Universal Geneve Polerouter Date Olive / Slate Grey

To shortcut the flights from Europe to California (USA) by some thousand kilometers, the airline SAS (Scandinavian Airline System) opened new routes over the North Pole in the 1950s. All crews on these flights had to take part in a special training at the "SAS's Arctic Flight School". The Swiss watch manufacturer Universal Genève provided the crews with automatic precision wrist-watches that are resistant against the strong magnetic field of the polar region. They became the official chronometers of SAS. This design was commended to 23 year old Gerald Genta who also was the same designer of the legendary Audemars Piguet Royal Oak and Patek Philippe Nautilus. Soon this Polerouters, specially the Date versions, became a sought after for collectors all around the world.

This early 1960s example has a beautiful, mint and extremely rare olive green/grey dial that changes colour dependant on light, from a metallic grey in the shadows to this bright olive hue when the sun hits it.

This beautiful dial has perfectly aged tritium lume dots that match perfectly with the original hands. This late ‘twisted-lugs’ Gerald Genta design came with this colourl from factory and is not tropical, but extremely rare to find one, even more in this condition. This is definitely one of the grails of the Polerouter family.

Applied logo and a beautiful reflective inner silver fluted ring are some of the features that compliment the gorgeous dial. The 36mm case excluding the original UG signed small crown, are all integrated in the all stainless steel case which sharp and unpolished.

The famous twisted lugs are UG’s sign of character adding so much value to the piece. It has the original acrylic crystal with the trapezoidal date magnifier (same shape as the date window itself) that really enhances the lovely and original font with open 6 and 9 numerals. Again, a difficult feature to find on a Polerouter. The caseback has some marks due to normal wear but the logo and serial and reference numbers remain clearly visible as it is unpolished. 

It houses a Microrotor cal. 69 that is clean and running smooth, keeping excellent time as it has been fully serviced by our watchmaker.