Early Tri-Compaxes are amongst Universal's best-ever offerings, if a little more the territory of the enthusiast, fully expressive of the brand's mechanical prowess and restrained design sense. Introduced at 1944 Baselworld, the complete calendar, column-wheel chronograph with moonphase proved so ahead of its time that the model remained competitive in the market for four decades with little alteration. The earlier offerings, though, were a little more varied. Different case sizes, hands, dial configurations, and lugs even, which makes hunting simply more rewarding when you find 'that one'. The Tri-Compax remains easily one of the most relatively accessible points for collectors to start flirting with serious complication without re-financing their house.
This example is a ref. 22283, an oversized steel at 37.5mm with a bright silver non-luminous dial, polished steel feuille hands, blued steel registers, and a chic red calendar. This ref. is particularly loved for its larger wrist presence and lug profile, which is somewhere a teardrop and claw with one sharp break to a brushed side. The case has a gloriously wide, convex, polished bezel which interacts with every environment. The quad-register design manages to convey a wealth of information without feeling remotely cluttered, a tricky many have failed at. The early two-line Universal Genève signature looks mega stacked beneath that calendar register, which if you look closely also has a red 31 for no reason at all. Inside beats Universal's own Calibre 481, which still today puts many chronograph calendar movements to shame.
The feeling a Tri-Compax gives on wrist, though, is so much more than the sum of its elements. There's a sense that nothing else like Universal will ever exist; that this is it. They clearly had an immense sheer enthusiasm for excellent watches, no excess. And because they did not survive the quartz crisis, no one is profiteering off their relatively recent success. No one stumbles into Universal, starts here, or flexes with one. They are watches for subject matter enthusiasts only. Universal Genève unites people like us almost without exception, and isn't that the point? The star that burns twice as bright burns half as long.
