Fair point but the purpose of this thread is to add to the knowledge base here for future reference. Please ...Let’s not re-litigate the sales post infraction here. What’s done is done. Mea culpa’s and apologies have been mostly rendered. The owner of the watch is as interested as we are in learning more about what he has and has asked for this thread to be started.
Hello all,
I am the owner of this watch. Thanks to Larry S for opening this thread
I have no problem with this discussion and I encouraged Larry S to initiate the thread.
Thanks to all members who have taken the time to post in this thread.
I bought this watch off the original owner who bought it in New York after the war. He was 92 years old when he sold it to me so he may have forgotten things. I spent about 3 hours at his house and he appeared to have all his marbles!!!
The original owner told me he had only had the watch serviced once, in 1959, and he stopped wearing in 1961 as he bought a Rolex Submariner. He didn't mention that the dial had been replaced and he is no longer alive to ask. I suspect he would have mentioned it if it had been as he said he treasured the watch.... I felt a bit guilty about buying it and asked him if he was sure he wanted to sell this watch. I bought 4 other watches off him, he didn't care a toss about the others. He actually had every watch he had ever owned. He said he was selling them as his wife had died a year or 2 previously and he had cancer. I used to have an add in the paper looking for old watches and he had seen it and called me.
I paid him pretty reasonable money for it, I cant remember exactly how much. I always tried to pay good money to people like him.... you would be surprised how many referrals I used to get from seller like him... it was good business to do so.
I don't care what the watch is worth, or if I ever sell it. Like most watches, its the story behind them that's really interesting.
Regardless of the outcome, I will always fondly remember meeting the original owner of the Aero Compax.
Sorry in advance for the dumb question, I am ignorant when it comes to UG and I've never seen the Sala book.
What is the deal with the "color plates"? In the original thread @Larry S says that the color plates are "hit or miss". Is it that the B&W plates are from the factory and considered gospel, while the colors are later and thus could be redials/service dials? Just trying to follow along! 👍
And let's please all remember one thing. We love Sala, it is one of the best resources we have but there are a lot of redials and other pieces with issues referenced in it. It too is just one resource that needs to be balanced with the collective eyes of all of us who have been witness to good and bad examples of many pieces whether it has benefited us or not.
Wonderful story @oinkitt - and the newspaper ad was a brilliant idea as a collector- and the network you build from referrals by treating people fairly and not screwing them is priceless.
I know nothing about UG, and your watch is a stunner to my eyes and I wouldn’t know if original or not- but it is possible that when the original owner brought the watch for service in 1959, the watchmaker took the initiative to touch up the dial, replace it with a factory replacement- etc without even telling the owner as it was SOP back in the day to make a watch “like new” when they went in for service.
I do have to ask-did he sell you his ‘61 Sub? ☕
I bought a first series 9k gold Rolex Bubble Back, a Rolex 6538, the Universal, and 2 Seiko's off him.
The sheer range of takes on this topic is what makes Universal so cool to me. On the few occasions I've spoken to Sala about references and their inconsistencies he always reminded me that Universal was a few watchmakers who met with great popularity in a short amount of time and were trying to run a business and stay alive. To me this means Sub contractors, juggling suppliers, and generally doing whatever you have to- to keep up. They weren't making watches to be scrutinized by collectors today for consistency, they were trying to meet the demands of their rising popularity.
It's just something I think about when these pieces come to light and get dissected by the hawk-eye maestros roaming these forums & generously sharing their experience/ knowledge.
@oinkitt best of luck battling the blazes.
For the education of those of us that don’t know these watches but want to learn- what are you seeing on the OP watch that says redial to you- specifically?
With every new watch posted in this thread I see variations in every dial, different use of serif or non-serif, different placement of text and numbers, mixed open 6’s with closed 6’s, flat topped 3 and rounded 3’s- all on the same dails but in different places. There is even a crossed 7 !! It looks like UG was all over the map- how can we possibly know what came out of the factory with this many variations?!
