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Universal Genève Polerouter: Celebrating an iconic vintage watch from the Jet Age
Summary
When it comes to classic mid-century vintage watches, few have the aura of the Universal Genève Polerouter, an iconic timepiece from the heydays of aviation
When it comes to the world of wristwatch designs, every watch enthusiast has their favourite. Many would go for the more robust sports watch designs—solid stainless steel cases, big, legible, lume-filled hour markers, attached to robust stainless steel bracelets, and boasting of an at least 100m of water resistance.
A bit more of an acquired taste (at least these days) is that of the classic dress-watch design. These are typically far more demure in the looks department, more classically proportioned, perhaps constructed of cases made of gold or other precious metals. These are typically three-hand watches that slip unobtrusively beneath a shirt cuff.
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Since such watches are meant for non-adventurous situations, their water resistance ratings are not much to write about, at the most “splash proof" with rating of up to 30m.
My personal design preference certainly leans towards dress watches. It’s not as if I don’t enjoy wearing sporty watches, like dive watches, everyday GADA (go-anywhere-do-anything) watches or chronographs and GMTs. But there is something indescribably aesthetically appealing about a simple, seemingly-nondescript and understated watch that only reveals its beauty under closer inspection.
Wristwatches are profoundly tied to the 20th century, so it shouldn’t be surprising that some of the best—and most enduring designs—were created between the 1950s and 1970s, an era of design that is referred to as ‘mid-century modern’. And there is one distinctive dress watch from the era, from a brand whose glory days ended in the 1970s, that I can never get enough of.
This is the Universal Genève Polerouter. Universal Genève is a Swiss watch manufacture that was formed in 1894. In the early half of the 20th century, the brand was known for its high quality mechanical chronographs like the Tri-Compax and the Military Rattrapante. However, one particular line of dress watches from the 1950s, the Polerouter, would catapult the brand to truly legendary status.
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The 1950s saw the beginning of the “Jet Age" as commercial air travel became increasingly common. This led to a blossoming of specific types of watches meant for international pilots and frequent flyers, including such famous lines as the Rolex GMT Master and the Breitling Navitimer. The Polerouter was a classic aviation watch as well, but it had nothing in common with the more utilitatian, sporty models from the likes of Rolex. In fact, it was a restrained, if gorgeous, dress watch that was more interested in elegance.
In November 1954, Scandinavian Airlines (SAS), started offering a new flight connecting Los Angeles to Copenhagen, that would fly over the North Pole and thus bring the flight time down from 36 hours to 22. Aeronautics had received a fillip during World War II, and this meant that commercial airlines possessed technology like the gyro, solar compasses and aeronautical charts of the North Pole that ensured that a flight crossing the pole would stay on route and not be thrown off course due to magnetism. But the same could not be said of the mechanical watches that pilots would be wearing.
After sounding out a number of watch manufactures to help with this problem, SAS settled on Universal Genève due to the brand’s capability of developing a watch with impressive anti-magnetic properties. But what made the Polerouter a legend was its looks. It was the first watch created by the doyen of watch design, Gérald Genta. The Swiss jewellery designer was only 23 at the time, and in the coming decades, he would go on to achieve horological immortality as the creative mind behind such iconic lines as the Patek Philippe Nautilus and the Audemars Piguet Royal Oak, to name just a few.
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But unlike those future luxury sports watch icons, the Polerouter, with its wire lugs, and a 35mm case with a black dial surrounded by a signature raised silver ring, was an understated classic. Over the Polerouter’s lifetime as an active production line till 1969, this basic design would undergo many iterations, including the use of gold capped cases and different dial colour combinations. But at its heart, the Polerouter could remain faithful to Genta’s design vision. The watch’s movement too was revolutionary for the time, because Universal Genève was one of the first manufactures to use a microrotor to fuel the automatic movement.
In a way, the Polerouter paved the way for a number of important watches in the 1950s that focused on bolstering the anti-magnetic properties of a timepiece. Watches were tools used by professional people, and as everyday tech advanced, so did the risk of magnetized watch movements. In 1955, IWC released a watch specially targeted towards engineers called the Ingenieur. In 1976, Genta would design its most famous version, the Ingenieur SL.
In 1956, Rolex launched its own specialized anti-magnetic watch, the famous Milgauss. This too was aimed at the engineering and scientific community, and achieved a degree of fame as being the watch of choice for physicists working at CERN.
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But while both the Rolex and the IWC have survived and thrived as active production models, there is something about the romance of the Universal Genève Polerouter that makes it one of the stars of the vintage watch market. While vintage models of the Polerouter are relatively affordable—compared to say, Rolex—the prices for quality pieces have been creeping up over the years as the Polerouter’s myth grows. However, in a world of needless hype and unearned superlatives, the Polerouter remains a true icon.
Handwound is a monthly column on watches and watchmaking.
