Hi all,

My dear father passed away earlier last month and now I'm inherited his lovely watch collection, which I intend to keep alive and even expand (You may see me posting similar posts in other sub-forums (particularly Longines), as well).

One of his gifts to me was this beautiful Universal:




I made some research online before writing in this forum but couldn't figure out the exact model and date of this one. This is in fact the first vintage watch he has given me. I know that he sometimes gave me some replicas and low value watches just to get me familiarise with watches and learn how to wear them. But as far as I know, this is a nice UG with a solid gold case.

The oddest part to me was the logo and UG text underneath. The watch below seems to carry a similar embossed logo but looks fairly new and there is a considerable gap b/w logo and UG text:



However, apparently the embossed 2-D UG stamp was also used in some Polerouter vintages (from late 1960s?):


To reduce the photo crowd here, I'm just adding a link to another 2D logo here.


This is another one that looked similar in appearance:



Or this 18k microtor, particularly note the lack of/dropped date frame:



In brief, I believe that the watch may be from 1960s but do you think that it's a franken?

 

Reference is 20255 but the dial is redone/repainted/reprinted

 

Thanks for your comment! Couldn't find antything about ref 20255, though.

 

The crown is not original also - do you have a movement shot?

 

welcome, thanks for sharing your watch. Sorry to hear about your dad.

an inside case back photo would be nice, in addition to the movement.....

 

@Carlton-Browne and @bgrisso , thank you both for your comments. I went to my watchmaker for the case but he said that the crystal was a bit too sensitive and may break if it was pressured, so I let it go that time. I know that it's not easy to speculate without movement pictures and totally sorry about it. I also know another watchmaker to ask about it and I will add pics once I do that.

 

It looks like a high-spec US-market piece, which was cased in the US rather than Switzerland (due to some local tax laws).
If the dial is correct, it looks like it could have a chronometre movement inside.
The dial/movement looks like it should come out the front of the case.
That type of logo on the dial started to appear from around 1965.

 

Wow, this seems to be as much as I could get without opening up the glass, thank you so much! This will immensely contribute to my research.

Unfortunately, the movement does come out the front of the case, which is why I didn't want to risk the highly sensitive crystal.

What do you think about the way UNIVERSAL GENEVE and other texts are written? Would you also suspect that it could be a redial?

 

Yes, certainly looks to be a repainted dial.
The date window also looks to either be missing its metal frame, or it has been painted over.
From the font on the date ring, Id guess its a caliber 69 inside...