Hello OF! I have for sale an early example of Universal Geneve's Tri-Compax watch from 1945. Ref: 22242 Serial #: 1107553 Case material: Stainless Steel Case dimensions: 35mm x 41mm, 37mm diameter with crown, 19mm lug width Movement: caliber 481: manual wind, column-wheel chronograph, triple date, moonphase, 17 jewels, 18,000 beats per hour Condition Report: Dial: Clean, never re-painted. Very uncommon to find in this condition. All of the lume is original except for the 1 and 7 o' clock markers. There is also a small dent next to the 1 o' clock marker that is hard to capture on camera. Rare "alpha" style hands with all-original lume. Original sub-registers and sweep second hands. There are some scratches on the crystal. Case: snap-back case is in great condition for its age. Never polished but has been cleaned in the past. Replacement unsigned crown - the crown/stem/clutch wheel/setting wheel were all worn from 70 years of use and needed to be replaced. The original un-signed crown and stem can be provided at the buyer's wish. Original pushers. Caseback - engraved JMG RA 18205212. The inscription corresponds to correct soldier identification numbers used by the British Royal Artillery. This was not a military watch, but it is of interesting and unique provenance. The case back itself has some spotting, but I left it as is to preserve the inscriptions. Movement: the movement was serviced by Blake Scott in April 2015 and is running strong. All of the complications function as they should. There is a slight creep of the hand at the hour sub-register, but it is to be expected with a movement of this age. - end of condition report - For a watch of this size (35mm), the watch has great wrist presence and legibility. I am 6’ 2 and 7 1/4 inch wrists and it does not look too small on my wrists. The watch will be provided with a black suede Jean Paul Menicucci strap and a choice of cherry/navy/green Horween Shell Cordovan strap made by jankoxxx The asking price is 4800 USD OBRO plus shipping worldwide via Paypal. Face to face deal is possible in the San Francisco/Palo Alto area until 7/28 or New York after that. References are available at the buyer's request. Returns are accepted within 48 hours if the item is received not as described. Please PM me for any questions and thanks for looking!
My U.S. Army serial number was RA 16856700. RA was for enlisted regular army. the 16 at the start was for Illinois entry, the number on the watch starting with 18 is the code for Arkansas.
Revelation. This being an European market watch, I hadn't thought to look at US military service numbers, but since this watch is from 1945, the last year of WWII, perhaps it should have been more obvious - America fought in that war duh. I really like the idea of an American soldier buying this watch in the final days of the war before heading back home to the states. Not exactly sure where to start, but I'm going to run with this for a bit. Perhaps we can find out who this JMG is! Thanks @ron n I should mention, however, that 18205212 corresponds to Royal Artillery service numbers as well, referred to as RA numbers. Much harder to verify the identity since the post-WWI service records are sealed by the ministry of defense. As promised, the watch is still available for purchase until Monday.
Just a thought, a soldier stationed in Germany or elsewhere could have bought the watch prior to 1969, that is when the U.S.Military stopped giving serial numbers and changed to SSAN numbers for I.D. RA regular army, US drafted, NG national guard, and the list goes on.