Yes, this would be the smoking gun. It is frustrating that we have not yet found any HPC marketing materials, neither advertising for the end-customer to entice them to buy an HPC watch, nor marketing materials for the retailer/jeweler to properly position and sell an HPC watch.

But UG's use of the specific term "Certificate of High Precision" gets us a bit closer to explaining a dial marked "H.P.C."

 

Just a thought - these (few) chronometer certificates posted are all attached to US-market watches...
Was H.P.C. just a US-market version of the official Chronometer certification?
Some sort of import tax avoidance like the low jeweling and local casing?
A lot of the HPC dials I recall seeing seem to have come out of North America... but could also just be a coincidence.

 

Another thought - HPC watches were an attempt to develop a premium line of high precision watches, priced between ordinary watches and chronometers.

Given the absence of HPC marketing materials in the historical record, perhaps HPC watches were developed to test that idea in a specific region. Or, perhaps HPC watches were developed at the request of a large regional importer such as Henri Stern. If the concept had caught on, we might have seen some advertising and more watches.

However HPC watches seem to range from 1940s chronographs through to 1950s Polerouters, so if that theory has any merit it would seem that UG was testing the premium line idea for quite some time...

 

even with the issue on the dial , for only $ 515 was worth it

 

Just to add to this... Vintage advertisement for a polerouter "Chronometer Date".
Nothing on the dial in the advertisement though.
$1000 for a watch in the 60s. Holy moly!

 

I wonder what the price would have been for a Rolex Day-Date at the time?

 

Important to note that the $1000.00 includes a solid gold, intricate band.

 

Exactly.

 

The internet says that's equivalent to about $8200 in todays dollars

 

Interesting that this sales copy treats the brand name as "Universal", not "Universal Geneve". Does anyone know if that is how the company generally marketed itself?

 

Dutch price list from 1969. USDNLG was about 3.6 so slightly more than USD 1k (with gold bracelet)

 

I have seen other promotional material in English where "Geneve" was dropped and it seems to be a US thing in general. Some snappy Mad Men copy for the American audience, perhaps?

Let me dig out some more supporting evidence for this wild claim from my stash. To be continued.....

 

What do we have here?

https://www.chrono24.com/universalgenve/universal-geneve-aero-compax-untouched-case--id16888746.htm

 

To my knowledge, we've not yet seen a 'chronometre' marked chronograph that we agreed was correct. I also don't think we've seen any chronographs with 'chronometre' dials in any advertising; we've seen time only 'chronometres' and chronographs with 'HPC' dials.

There does not appear to be any markings on the movement that would mark this Cal 283 as being anything out of the ordinary. There is a number marked on the movement but they all have that as far as I can tell.

I'll stick my neck out and say that the 'chronometre' text is more likely to be a later addition than it is to be original.

 

I've had a few Aero that were cal 281, not 283, and they both said unadjusted, so I thought the lack of unadjusted might mean something on the above example. However I'm seeing other examples of the reference above for sale (22285) which also do not have unadjusted, so I guess it doesn't mean anything. Here's another example of a ref 22285 dial and mvmt.

I don't have any explanation for the above example. Text could have been added, or not, the whole thing remains a bit of a mystery IMHO.

 

https://www.ebay.com/itm/264927598593Purchases made through these links may earn this site a commission from the eBay Partner Network

An H.P.C. marked 291 Calendar.
With a numbered movement.

 

Interesting but I think quite a high proportion of these movements were numbered (some randomly selected examples linked below).

I don't claim to have any chronograph expertise so I'm afraid I can't offer an explanation as to why.

https://watches83.com/en/universal-...g-watch-cal-291-complication-collectors-.html
https://www.catawiki.com/l/17607533...eel-mm-35-moonphase-caliber-291-men-1950-1959
https://www.hqmilton.com/timepieces/43z1xp02/1940-s-universal-geneve-calendar-moonphase-21312-6936

 

It doesnt seem to be in line with UG chronometre number either (those are very high numbers...)

 

Interesting, I’m Glad to have found this thread. I ended up being the highest bidder on this watch it’s unfortunate about the case back not being original but still can’t wait to see it in person.

 

agreed, all the cal 291 that I've had (a bunch) were numbered, so in this example above, I don't think it tells us anything, and the mystery continues......