What an odd UG, here. What are your thoughts? http://www.ebay.com/itm/UNIVERSAL-GENEVE-chronograph-1970s-NOS-/261993346703?hash=item3d0005368fPurchases made through these links may earn this site a commission from the eBay Partner Network
Probably authentic because too improbable to fake, generic & undistinguished design, a parts-bin assortment of a 'factory-franken,' the death-throes of a once-great company.
Reminds me of the Universal "Top Time." https://omegaforums.net/threads/universal-geneve-compax-top-time.25765/ I bet a determined search would reveal the original model that UG hijacked to create the one under discussion.
I'm not convinced and believe it more likely to be a sterile model of the sort that often ended up with Bucherer or Lemania on the dial. I believe the enterprise probably looks worthwhile on the back of a number of recent UG chronograph prices and perhaps, in a different era, they would have put Omega or such like on the dial. The only thing UG is the movement plate and I believe that probably post-dates the otherwise 1970's style of the case. Would love to be proven wrong though.
That particular case commonly housed a Lemania 1340/1341 as used primarily by Tissot but also by other brands. This is the first time I have seen a manual-wind movement in one, but that is just me. The minutes and hours subdial hands are unusual variants that I have seen on a few regatta-style watches. The crown is unusally thick for the case, but maybe it is a concession to the manual-wind movement. Is it something UG produced? Possibly. Is it a franken-watch? Also possible. Is it a sad reminder of how the names of great marques sometimes fall to abysmal levels? Absolutely.
For me, the price is a bit too high to take a gamble on it. Its a not a bad looking watch but it does'nt get the juices flowing...
Not quite ebay but this Nina is available: http://mentawatches.com/inventory/universal-geneve-compax-nina-rindt/ Yours for a modest 19.5k
Has anyone else seen silver sub-dial hands before? I certainly haven't, but other than the fact that they're silver, they look authentic.
Haha, well, good to remember recent transactions that we have record of for the Nina Rindts. Last October, one reportedly sold for $23,000 in a silent auction by analog/shift that I wrote about on HODINKEE. https://www.hodinkee.com/blog/whats-selling-where-five-absolutely-killer-watches-begging Then Yorktime in Canada reportedly sold one for $19,000 within the weekend after I wrote about it on HODINKEE: https://www.hodinkee.com/blog/whats...net-jackson-to-her-lover-and-a-watch-to-avoid Then Matt Bain reportedly sold one for $22,000 within a couple days after I featured it on HODINKEE: https://www.hodinkee.com/blog/from-a-lecoultre-deep-sea-alarm-on-ebay-to-a-crazy-vintage-b The hands are very interesting. I think the watch may be transitional between the early dial with applied logo and the later painted dial where the register hands were also painted white. I think I have seen two of the Ninas with silver luminous register hands. Perhaps they then realized silver was not easily legible, so they painted them white. What do others think? The register hands certainly are original from Universal and based on my understanding of the history of the watch and my gut, I don't think they were put on recently. Best regards, Eric Wind
Eric Wind's special bump This one below is panda tri-compax for $8k, not ebay though. Apologies for the bad photo, I haven't contacted the seller for better photos.
I would agree that they're authentic and likely original to the watch. Personally, I think they'd bug me a little bit though. The white register hands look awesome in contrast to the black sub-dials, and I feel like the dynamic gets lost when they're silver/metallic. All that said, my gut tells me that it will probably sell right around the asking price, given the discount to recent Nina sales.
It's a relatively common Lemania product. They made dials to go for loads of companies. Mid 70s was not a good time for either companies. Caliber 1873.