UNIVERSAL GENEVE AERO-COMPAX
Beautiful and rare chronograph. Round case. Screw-down caseback. Graduated rotating bezel. Cream dial with three counters, minute totalizer at three o’clock, hour totalizer at six o’clock and small seconds at nine o’clock. Steel bracelet with folding clasp signed JB Champion U.S.A. .
From the 30’s to the end of the 70’s, the most beautiful iconic chronographs were created.
Just before the Second World War, Universal Geneve launched the Aero Compax. This was a Compax chronograph, with an extra dial, hour and minute hands, and an additional crown at 9 o’clock, allowing the start of an operation to be memorized.
But it was in the mid-60s that Universal Geneve produced a water-resistant model with round pushers and a screw-down caseback, ref. 890100/01, an Aero Compax 24 hours.
Imagine being deprived of solar references, like long-haul pilots, astronauts or speleologists. The 24-hour reading dial lets you read the time and know whether it’s day or night, distinguishing between 1 p.m. and 1 a.m., since the hour hand makes only one dial rotation in 24 hours, whereas conventional watches require two.
The solid 41-minute case is in steel with a 24-hour rotating bezel, the dial is in silver with 3 counters, very rare with the 15-minute totalizer instead of the usual 30 minutes, a function used by pilots during take-off.
The movement is caliber UG90, a modified version of the hand-wound mechanical Venus 178.
Acquiring this type of model is a tribute to the ingenuity of the greatest watchmaking houses, and above all a pleasure in a vintage watch.
