The Universal Genève Climate Proof Compax thread (ref 124113 new to me)

Hi OF members,
My watch collecting journey started with UG and with this forum. More accurately, it started with Ben Clymer mentioning OF as a rich knowledge source, and showing his 124113 Climate-proof.
Almost 10 years later, I’m still on OF, and the Climate Proof is still in the back of my head.

So here it is, with a dial that was climate-tested , but in a much better state than most Climate Proof on the market, honest case, a nice 37mm, un-used pushers, and a very clean movement. Looks and feels great on the wrist



Dear OF members, your critics on it are very much welcome ! For ex, I am unsure about the crown. Maybe I’m missing other stuff.

Doing my homework on this model, I gathered info on Universal Geneve Climate Proof Compax references (124113 and 12299), that I’m sharing below.
It comes primarily from this thread from Italian forum Orologi & passioni, but also from chats I had with other collectors, and a few other articles. It’s not worth more than a summary of already existing knowledge, but I hope it helps to have it here in english and in a structured form. Please point out any error, I will correct it.


Sala’s pages

(source for this Sala page)

(source for this Sala page)
Note: on the 124113 above, Sala shows a 124113 with a dial not mentionning climate-proof. I have never seen such example, nor did the members of Orologi & passioni.


2 references
There are 2 references of Climate-Proof Compax: 37mm (124113) and 34mm (12299), both only available in rose gold.

The 37mm reference 124113 was produced first, the smaller 34mm reference 12299 came after.
Their specificity is to have a secondary inner caseback in metal, to make it more climate proof… at least from the back of the watch!


1. Reference 124113, 37mm, rose gold, (2 dial options: inner and outer telemeter scales)
The 37mm reference 124113 was produced first (1951-1952, 1.54M to 1.57M), with two dial variations (inner and outer telemeter scales):




2. Reference 12299, 34mm, rose gold, (1 dial option)
The smaller 34mm reference 12299 was produced after (maybe 1952-1953 (1.62M)), with one single dial option



Production numbers dates
Based on the discussion in this same thread, we can estimate the 124113 was produced in a total of ~1.600 examples. See details on this here.

A great job of listing known serials of Climate proofs was done by Nicola1960 on this post on Orologi & passioni. I am reusing his work, added some I identified, and removed one that was an error from the auction website (this auction website put the same serial number on two UG watches, here and here).
The tables below also include the serial numbers tracked by @Mark020 in a later in this thread.


From these tables, we can see that:

• The production of each reference only lasted for one or two years.
• Both dial options of the 124113 (inner and outer telemeter scale) were produced in parallel, and not successively (contrary to what is mentioned on the original Orologi & passioni post).

A watch specifically for South America? Brazil?
With its low production numbers, in a very short period of time, an hypothesis could be that the Climate Proof Compax has been produced for a specific market / region. The hypothesis from @dandywatchman on IG is that it was targeting South America (hence the rose gold material for both references).

Another indication: the 124113 dial with inner telemeter scale is very similar to the one of the 124107, another rose gold Compax, that I think includes examples produced for the F.A.B (Força Aérea Brasileira). Example here.
Maybe the 124113, and the Compax Climate Proof was targeting South America, or the Brazilian market specifically?
→ let me know what you think!


Why do so many UG Climate Proof have a dial that suffered from humidity?
This is a running joke here: most Climate Proof Compax on the market did not weather the elements very well (quote from @carlton-browne) 😀
It seems indeed that "they were not really THAT climate proof, but people definitely used them for this purpose, so many of the dials just didn't hold up very well", as mentionned by @bgrisso later in this thread.
@Larry S also mentions he believes "the crown seal is the undoing of most of these models"
Finally, one last hypothesis from @dandywatchman, is that a faulty plexiglass can harm those watches that were probably actually worn in humid environments.
... Ok, basically, the Climate-Proof was not Climate-Proof 😁

Hope this post helps, apologies if anything is wrong, and thank you for everyone mentioned above.

M.

I found it on this dealer's page, did not even think about copyrighting.
http://www.highlifewatches.com/stor...-Proof__Pink_Gold___Papers_-_Ref._124113.html
I just removed it from my post. Thanks for raising it.

EDIT, I added it back, following Larry S ' comment below

Thanks @Mark020 !
If I understand your post correctly, all couples "references+dial" have consecutive serial numbers? Or is it just "references, whatever the dial" that have consecutive serial numbers?

NB: I added your 124113 on the reference table (it is an inner telemeter scale dial, right?)

Regarding the "potential cross over" between the Climate Compax and South America / Brazil / FAB (Força Aérea Brasileira) and EB (Exército Brasileiro), here's what I understand so far:
2 references (all rose gold) were explicitly provided to the army, with "F.A.B." or "E.B." engraved on the caseback:
124107 found for ex here, here, here
12494 found for ex here, here, here

Now many questions remain un-answered to me:
- I never came across a Climate-Proof 124113 that had an Army engraving, so maybe they were targeting the Brazilian market, but not the army specifically?
- Or could the Climate Proof be sold more broadly in all Latin America? even worldwide?
- Generally speaking, why are rose gold associated with Latin America?

Great write up!! I've got 1,549,448. Feel free to message for details 😉

Thanks @Mark020 . I added your serial numbers to the main table in the original post.
Based on your thesis, and available serial numbers, we could conclude the 124113 was at least produced in a first batch of maybe 1.500 watches, and then in a second batch of maybe 100 watches

Great thread that I've saved for future reference.

Fantastic detective work and compilation @MarcelGuinchard

This is a very interesting theory @Woops I'd also love to see some vintage advertising for this Climate Proof line-up.

@Woops would you say our production estimate of ~1.600 watches for the 124113 only, here earlier in this thread is also under-estimated?

Bravissimo ! 😀