Amazing Black Dial Tri-compax: Take A Look. Place Your Bets.

woodwkr2
Posts
1,366
Likes
867
Alright Gentlemen. I've got a vintage Universal Geneve Tri-compax for you to scrutinize.

I'm going to post pictures one bit at a time. Today you'll get the dial, then the movement, then case, etc. etc. For anyone who has read Gladwell's book Blink, you'll understand why I'm interested in doing it this way. Even if you have no idea what I'm talking about, I think this will be a fun exercise in tuning our powers of observation and for all of those who wonder how we ultimately arrive at our verdicts on whether a vintage piece is authentic or fake.

Here's the dial:
dial.jpg
 
MMMD
Posts
4,643
Likes
31,220
Another home-run UG post... all right, as regards my question in response to your Film-Pax post, I'm going with "savvy UG collector."
 
woodwkr2
Posts
1,366
Likes
867
Just how "savvy" remains to be seen. But collector, certainly.
 
LouS
Posts
6,712
Likes
18,569
I'll call it a good redial with original day, month and moonphase discs. I'm on the road, so I don't have my Sala to look at, but the serifless font of the company name and Tri-Compax seem to come from later in UG history than the dial. The date numbers seem to be suboptimally centered around the moonphase disc. The subdial hands are not typical of UG.

if I had Sala, I would also want to compere how UG do their 3-6-9 markers on the chronograph minute subdial, and the font of tachymeter numbers.

I look forward to the next installment and the final answer. Fun!
 
woodwkr2
Posts
1,366
Likes
867
A couple of other pictures my research uncovered (and there aren't many black beauties in the wild):

This one from a UK based watch forum several years ago.
UGchrono.jpg


And this from the Wikipedia entry on Universal:
Screen Shot 2013-02-25 at 6.02.24 PM.png
 
MMMD
Posts
4,643
Likes
31,220
Agree redial, but I'm not sure I would say "good." Maybe on a scale of good to outstanding (which I believe happens to be the grading scheme at most medical schools😉 ). On the dial in question, the hours subdial takes an unsightly chunk out of the '7' hour marker and nearly obliterates the '30' minute marker on the main dial. A dead giveaway is the identical font size of "UNIVERSAL" and "GENEVE"; "GENEVE" should always be smaller. The letter 'A' in 'UNIVERSAL' and in 'COMPAX' is pointy on top, not flat as it should be. No "SWISS". Wonky minute and hour subdial hands, as LouS notes. The moon phase hand and sweep second hand may be legit. The hour and minute hands bother me; they seem too thick near the center of the dial, and the minute hand extends all the way out to the tachy ring.
 
Noodia
Posts
114
Likes
387
The thickness of the paint between the dial and the registers is made from an obvious repaint
 
woodwkr2
Posts
1,366
Likes
867
Todays picture: the movement (excuse my poor photoshop skills)

Thanks to everyone who has participated thus far! No matter what your level of expertise in Universal, I welcome your participation. The point of this exercise is to learn what to look for as you evaluate a vintage piece, so varying perspectives are obviously quite valuable.

Movement black Universal.jpg
 
LouS
Posts
6,712
Likes
18,569
Nothing immediately objectionable about that movement - early cal 287 TX. Most don't carry a serial number and I don't know how to date them by it.
 
MMMD
Posts
4,643
Likes
31,220
LouS LouS
Nothing immediately objectionable about that movement - early cal 287 TX. Most don't carry a serial number and I don't know how to date them by it.

Agree movement seems OK. Nobody seems to know anything about UG movement numbers. Why is that?
 
LouS
Posts
6,712
Likes
18,569
because most don't have a serial number, I'd guess.
 
woodwkr2
Posts
1,366
Likes
867
Only thing I'll point out with the movement is that it appears to fit the case well. (You'll see why I point this out in due time).
 
woodwkr2
Posts
1,366
Likes
867
On to today's picture: Case back and Serial Number
I'm including a large picture of the serial number in the hopes that you'll be able to see what I see over the internet; that is, there are some digits possibly missing from the end of the number. Ordinarily I'd assume that someone got a little overzealous with the polishing and wore away at a once-there serial number, but that doesn't appear to be the case here. I've looked at it under every angle with a loupe, and it really appears that the missing digits were mis-struck (either they should not have been there in the first place, or someone was hungry for lunch and did a poor job). You can just barely make out the outlines for two or three additional numbers, unfortunately not enough of an outline for me to be able to determine what the missing digits were (and I've tried pencil rubbings and the like).

photo1.JPG photo3.JPG photo2.JPG
 
U
Posts
25,980
Likes
27,689
Looks to me like somebody deliberately erased the last 3 digits of the serial number, but being from NJ I always think of that angle first.
 
MMMD
Posts
4,643
Likes
31,220
It's what they did before photoshop... I think they called it "metal shop."
 
U
Posts
25,980
Likes
27,689
MMMD MMMD
It's what they did before photoshop... I think they called it "metal shop."

😜

I suppose it "fell off da back of a truck".
 
LouS
Posts
6,712
Likes
18,569
You are also missing the final digit off the reference number - should have five digits. That looks like part of the mis-strike. Otherwise plausible serial number and reference. The screwback is pretty unusual - most of these are snappers. I wanna see the inside caseback.
 
LouS
Posts
6,712
Likes
18,569
woodwkr2 woodwkr2
A couple of other pictures my research uncovered (and there aren't many black beauties in the wild):

This one from a UK based watch forum several years ago.
13131

And this from the Wikipedia entry on Universal:
13132

I don't like either of these for original dials and the hands are screamingly off.
 
MMMD
Posts
4,643
Likes
31,220
LouS LouS
I don't like either of these for original dials and the hands are screamingly off.

Are you questioning the veracity of a Wikipedia entry? Shocking. Agree both are troubling, but I Iike the UK forum dial better than the others.
 
15 More Posts...
Sign up or log in to reply...