Chronographs classified as Chronometres.

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I must admit that I now favour the Henrique Pfeffer Caracas hypothesis, even though I'm aware and agree with some of the reservations expressed earlier in this thread. I think if HPC was a UG "thing" then we would have come across it catalogues or advertising by now.

I've noticed that all of the UG signed "Henrique Pfeffer Caracas" only have "Universal" on the dial and not "Geneve". This suggests to me that these dials were printed specifically for Henrique Pfeffer rather than the retailer adding his signature to a factory dial.

In contrast, all of the HPC dials I've seen have otherwise completely standard dials with "Universal" and "Geneve", which means that the "HPC" could have been added to a factory dial by the retailer.

Is it possible that Henrique Pfeffer had two different approaches to signed dials? A fully bespoke "Henrique Pfeffer Caracas" approach and a much less bespoke approach where "HPC" was added to a standard dial?
 
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If HPC did stand for Henrique Pfeffer Caracas, it always seemed odd to me that that the only known UG advert (it happens to be a Medico-Compax) with an HPC dial is in French, when we might have expected it to be in Spanish (see P224 Sala).

However, on P230 of Sala's digital book about UG advertising, there is a near identical advert featuring a Tri-Compax with a French (or perhaps Spanish) date window showing "MER" for the day but the advert itself is in English.

I suspect the text on the advert is interchangeable depending on the market and the image is constant.
 
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Very interesting.
 
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UG with HPC signed dial with a map of Venezuela - pretty strong evidence for the Henrique Pfeffer Caracas theory.
This is the second of these dials we've seen in recent years. The other also appeared on eBay and was eventually sold at auction recently. Annoyingly the HPC text was not present on that other dial although it is possible that the text was present and has disappeared over time as it's not very clear on this latest example either.


https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/334278133752
 
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For posterity, here is the other Venezuela dial:
40e91ca4-a0d6-4f66-8ef8-b263a49fedfc
fe44eedd-5661-4ddd-9099-66fe520267ed
0caea2c8-10d6-4234-873d-f4551f144fdf
41be4076-d2b9-4cdb-8962-d2e647a77ad7
bb3609ed-f11d-4d71-88d3-e53c9f746bdb
eb3c94a6-5a48-4161-94a2-9804f7022408
Edited:
 
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Thanks! Sadly, I can’t find any evidence of HPC on the other dial.

As a keen supporter of the Caracas theory, here are my entirely biased thoughts:

- If the HPC text had been a later addition by the retailer, it would presumably have been added on top of the lacquer and therefore be less robust (explaining why it’s very faint on the dial on which it is present) than the original UG text

- Finding HPC on any dial with a map of Venezuela is pretty strong evidence, if not quite a smoking gun, of the connection in my view. I’ll eat my hat if we find a map of any other country with an HPC dial.
 
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Here's the advert with the HPC dial Medico-Compax but this time with the text in English (the version in Sala is in French), showing that the language of the advert is a complete red herring.

 
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A lot to read here. I was in the High Precision Chronometer camp before but after reading this thread I think Henrique Pfeffer Caracas makes more sense.
Here's mine. No indication of chronometer on movement.
 
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Here's a cool HPC Tri for sale on ebay, seller says the case reference is 22242 and case serial 1107160
 
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Here's the advert with the HPC dial Medico-Compax but this time with the text in English (the version in Sala is in French), showing that the language of the advert is a complete red herring.

Am I missing something? I can't see HPC on the dial or in the text, but I can see "precision". If someone finds a UG advert referencing HPC doesn't that invalidate the Henrique Pfeffer Caracas hypothesis.
 
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Apologies, the image quality was poor - I think the advert was for sale on eBay.

HPC is on the dial. It is below the Medico Compax text in the bottom half of the dial. The image is absolutely identical to the advert on page 224 of Sala.

The purpose of showing this version of the advert was just to show that the language used in the text is irrelevant as clearly the same image was used and the text changed to suit the country in which the watch was being advertised.

If any UG documentation (advert, catalogue, pamphlet, guarantee, receipt etc) is found referencing HPC, and particularly, High Precision Chronometre, then I would agree that would end the debate. Personally, I think it is telling that nothing has surfaced to date.

Having discussed this with Sala in person, I know that he had no written evidence for HPC denoting High Precision Chronometre and that it was his own educated guess at the time. He was the origin of the High Precision Chronometre explanation and it has been repeated in many many auction catalogues and sales listings since.
 
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Apologies, the image quality was poor - I think the advert was for sale on eBay.

HPC is on the dial. It is below the Medico Compax text in the bottom half of the dial. The image is absolutely identical to the advert on page 224 of Sala.

The purpose of showing this version of the advert was just to show that the language used in the text is irrelevant as clearly the same image was used and the text changed to suit the country in which the watch was being advertised.

