Of all the monumental things that happened in the watch world in 2015, the overwhelming interest in 'non-Blue Chip' brands was to us one of the more exciting. For years, watch collecting and enthusiasm had been governed by a few coveted brands, and while the initiated have long been looking past the name on the dial of a watch, beginner enthusiasts were often corralled into believing that collecting vintage pieces meant buying a Rolex or Omega.
Though there are many brands that deserve mentioning, there is one that sticks out as having benefitted more than any other from this new wave of refined interest - Universal Genève. As collectors with our eyes constantly wandering, we were totally surprised. After all, Universal Genève produced some of the most interesting timepieces of the post-war Golden Age with build quality that rivaled the big Swiss manufactures.
As vintage guys, we are always diving into the past, teasing out the thready early days of the brands that we have come to love. From humble beginnings as a contract manufacture, Universal Genève grew in the post-war years to become a small but leading quality manufacture of chronographs and calendar complication peaking with small runs of high-quality sporting chronographs in the 1960s and 70s.
Those early years, especially the late 1940s and early 50s, are when Universal Genève tested itself and its limits, producing more self-branded pieces and experimenting with various dial, case and movement designs. The result was an era of superlatively constructed watches that offer as much insight into the brand's technical ability to manufacture as it does it's desire to craft beautiful timepieces.
This particular UG hails from the early 1950s and is an excellent example of the capabilities that the brand had been so focused on honing. From the elegant 36mm case with gently sloping straight lugs to the sloping two-tone dial with applied Arabic markers and hour indices, this piece simple vibrates with superlative craftsmanship and design, and in its current (read: immaculate) condition, you don't need to be a seasoned collector to know that this one is something very, very special.
