Universal Geneve “Nina Rindt” Crown

There are two main crown designs original to the Universal Geneve 885103/02 “Nina Rindt”.

UG Nina Crowns
The crowns commonly found on the Universal Geneve 885103/02

Early pieces feature the “shield” design, with a pointed bottom to the shield and U within, as shown in the above image, top row. This version appears up to a 2.5m serial, and is broken into two versions, those with a ridge at the edge and featuring smaller knurling (above top left image, 2.4) and those without ridge and less knurling (top right, 2.5).

In the second design the “U” stands on its own (above bottom left image). This version appears from 2.4m and later, and does have some crossover with the shield crown during the point of transition (2.4-2.5m). There may have been an extended period of transition to these crowns, or perhaps some of the 2.4m pieces have had their crowns replaced with this later crown design. When contacted, Universal Geneve deferred on providing information on the date of the shift from shield to U-only logo [1].

On occasion we will see a “fat” Universal logo (above, bottom right image). This logo is also referenced on Omegaforums via Universal Watch Geneve by Pietro Sala, as in the period for the Nina (1960s), in between the shield and U-only logos. However, I believe this is not correct, and rather the design is a later logo (not the 1960 period shown), and is not original to the Universal Geneve 885103/02. As an example, we see the U-only logo on the early Golden and White Shadows with serial numbers in the 2.6-2.9m serial range (examples such as 2.6 and 2.97m). We then see the “fat” logo on pieces with serials in the later 3.0-3.5m serial range.

Of course, we also see replacement crowns with no logo. These are not original to the 885103/02.

[1] Per Universal Geneve (email April 17, 2020), these documents are confidential.