If any UG documentation (advert, catalogue, pamphlet, guarantee, receipt etc) is found referencing HPC, and particularly, High Precision Chronometre, then I would agree that would end the debate. Personally, I think it is telling that nothing has surfaced to date.

Having discussed this with Sala in person, I know that he had no written evidence for HPC denoting High Precision Chronometre and that it was his own educated guess at the time. He was the origin of the High Precision Chronometre explanation and it has been repeated in many many auction catalogues and sales listings since.
Why would UG feature a watch with an over printed dial from a retailer rather than a factory fresh model in their advertisinng?
I think the Henrique Pfeffer Caracas hyothesis is unlikely and my money is on High Precision Certified, a grade below Chronometre.
 
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Why would UG feature a watch with an over printed dial from a retailer rather than a factory fresh model in their advertising?

Perfectly valid question, I agree. I do wonder whether the marketing campaign for a relatively niche watch like a Medico-compax was as slick and co-ordinated as we perhaps give credit for. For example, this same artwork was used to advertise the Tri-Compax, so it was really just a case of dropping in a photo of a Medico-compax. Whether that watch would have ever been one with a retailer signed dial is a good question.

I think the Henrique Pfeffer Caracas hyothesis is unlikely and my money is on High Precision Certified, a grade below Chronometre.

Very plausible theory, I agree. It just surprises me that we have not yet found any reference to HPC or High Precision Certified in UG documentation. Since we have HPC and non-HPC versions of the same reference, I would have thought we would have come across something documenting the difference by now.

Also, if there are High Precision Certified versions of references leaving the factory then would we expect to find some HPC versions in the archive photos shown in Sala?
 
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Perfectly valid question, I agree. I do wonder whether the marketing campaign for a relatively niche watch like a Medico-compax was as slick and co-ordinated as we perhaps give credit for. For example, this same artwork was used to advertise the Tri-Compax, so it was really just a case of dropping in a photo of a Medico-compax. Whether that watch would have ever been one with a retailer signed dial is a good question.

Very plausible theory, I agree. It just surprises me that we have not yet found any reference to HPC or High Precision Certified in UG documentation. Since we have HPC and non-HPC versions of the same reference, I would have thought we would have come across something documenting the difference by now.

Also, if there are High Precision Certified versions of references leaving the factory then would we expect to find some HPC versions in the archive photos shown in Sala?

It is interesting that we don't have any examples of HPC in the archives photos. It's also odd that we haven't found any kind of documentation on this topic. I keep hoping something will come to light at some point to help answer this question.
 
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I realize that the "high precision chronometre" hypothesis has been essentially discarded at this point, but I'm still curious, in the original spirit of this thread: is it definitely known that there were any chronometre-certified chronographs by any vintage brand? I don't think I've ever seen one. I have seen chronographs with "chronometre" on the dial, and chronographs with movements marked as adjusted, but not in the same watch.
 
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A brief note: In French "Haut Precision Chronometre" (as seen a few pages back) would be: "Chronomètre de Haute Précision", so that would not fit HPC.
 
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A brief note: In French "Haut Precision Chronometre" (as seen a few pages back) would be: "Chronomètre de Haute Précision", so that would not fit HPC.
This is something that I have also been thinking about. Would English have been used? If not, then does Haute Précision Certifié actually make sense to a French speaker?

Interestingly, I am yet to find an HPC movement with a US import mark which suggests to me that HPC was not a US market thing. Had I found numerous HPC watches with movements with US import marks, this would have weakened the case for Henrique Pfeffer Caracas in my opinion but nothing so far.
 
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This is something that I have also been thinking about. Would English have been used? If not, then does Haute Précision Certifié actually make sense to a French speaker?

In French the adjectives or the attributive nouns usually (not always) follow the noun: "race car" is always "voiture de course" but "beautiful watch!" is "belle montre!". Should you do a full sentence "This watch is beautiful!" is "Cette montre est très belle !" or "C'est une très belle montre !"

It's complicated. 😀

A French speaker will instinctively know the right order. In your case "High Precision Certified" standing by itself would be "Certifié de Haute Précision" in my opinion.
 
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In French the adjectives or the attributive nouns usually (not always) follow the noun: "race car" is always "voiture de course" but "beautiful watch!" is "belle montre!". Should you do a full sentence "This watch is beautiful!" is "Cette montre est très belle !" or "C'est une très belle montre !"

It's complicated. 😀

A French speaker will instinctively know the right order. In your case "High Precision Certified" standing by itself would be "Certifié de Haute Précision" in my opinion.

So unless the HPC text was for an English speaking market, which seems unlikely given the lack of US import marks, that strikes me as a fairly strong argument against the High Precision Certified theory.