply.

Lovingly handmade by a Chelyabinsk artist

Aleksandr Anosov, senior manager at the art workshop, told Russian TV: "I think that these people just have respect for state symbols.

"The image of the president is a symbol of the state like the flag, the coat of arms or the anthem."

Both state officials and ordinary people are said to be fans of the "presidential chronometer".

The portrait is painted by a local artist who copies photographs from Mr Putin's autobiography, "In The First Person". Each piece takes a day to complete.

The enamel portrait takes a whole day to prepare

Interestingly, Chelyabinsk, in the Urals, is also where the Putin bar, the Vladimir cocktail and the Putin pretzel were to be found.

Following concerns in the Kremlin about what is regarded as a growing personality cult around the president, local officials are said to have persuaded the bar owners to remove all references to Mr Putin.

Mr Putin's popularity, it seems, is proving timeless.

BBC Monitoring, based in Caversham in southern England, selects and translates information from radio, television, press, news agencies and the Internet from 150 countries in more than 70 languages.