Universal Genève are an intriguing brand because they are revered for their influential designs to this day despite not being active in the industry for almost four decades. Like many brands they became unstuck by the quartz crisis and never really recovered. However, last year it was announced that the brand and its historic catalogue of watch designs has been acquired by the same team behind Breitling. And now we have the release of three Polerouter SAS Tribute piece uniques.
Earlier this month Universal Genève launched their new website and declared the 2026 would see the launch of their first brand new collections. However, they also teased that the intervening year-and-a-bit wouldn’t be devoid of watches with a series of celebratory tributes and limited releases helping to build anticipation for the full relaunch. That’s where the trio of Polerouter SAS Tributes comes in. A quick point of order before we move on is that when they say SAS, they’re talking about Scandinavian Airlines, not the British Special Air Service.
The three watches are a tribute to the first SAS flight from Copenhagen to Los Angeles over the North Pole in 1954, 70 years ago. Universal Genève was asked to design the pilots’ watches for this flight and thus the now iconic Polerouter was born (initially called the Polarouter).The legendary two-part dial is specially created to be shock and magnetic field resistant while also being suitable for travel from the arctic circle right down to the equator. The brain behind the original design also happened to be a young, 23-year-old Gerald Genta, he of Nautilus and Royal Oak fame.
Moving to the new watches, they feature newly designed cases measuring 35mm in diameter either white gold, red gold or stainless steel. Each is a piece unique, with the white gold edition being auctioned for charity in May 2025 at Phillips in Association with Bacs & Russo for CFP Arts in Geneva. It has a lovely blue dial, which feels very arctic, along with a white minute scale and guilloché rehaut.
The other two unique pieces will be kept as part of the Universal Genève archive. The red gold edition has a fetching black dial with luxurious gold scale and matching gold hands. Lastly, the steel edition has a silver tone dial and red gold accents. It’s also my personal favourite because steel makes the most sense for the adventurous origins of the collection, pioneering Scandinavian aviation routes.
All three of the Polerouter SAS Tribute watches house a vintage 1960s movement, the micro-rotor calibre 1-69. It’s a really solid movement given its age with a 57-hour power reserve, although it does have a fairly low frequency by today’s standards at 2.5Hz. It’s protected by a solid caseback.
While these are unique pieces, if this is the type of watchmaking we can expect of Universal Genève in 2026, consider our appetites well and truly whetted. A new Polerouter is all but guaranteed so while it won’t be a surprise, it will certainly be welcome. What’s almost more interesting is what other projects they have up their sleeves.
Price and Specs:
Model:
Universal
Genève Polerouter SAS Tribute
Ref:
JU6910
(18k white gold), RU6910 (18k red gold), AU6910 (stainless steel)
Case:
35mm
diameter x 9.95mm thickness, 18k white gold, 18k red gold or stainless steel
Dial:
Blue,
black, silver
Water resistance:
50m
(5 bar)
Movement:
Universal
Genève original Microtor caliber 1-69 from the 1960s
Frequency:
18,800
vph (2.5 Hz)
Power reserve:
57h
Functions:
Hours,
minutes, seconds
Strap:
18k
white gold bracelet or black calfskin leather
Price:
n/a,
piece uniques
More details at Universal Genève.
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