First of all, I must admit that I have been slightly turned off by the prices and the convolution in the watch world as of late and have been kind of laying low because it was just not as fun as it used to be. Anyhow, I came across this early 49xxxx serial number Universal Watch which kind of got my impulse back again. Been running through SALA and I must say the early Universal watches are some what not so properly documented and their size is quite considerable (39-40mm). This one pictured here seems to have the wrong chronograph hand, wrong crown and perhaps wrong pusher but apart from that it seems to fit the bill of early Universal Watch chronograph quite well including the movement (I checked it against SALA page 103). Seller's pictures btw.
Yeah, I think the movement is also kind of pre-Martel (most likely pocket watch movement) and all. And the hinged case + pretty small lugs made them a bit tougher to wear....
These early monopushers IMHO are still largely undervalued and they are stunning! Especially considering the importance they have in the history of chronographs! This excample has wrong crown (but this is the case 99% of times, after 100y almost chances to find the original crown are very rare) and the wrong chrono hand. I believe the pusher to be correct. The movement is indeed already a Martel one. Key in the value of these is (guess what! ! the dial: it is very important not to have cracks at all, or at least as little and thin and peripheral as possible.