In this study, the U-oedometer, a novel modified oedometer cell equipped with tailor-made needle probes, is developed to easily and accurately measure the excess pore water pressure (\(\Delta u\)) during 1D consolidation tests and to determine the coefficient of consolidation (\(c_{\text{v}}\)). The 3D printing technique is applied to make simple yet robust modifications to the conventional oedometer cell for facilitating the installation of the needle probes. The tailor-made needle probes are designed in such a way that the volumetric compliance is lowered to avoid measurement bias. Subsequently, the \(\Delta u\)-based method is proposed to determine \(c_{\text{v}}\), with the target of avoiding the intervention of human judgement and therefore minimizing the degree of subjectivity. The experimental results demonstrate that the measured \(\Delta u\) matches the theoretical values of the Terzaghi 1D consolidation theory, showing that the estimated \(c_{\text{v}}\) is sufficiently reliable. In addition to the determination of \(c_{\text{v}}\), the U-oedometer allows additional measurements of other soil properties during consolidation, including the coefficient of permeability (\(k\)) and the coefficient of earth pressure at rest (\(K_{0}\)). It is observed that k decreases with the reduction in void volume, due to the increase in the effective vertical stress (\(\sigma_{\text{v}}^{'}\)). Further, the secondary compression seems to be a continuation of the primary consolidation, where the soil sample continues to deform at a relatively slower rate, associated with the slight decrease in \(k\). A constant value of \(K_{0}\) is observed at any value of \(\sigma_{\text{v}}^{'}\) in the loading path, while during secondary compression, \(K_{0}\) slightly increases with time.