Horological Meandering

Soyuz
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Study on Mervos Triple Calendar Moonphase: An Hidden Universal Genève reference

Hi everybody Some years ago I was astonished by the elegance and style of that timepiece. It is an apparently "anonymous" Mervos with triple calendar and Moonphase indicator. A beautiful vintage piece... nothing else. it would have been enough for anyone ... but not for a purist . He reminded me of something, so I decided to go deeper and study well it.



Mervos is a registered trademark of Nivada in Grenchen on 10/29/1937. It was then registered on 11/17/1941 in New York by the importer Horowitz & Son Inc (also importer of Nivada), finally also registered in Buenos Aires, Argentina, on 29/10/1957 (curious just 20 years after the first registration) by the importer Rene Cahn & Cie SRL, for the marketing of its products in South America. it generally produced cheap watches for everyday use, but often also collaborated with prestigious brands. Is known for example, an joint-venture with Breitling. It also imports watches from Swiss popular brands or popular watches and countermarked them with his logo, or totally replacing the original brand logo.

















Anyway, The production of this triple calendar with lunar phases appears to be noteworthy. Case 36 / 37mm, laminated rose gold. Steel caseback, Caliber Martel / Universal Genève 291 triple calendar.



In the following image the caliber as introduced in the Pietro Sala book.



Here are two better images of the movement in general, and of the bridge where Universal Genève is written in particular, then we will understand why.





Examining the item, immediately notice some details that make me think: - the milled bridge in correspondence of where there would be the writing "Universal Genève" in some examples produced in the 40s. An absurd thing if we think about it with the modern collecting way of thinks, in the world of "renumbered" cases, repainted dials, franken, Replicas, reproductions, extreme restorations , "Adding" on the dials ... in this case we see a situation in which a prestigious brand such as Universal Genève is deleted to turn it into a Mervos. One thing, I repeat, that in our days it simply does not have sense. - the permanence of the writings "291" and "Swiss" identical to the movements used on Universal Genève models - the number on the case back, too similar to a UG serial of the 40s and those 2 slightly different final "00".





So , it would seems to be a reference Universal Genève never arrived at the end of the production cycle and rebranded. I remember how "Martel / Zenith" solds their old stocks movements to the highest bidder in the 1980s and it were used by minor brands for their occasional collections.







To these elements will be added others during construction. But At this point I thought well to do an internet search of all images of similar watches. After an long search I found a total of 11 different specimens branded Mervos, Martel and Universal Genève.























All, except the name on the dial and some variation on the hands set, are identical: - same case - same number on the back 1316100 - same batch of dials - same batch of Movements - same milling and re-marking operation - all the caseback inner side (except for one finished and marked Universal Genève) are coarse: like what would appear after roughing or rough sand-brushing, they also have an identical horizontal line (notch, scratch), corresponding to 3/4 of the caseback, probably a rough sign of incomplete finishing.



The specimens marked Universal Genève on the dial also have the bridge re-marked with the words Universal Genève and the internally marked Back Case. But persist those horizontal scratches that cross the whole case, as well as the same external case number.





The dial of this watch denotes a non-cheap production, as Mervos' production history might suggest: we have a soleil finishing with incused indexes, made for a specific movement that is not a caliber of Ebauche, but a movement of manufacture: in short, a dial that may have been born only on Universal Genève specifications, although not present in the table on page 425 of the Sala's book similar dials. Graphical Comparison of the dials: above the 3 identical Mervos brand, Martel, Universal Genève appear identical to each other. In the two rows below we have some identical details of Universal Genève of the 40s, known and catalogued in the Sala's book. Please Note the extreme similarity. The dial of this watch denotes a non-cheap production, as Mervos' production history might suggest: we have a soleil finishing with incused indexes, made for a specific movement that is not a caliber of Ebauche, but a movement of manufacture: in short, a dial that may have been born only on Universal Genève specifications, although not present in the table on page 425 of the Sala's book similar dials. Graphical Comparison of the dials: above the 3 identical Mervos brand, Martel, Universal Genève appear identical to each other. In the two rows below we have some identical details of Universal Genève of the 40s, known and catalogued in the Sala's book. Please Note the extreme similarity.



It makes me think at this point that it is not just a sale of Movements made at the time by Universal or Martel to monetize and clear warehouses. At the same time it must be remembered that in 1958/60 Zenith took over the Martel and, probably finding in the warehouses such semi-finished and somehow forgotten references, decided to get rid of it. But the cases and the dials? A case for a 291 must be made specifically, can not be in supply or be ordered externally 20 years away, and to whom? Equal then for all three brands? Here, therefore, the clue appears between the lugs, where in addition to the title of the lamination appears the symbol "TC" But who is TC?









T.C. is the abbreviation of THERMO COMPACT S.A., as these advertisements tell us at the time, is a company belonging to the Dérobert DF group, specialized in electroplating. Dérobert is in turn the founder of the Manufacture Genevoise des Boîtes de Montres MGBM, a factory specialized in the production of cases, which we know for sure have already produced cases for Universal Genève.









Then there is the question of the number on the case back. What looks like A partial serial number, made generic by adding the final double 0.



Conclusions: My hypothesis is that it could be a Universal Genève reference that never came completely at the end of the production cycle, which took place extemporaneously several years after the interregnum period between UG and Zenith in the Pont de Martel factory. That this has been assisted in the sales by two brands (Martel and Mervos) for the reference markets. But that in any case these are watches entirely produced by Universal Genève in Pont de Martel and for some reason not commercialized at the time. I realize that mine is just a hypothesis not supported by literature, even if it seems to be in the presence of a puzzle where all the pieces have been found and seem to fit well. In my opinion this watch is stunning and I love discover and study vintage watches, to reach my culture and give back an identity to them. I leave you to the last photos. Thanks for the attention. Andrea

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