I saw it live, i was in Geneva. The reason it sold so "low" is because it is a redial. It was also described as so in the condition report, so for once at least Antiquorum did a good job in disclosing. Serial numbers and reference were surely erased then the case was polished, these 60s UG are known for this "problem" as the numbers were engraved super lightly and even a small polish would fade/erase them.

 

I see that this same watch is up for auction again today although no mention that I can see of a redial in the online listing at least.

https://www.invaluable.com/auction-lot/universal-geneve-aero-compax-steel-11-c-52f4ddc9b3

 

I am happy to add my 890100/01, serial 23672xx to this wonderful thread. It is mounted on an Original 22mm UG Mesh bracelet. With compliments to LouS !

 

nice catch. I've never seen this bracelet on this watch before...more pics of the bracelet please?

 

Thanks and here you are

 

Thanks @chronoboy64 . Judging from the logo, this bracelet is from the 70s so was probably not originally supplied with this watch. Looks good, nonetheless

 

i cannot contribute much in terms of knowledge. .but man have there ever been blue hands like UG blue hands ? amazing

 

In the package there also was an extra dial for UG Aero Compax (see attached pic). This one would loke great on the 890100/01 esp because of the black / white bezel. But it is not for this Ref. and has a 30 min. subdial. I will keep it with the watch, because it looks so nice to me

Btw: Do you think that the one at UG 100 Bernadini sale with that dial is correct. IMO the dial / hands configuration makes no sense to me. Only outer 24 hours scale but shorter hour hand by contrast to the 890100/01. ‍♀️

 

Chronoboy64, these black and white dial (I personally call them the Ying-Yang Aero Compax, perhaps the name will stick eheh !) are a bit of a mystery. Very few pieces have surfaced (including the one that Bernardini had) and in pretty much all of them (but here when I say "all" I'm literally talking about 3 or 4 pieces at most) they were mounted on Ref 890101/01, which is later than Ref 890100/01 (like yours): Ref 890100/01 dates from about 1963/64 and was very short lived and soon replaced 1 or 2 years later by Ref 890101/01.

Both Ref 890100/01 and 890101/01 have 24h dials and have a 15min counter that actually ticks every 30 seconds (Breitling will later have the same thing on one iteration of their AVI chronographs but I believe UG was the very first to use such a modification) and same case, but they are otherwise different in terms of the bezel (black and silver for day and night in Ref 890100/01, all silver in Ref 890101/01) and also in terms of the fact that in Ref 890100/01 the hours are OUTSIDE compared to the minutes (only watch I have ever known with such a characteristic) whereas in Ref 890101/01 the hours are more traditionally inside the minute track: this fact is reinforced by the hands, as in Ref 890100/01 the hour hand is LONGER than the minute hand (and they are both silver, more on this later), whereas in Ref 890101/01 the hour and minute hands go back to be "standard" lengths and they are black.

It is my strong believe that these Ying-Yang dials (please allow me to call them like this !) should be more correctly mounted on Ref 890100/01 (maybe as a /02???), or possibly they are even earlier than this and could have been prototype dials for what would eventually become Ref 890100/01, but they were finally never used on the final version of Ref 890100/01.

The reasons why I believe that these dials are earlier or contemporary of Ref 890100/01 and hence not correct on Ref 890101/01 are the followings:

- Applied logo and with pointy U instead of round U. This (applied) logo is typical of late 50/early 60 UG and Ref 890101/01 is late 60 when the round U printed logo was established. A similar pattern from applied pointy U logo to printed round U logo is observable also on Ninas/Evil Ninas
- In these dials, as in Ref 890100/01, the hours are OUTSIDE, hence they should pair with an hour hand longer than the minute hand (like Ref 890100/01) and not with an hour hand shorter than the minute hand (like Ref 890101/01)
- The font of the subdials, all 3 of them, is exactly the same as the font in the subdial of Ref 890100/01, which is different to the font you see in Ref 890101/01
- It would make sense to use SILVER hands on these dials, as silver is clearly readable on both the white as well as the black portion of the dial, whereas black hands such as the ones of Ref 890101/01 would be poorly readable when the hands travel in the black portion
- Finally, I believe the bezel paired to such dials should be half black half white to complement the same characteristic on the dial itself, hence the bezel of Ref 890100/01 is more appropraite than the bezel of Ref 890101/01

To me these dials would righly belong on a Ref 890100/01-like watch but with the following 2 differences compared to a "standard" Ref 890100/01:

- The subdial hands I believe should be thin and black/dark blue, like the ones of first execution Evil Ninas. I think they would look better than the paddle ones as on these dials there are no thick markers for even hours like on Ref 890100/01 and also it would be consistent with early Ninas/Evil Ninas and finally a thin hand on the hour subdial at 6 o'clock would not cover the red North arrow
- More importantly, and this is the main difference compared to a standard Ref 890100/01, the minute counter is standard 30 min and not 15 min ticking every 30 seconds, hence you would need a Venus caliber modified for the 24h but not for the minute counter changing every 30 secs

Hence I strongly believe that those watches you see outhere where this dial is mounted on Ref 890101/01 have been put (wrongly) together: I bet that if you start the chronograph on all of those the minute hand will tick every 30 secs and not every minute as it should given the counter.

