I seem to have a yet unexplained attraction to White Shadow models with the calibre 74 quartz movement in them. This is an interesting movement in itself as it was the thinnest quartz movement when launched which seems to have marched nicely in step with the calibre 66 in the Golden Shadow. Information about the calibre can be found here: http://www.crazywatches.pl/universal-geneve-cal-74-white-shadow-quartz-1975 The case reference is 874101 and this was the 2nd one in: (Serial no 3436178) Sometime later a natural progression was to pick up a spare movement - well advised with early quartz. (Serial no 3435978) Both picked up as non-workers for under $50 but mercifully I know a man who can, and they both do. Another came up recently and unfortunately broke the $50 barrier. (Serial No 3435594) Knowing I have a working spare gave me some confidence in the bidding process - I tried a new battery on arrival (the battery is upside down in normal operation and sometimes you can be just lucky) but no cigar. There is an issue with the stem and it's just possible this might be the issue and I won't need to sacrifice the spare. Fingers crossed. This brings us to the elephant in the room. We've had some Tiffany dial UGs emerge on the forum and I'm certainly interested in any views on authenticity - the watch is on the original strap (more about that in a minute), has a signed buckle and certainly wasn't sold with any kind of a premium so I'm certain that the seller had no financial interest in augmenting value. The quality of the printing looks good to me and also looks like it was done at the time of manufacture (rather than the later process that seemingly takes place for Tiffany Patek dials). The original strap definitely gives me mixed feelings - it's elephant. It's in reasonable condition and I think it can be restored although there's a bit of me that feels a bit ghoulish about the prospect. I think a donation to Save The Elephants is in order even if it can't bring the poor bugger back. The last thing that surprised me is the buckle which is signed Universal Geneve. A picture of the buckle never featured in the sales listing and I had mentally written it off as third party. I would really have thought this watch would have sold with this buckle style: The one it actually came with, to my mind, looks like it might be from a much earlier generation (the calibre 74 was launched in 1975). Any views?
I would accept that Tiffany signed dial. That being said I doubt you could ever verify it. Same issue with the Cartier signed ones with at least 4 font variations.
Any other views, either on the Tiffany-marked dial or the age of the buckle? Looking at the following thread it looks like it might be from the 50s: https://omegaforums.net/threads/strap-and-buckle-sizes-for-tri-compax.45956/ At least for the interim I've transferred it to the saffiano strap on my Uni-Compax. Just one further thing to add is that, despite having an unusual and almost feminine, case design these are not small watches. The case width is 37.5mm without crown and 40mm with. Top to bottom is 36mm and the depth is just over 7mm.
The case design is spectacular, and with that sunburst dial I bet that this shines gorgeously under good lighting.