Folks,

I've had this watch for over 45 years- a gift from my father upon entering the service. Other than routine servicing, I've never had any modifications done to it. However, I've had conflicting assessments about its originality and have not seen another one exactly like it after many hours of searching online.

As near as I can tell, it's a Uni-Compax ca. 1950. It is not marked as such on the face but the dial certainly appears original. Can anyone provide any 'illuminating' information about this great old watch?

 

Well ...the watch is in Sala. The reference PIC is a green border which to some means that it is not a true factory reference picture. Early 50's. Uni Compax...I'm going with a refinished dial ..

 

at first glance it looks like an obvious redial? Are those applied numbers? I don't have Sala in front of me so I can't see what Larry is talking about. It would help to have a straight on, in focus, high res shot of the dial.
blue hands on black dial also seems odd ?
is there a "swiss" at the bottom of the dial ?

 

Looks like the hour markers misaligned with the seconds track. Probably need much higher res / straight on the dial photos to figure it out.

 

sala version is white obviously, but has no outer scale, has swiss, has no subdial overlap....

 

I agree ... Don't remember the issue with the green reference pics. I actually like the OP dial better than the Sala reference. Better pics would help.

 

honestly the Sala reference looks pretty weird too ??

 

Another 22296 here:
https://omegaforums.net/threads/ug-uni-compax-22296-2.71252/

 

Changed my original post...I'm in the refinished zone.

 

The "UNIVERSAL GENEVE" font looks bad to me, and off-center as well, although the photo is not as clear as I would like.

 

Voting for redial due to off center numbers and subdial numerals.

That said, as your father's legacy, that doesn't really matter as such.

For future servicing, only ask for the movement to be serviced and nothing else regarding "cosmetics" such as case polishing/redialing/refinishing.

Hunting down a dial could be a nice long process

 

To summarize... Hands/Case/Crown/Movement (we assume) are all correct. The dial is refinished. Its an attractive piece though with family provenance.

 

Interesting piece! Quick question for the pro's : Consensus is it's a refinished Dial, so why would the refinisher go for an infinity sign on the left subdial instead of 60. I've never seen an infinity sign on a dial/sub dial before. Was that something that was done in the past, or did the person who refinished the dial just did it because he fancied it?

 

You never know with dial refinishers: some are incompetent, some do not care about details, some are a little too much creative...

I was just shown yesterday an old Rolex precision manual wind, with a freshly repainted dial (the original was illegible). The guy who did it managed to write "précision" (it is written with an é in French) instead of the usual script. He probably did not bother to check a picture of the original dial... And this is done by a well known dial refinisher who does it for a living.

 

Thank you all for your input. I'm adding a few more photos of slightly better quality which may further clarify or muddle the issue...

 

Unfortunately, I think the better photos simply confirm the previous conclusions.

 

you gotta be kidding ...

 

What was the issue with the green border factory reference pics?

 

I once had a very nice Vacheron Constantin dress watch, that was in need of a redial, it came back Vacheron Constantine. Constantine was an Roman emperor ? LOL