Happy to ear other people opinion on this, but in the meantime..... hail the Ying-Yang Aero Compax , IMHO it looks great!

 

Appears to be period correct for 1960s, it is quite common to find these early 1960s accessories like bracelets, box, or papers with mid-late 1960s watches.

 

It would be very helpful if Dre's latest post could be made a sticky.

 

It's not just accessories though. The same logo appears on the dial of White Shadow Quartz models with the calibre 74 and that movement didn't arrive until 1975.

 

Thanks Dre ! I am not an UG expert, but I thought that the bracelet could probably be earlier than the watch itself, too.

 

Dear Mlafra, huge thanks for your fantastic post. I am very appriciated, that you replied on my post that detailed, as I am a new member here, that really motivates to post more stuff

I like the Name "Ying-Yang" dial and nicknames are "sexy". Thanks to Davidoff Brothers...

I totally agree with your opinion and your arguments sound very reasonable for me. Had the same thought in my mind before posting (comparing 890100/01 and 890101/01 and asking myself what the conclusions are). But you added some strong arguments additionally. Very well done ! Think it is a Prototyp dial for 890100/01 too as long as no other reference for that appears.

Checked back also my caseback, but it is still 890100/01

The one at Bernadini was offered at EUR 23k and it was stated "sold" very fast. Crazy !

 

Working on our book for early next year. We had to stay focused so we chose only Nicknames of people or fictional characters, but indeed there are so many lovely nicknames, many in Italian, that we couldn’t cover for our exhibition. In any case the nickname phenomenon is indeed a sexy way to describe references with particular configurations and draws attention to what made some of these models popular in the first place. We hope you will enjoy the book when it comes out and are working tirelessly to make sure we get our facts straight because we all know they will be sifted through with a fine tooth comb.

 

Wow, thanks for sharing.

 

Benvenuto nel club Matteo

GIGI
Welcome in the club Matteo (Google translate)

 

This is a great thread - another example of the collective spirit of this forum at work. I want to add some hard evidence to the discussion on these day/night dial UG aerocompax refs 890101s as I was recently lucky enough to land one and was discussing its merits with @chronoboy64 in another post. I won't get into the color scheme criticisms other than to say I have no readability issues with black hands on black dial and I like the hands better than the silver ones.

I'll present a few other day/night 890101 examples and their serial #s all with 2583xxx.
Also note @bubawatch day/night dial shown earlier in this thread is also a 2583xxx.
Here is one at sotheby's that sold last year (serial # is less than 10 off from mine): http://www.sothebys.com/en/auctions/ecatalogue/2018/important-watches-n09879/lot.293.html?locale=en



With description:"Universal’s Aero-Compax began its run as a four-register chronograph, and evolved into the present reference 890101/01 as a standard three-register chronograph with a 24-hour dial. The chronograph was offered with three different dial colors: black, white and the present two-tone black and white. The bezel for the monochrome dials featured a two-tone bezel to differentiate night and day for the 24 hour dial and second time zone, whereas the black and white dial version was a single brushed finish, as seen on this example. The model was also offered with a 12 hour dial with a caliber 130 inside, and the present 24 hour example features a caliber 90 with a 30-minute chronograph register, jumping every minute in contrast to the examples featuring a 15-minute register (which jump in 30-second increments). Additionally, the present lot is offered in unpolished and original condition, retaining the facets to the lugs and the reference and serial number engravings to the case back."

And another at Bernadini Milano: https://www.bernardinimilano.com/products/universal-geneve-aero-compax-4


Bernadini, Sotheby, and my day/nights all fall within 100 of each other and interestingly the Bernadini watch also shows the "HON" mark on the movement which would indicate imported to the US- like mine. I wish I could get the movement shot of the Sotheby's and @bubawatch ones to see if that too was marked HON.

Another counterpoint to the main argument member @Mlafra makes - that the day/night dial chrono register would probably tick every 30 seconds intervals- mine and the sotheby one doesn't (I can't say for the other two I mentioned). Mine counts at the proper intervals in regards to its dial- 1 minute ticks for 30 minutes.

Hopefully this can dispel some assumptions and add some more color regarding these beauties. If anybody has more to add in time we might be able to get deeper but for me the easiest explanation is that this 890101 day/night dial was just a variant that was offered in addition to all white dial 890101s that are more commonly seen/documented and all that I've seen fit within a reasonable range of serial #.