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

AQ seems convinced about their explanation. For example from 2014: https://www.hodinkee.com/articles/whats-selling-where-highlights-from-geneva-auctions

 

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?

 

I'm only aware of the Medico-Compax advert on Page 224 of Sala but it doesn't help us.

There could well be more information out there though.

 

I don't have Sala but I assume that the entry shows a watch with HPC on the dial but ther's no explanatory text.

 

Love that strap

 

Medico Compax with HPC dial sold at auction over the weekend. The movement does not appear to have a serial number.

 

Sold for EUR 2800 excl fees (30%)

 

The point of interest for me was another watch with an HPC dial but with standard movement (i.e. without the markings we would expect to see on a chronometre).

It does seem odd that we have this dial designation, used over several years (it might be interesting to narrow down the period over which it was used), that seems to have meant very little and about which we know next to nothing.

 

Fully agree with you. One of the better UG mysteries ;-)

 

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 of Movado, there were typically several adjustments noted on the bridges, along with serial numbers.

 

I'm inclined to agree Tony based on the evidence I've seen.

If it was just marketing though, the question for me would then be, why did they use the HPC dial designation so sparingly? There are very few examples indeed.

 

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

 

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

 

That is correct. I've sent him an e-mail to see whether he is able to shed any light on this.

 

Whilst looking into this further, I came across a view on an Italian vintage watch forum that the H.P.C watches used some higher quality parts compared to the standard movements, although no evidence was provided for this. This theory does seem to make some sense though and would explain why these dials are fairly scarce but they are not fully fledged chronometres with serialised movements.

The HPC dials do seem to be less common for time only watches compared with chronographs. Here's another that I came across (credit to @erikclabaugh , who I believe was the owner at the time that this picture was posted). Does anyone else own a time only watch with HPC dial?

 

Mazoue said "Whilst looking into this further, I came across a view on an Italian vintage watch forum that the H.P.C watches used some higher quality parts compared to the standard movements, although no evidence was provided for this. This theory does seem to make some sense though and would explain why these dials are fairly scarce but they are not fully fledged chronometres with serialised movements."
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?

 

Does anyone have any 1940's or 1950's catalogues or price lists? It would add weight to this theory if there was a distinction between the standard price and an HPC price.

I think most, if not all, of the watches we've seen with HPC dials have had standard equivalents. I own an HPC dialled S20217/4 Polerouter, which apart from the dial designation, appears identical to the standard model.

And here's the same model as above without the HPC dial (hard to tell whether the case is identical).

 

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

 

Nice Tri-Comoax. Congrats.
Can I ask if you got it from Menta watches?
Thanks