Chronographs classified as Chronometres.

M Moahunter

Have we seen any use of the phrase "High Precision Chronometre" in UG literature? If it was used as an extra selling point wouldn't it be spelled out in brochures and adverts?

Mazoue

We have definitely not got to the bottom of this but here's what I think we do know:

- There is at least one UG advert showing a watch with 'HPC' on the dial (Sala P224) and therefore it's quite likely that watches left the factory with HPC dials

- Sala (P220) explains that it stands for High Precision Chronometer. I'm not aware of any additional proof that this is correct.

- We see HPC on chronographs and time-only watches.

- We only see 'Chronometre' on time-only watches. These all have serialised movements. There is a good thread here about verifying chronometres https://omegaforums.net/threads/universal-geneve-chronometre-how-to-verify.81943/

- What is clear is that HPC and 'Chronometre' dial designations did not mean the same thing. It was not simply that one came before the other; they co-existed.

- I am not aware of a single watch with an HPC dial that has the features that I would expect to see on a chronometre movement e.g. I've not seen an HPC watch with a bumper movement without 'unadjusted' on the bridge.

- Perhaps watches with HPC dials were sold in countries with less stringent regulations regarding chronometers? Or perhaps it was purely a marketing strategy and actually meant very little at all? What is puzzling however is how few HPC dials we see. If it meant very little and watches didn't have to pass stringent tests in order to have the HPC designation, then why not put it on more watches?

Here's an HPC Polerouter that I picked up recently. The Cal 138ss movement is completely standard without serial number etc.

Mark020

Universal appears never to have competed in the Neuchatel observatory competition with a wrist watch anyway: http://www.observatory.watch/

There were several observatories testing watches before cosc became the standard. From the little research I did watch houses tended to use the closest so I concluded that UG got their movements tested at the Geneva Observatory.
https://obswww.unige.ch/chronometrie/les-extraits-du-registre/

Tony C.

Seems like pure marketing. As others have suggested chronometre movements without individual serial number are dubious at best. Also, when early "chronometre" watches were tested in-house by the likes Movado, there were typically several adjustments noted on the bridges, along with serial numbers.

Mark020

That is indeed the interesting thing about this discussion. If marketing why so little marketing ;-)

M Moahunter

I understand that Sala doesn't give any source for his statement re. the meaning of H.P.C.

M Moahunter

This hypothesis is credible if we had some evidence that UG marketed the H.P.C. on this basis. Did they cost more than a "standard" version of the same model? That raises another issue, do we know of any examples of 2 versions of any model i.e. Standard and HPC?

T Thaulows

Got a tri compax with HPC on the dial, the seller didn’t charge any extra for it