A few months ago, I bought the following UG 291 moonphase with beautiful dial from @Florent in the sales forum:

https://omegaforums.net/threads/universal-geneve-triple-date-moonphase-35mm-steel-500€.93197/

It clearly was a project watch, considering it missed two lugs. One was gone, the other was available but not attached to the case. The movement was running. Although I had no experience with projects like this, it seemed like a nice challenge, and so decided to take the gamble. As it might be interesting for some, I am sharing my experiences here .

The first problem obviously was to find someone willing to restore the case, preferrably in the EU. After some searching, and asking some friends, I chose Laboratorio Portanova. It was the most expensive option, but others had good experiences with them. Also, Portanova promised a perfect result (using 3d technology) within a reasonable time frame. Since I am a bit perfectionistic when it comes to watches, I really wanted the best possible result. We decided on a conservative restauration. That is, I didn’t want all the small flaws to be corrected, but the watch had to be fully functional again of course.

After a few weeks, laboratorio Portanova contacted me with fairly bad news: the movement was in worse condition than expected due to water damage below the surface, and needed a new balance, centre wheel, and fourth wheel. In searching for donor components, I learned that there is a difference between 291 moonphase and non-moonphase components . A new balance and centre wheel was quickly found. However, since we couldn’t find a fourth wheel for moonphase watches, a non-moonphase variant was slightly adjusted to fit the movement.

The case restauration actually went pretty smoothly. Throughout the project, Portanova kept me updated well. For example, about the creation of the new lug:



Earlier today, the watch was finally returned to me . This could have been sooner, but for the substantial delay due to the closing of the company during the whole of August. Apparently, this is traditional in Italy (never knew...).

In the end, everything was carried out according to plan. The only exception was the small red hand. Since it was in a bad state, it had to be restored to avoid further decay and avoid the risk of rust or residual paint in the movement.

Now, time for some pictures of the complete watch. I am happy with the result !

 

looks great ! I'm curious how much the case restoration cost, if you don't mind disclosing.

 

As mentioned, I went for best reputation, which meant the most expensive option... Case restoration was 1200 euro.

 

wow, great job and huge thanks for sharing
But the costs ...

 

Looks great! Congrats!

 

Congratulations, that's a beautiful watch.

 

Beautiful watch and it seems like Laboratoria PortaNova did a great job. I think they've done a great job on the new red sub-dial hand, it makes a huge difference to the overall look of the watch. Thanks for sharing.

 

Thanks everyone! Even my wife thinks it is a beautiful watch, which happens rarely .

By the way: Portanova removed all the lugs in the process, to prevent others falling off in the near future. Apparantly, low-quality gold was used in the original welding alloy (because of the low melting temperature). This proved not to be very strong in the long term.

 

Beauty ... so Portanova did the case and the movement? Who sourced the parts? You or them?

 

Thanks! Yeah, they did both the case and movement. The sourcing of the parts was in cooperation. They couldn’t find them through their regular channels at first. Although they kept searching as well, I found the items on the web. They contacted the external parties to make sure the item was correct. This was a good thing, because I am fairly sure we would have ended up with non-moonphase parts otherwise.

Unfortunately, the ‘parts-thread’ in this forum appeared too late for me. I must admit I didn’t want to bother you all by asking for parts . It would probably have been a good option...

 

Congrats. The watch looks stunning. Really happy it ended with you, you and Portanova did a really great job.
Would you sell it back to me now?

 

Nice to hear from you @Florent . After all, it was you who made it all possible. Once more, thanks so much for that!

That being said: not a chance that this beauty leaves my possession any time soon . Still can’t believe that I actually own a watch like this now!

 

Beautiful job, dial looks nice but I it is a redial? No swiss at bottom or grooves in sub dials ? All the original ones I have red 31.

 

Thanks. I have to admit it would be both surprising and dissapointing if this turned out to be a redial. Nevertheless, discussion is of course welcome. I do not by any standard consider myself an expert, and discussed the originality of the dial with the seller. Looking at Sala, I see both examples without grooves and without the Swiss marking.

 

looks fine to me. I've seen multiple examples without the red 31. From the way the minute and hour tics are covered by the bezel I wouldn't be surprised if swiss is covered? If it's not there, I would have to research a bit and see if there are other examples, because there's nothing on the rest of the dial that looks off to me.

Sala has one example without swiss, which is a redial, and another with swiss made, which is a redial. The rest have swiss. Still, it's not a comprehensive selection.

 

I don’t see a Swiss marking. Your option seems very likely, considering I can’t even see the ring around the minute markers on the bottom of the dial.

Edit: just took my magnifying glass, which allowed me to see (the top of) the Swiss marking after all .

 

do you have any pics with the bezel removed ?

 

Nope, but luckily I just saw that it’s there. Had a bit of a scare for a moment . Thanks for all the input though!

 

With swiss it is likely original !

 

My three with original dials. I happy with them because very few TDM exist with mint dials, most of the other examples are redials for sure !