I'm sure a few of us were following the sale of the Colonial Compur at auction in the UK today.

The hammer price was £34,000 (around £43,000 including commission and VAT).

It would be fantastic if someone here was able to purchase it and could post more images but I thought it was worth recording the images that were made available by the auctioneer for posterity.

 

Can you tell us plebians more about the significance of this watch?

 

I'm afraid I know very little.

I do know that they were made in very small numbers and are therefore very rare. The auctioneer was not able to remove the case back and so I'm not sure we know the serial number of this example but I understand that they were made for around 1.5 years in the mid 1930s.

The radical case design and 38mm size both strike me as being unusual for that period. The case is supposed to be weather/climate proof.

I understand that they used the Cal 285 movement, contrary to Sala.

A number of other weather/climate proof models, not all chronographs, from this period with a similar case design are also described as colonial.

It would be great if the numerous other contributors who know far more about these rare early pieces could tell us more.

 

I'm sorry - did the auction house provide no photos at all from inside the watch or was it the auctioneer at the sale that didn't have the ability? Seems incredible that they weren't able to open it at all. Have the Brexit-preppers vacuumed the stores of instant glue??

 

I was told that they weren't able to remove the case back. I don't know if anyone else had any more success or if they were willing to let people try to open it themselves in the saleroom.

To be fair, it wasn't a specialist watch sale, just an art and antiques sale at a provincial auction house - as evidenced by the pre-sale estimate of £300-500.

 

Nice patina but at that price without pics of the Interieur a bit out of world IMHO

 

I am desperate to see more photographs of this amazing watch, especially after the case has been cleaned up a bit. Please oblige if you are the new owner reading this!

 

Did they all have the FAB SUISSE at the bottom or can we conclude that this one was for the French Market?

It almost looks like it is written « FAB SUISA » which makes no sense.

 

Fabricated?

 

Fairly sure it will say FAB SUISSE as other similar examples have been seen but I didn't enquire or ask for additional dial photos.

 

No, not for me. The watch looks original to me.
I have a similar Zenith Compur and it has a similar outer ring and subdials. Length of the hands is just right, as the shape of the subdial hands and the central second hand.
The watch is looking great. After a careful service and cleaning it will be a true gem!

I wrote a short article about the UG Colonial, as I have two time only UG Colonial watches in my small collection.
https://omegaforums.net/threads/universal-tre-tacche-colonial-wristwatch.75152/

As Mazoue already pointed out, the very uncommon and for the mid thirties very modern case design makes the Colonial so special. The price is very high, but the chance to find a watch like that in what looks to me all original condition is next to zero...

 

I’m amazed... stunned even. I thought it was a really nice looker with an unusual case, and if I had free funds right now I’d have probably gone after it, but I’d have been thinking 2-3k not 40k. I never knew it was such an important piece. Big congratulations to the buyer, and even bigger congratulations to the seller !

Auction house must be pretty chuffed too... an almost five figure return for virtually no effort and no prior knowledge.

 

When you say Colonial, I assume it means for more Tropical climates. Similar to Tropicalized which I have seen stamped on casebacks

 

Great question. I'm not certain.

"Colonial" seems to be used to describe watches with certain characteristics and is used in UG advertising but does not relate to a specific model.

Sala says "so called Colonial model owing to detail of the back" although that doesn't help me much.

Colonial relating to tropical climates does seem to make sense given the weather/climate proof cases.

 

Found an old thread here that had a UG watch with Ermetico on the back which means Airtight so that makes sense. Thanks for the info

 

Watches destined for the French marquet had Fab Suisse or Fabriqué en Suisse written on the dial. See link below.

I thought this looked like it said Fab SUISA but it doesn’t work as SUISA is not used in any language. Switzera or Suiza yes but not SUISA. To my knowledge only France required the special indication.


http://thoughts.onthedash.com/thoughts/the-fab-suisse-marking-on-watch-dials/

 

I was bidding on this, nowhere near the 33k mark though, I thought it may have slipped under the radar, as it was only described as 'universal' in the listing; clearly I was mistaken! Looks like a great watch to my eyes, there appeared to be 3-4 phone bidders on the day too.

 

the distortions around the very edge of the crystal can get so extreme, I think it's hard to guess, without a better shot. I think it's quite possible this does say fab suisse