While the watch industry braces for Watches & Wonders next week and anticipates a flurry of new releases to discuss that will take us through the next several months of watch discourse, today is actually the day that many collectors and enthusiasts have been waiting for for years: the debut of new watches from Universal Geneve. When it was announced that the brand would be formally relaunched by Georges Kern back in December of 2023, speculation began immediately as to what we would eventually see. Little tidbits have come out in dribs and drabs over the last two years, but today the watch community finally gets a look at what Universal Geneve will be in the modern era, at least to start.
A few things are very apparent from the outset. This is a big swing on the part of Kern and others steering the ship at Universal. They could have gone small, and introduced a one or two references to reintroduce the brand to the community slowly, but instead they’ve come out o the gate with nearly 40 SKUs, with prices ranging from a relatively modest $14,000 all the way up to $320,000 for an elaborate jewelry focused Cabriolet (and that’s the only elaborate, jewelry focused piece).
The other thing that’s clear is that the launch feels focused on the Polerouter, a Gerald Genta design that is likely the most well known watch under the broader Universal Geneve banner. It got the reference book treatment a few years back, and, once upon a time, was one of the most frequently recommended vintage watches to new collectors (prices have risen sharply in recent years, so while they remain great watches, they don’t represent the same insanely great value they once did).
For the purposes of this launch, we’ll start by looking at the new Polerouter. This is the watch that many suspected would be the focal point for UG as they’ve closed in sharing these new releases, as it’s a watch that can be made to be both accessible (at least in luxury terms) and dressed up as something special and decadent (there have long been precious metal Polerouters, and this new collection has references with diamonds and beautiful stone dials as well).
I think collectors will largely be satisfied that the new Polerouter works effectively as a tribute to the classic design, with few subtle twists that bring it into the modern era. This is hardly a dramatic reworking: every model features the signature twisted lugs, crosshair dial, and outer dial ring that became so associated with the Polerouter since its debut in 1954.
The Polerouter will be available in two sizes, 39mm (featuring a date, with the iconic trapezoidal window at 3:00) and 37mm. The larger watch is available in stainless steel with a black dial on an alligator strap, or a blue dial with a matching bracelet. There’s also a 39mm variant in rose gold with a brown dial and brown alligator strap. The 37mm Polerouter is available in steel with a black dial or a rose gold with a diamond set bezel and white mother of pearl dial.
Universal Geneve has also created several “capsule editions” of the Polerouter (and other watches they’ve launched this week) which serve as what they describe as artistic reinterpretations of the original design. These include “Polerouter Hardstone” references in 39mm, with stone marquetry dials made from lapis lazuli and tiger’s eye in rose gold, as well as a bull’s eye stone edition in stainless steel. There’s also a three piece Polerouter Camaïeu collection in 37mm cases, which features dials in aqua mint, berry, and toffee, all with slightly different tints in each dial quadrant (these references also feature diamond set bezels).
Perhaps of greatest interest to fans of the vintage Polerouter, the biggest news around this release is the debut of a new movement, the UG-110. One of the great charms of the classic Polerouter is that many references used a micro-rotor caliber, part of the reason the watches were able to be made so slim. The UG-110 is also a micro-rotor movement, and powers every Polerouter in the new collection. It’s 3.8mm tall, which allows for a 9.5mm thick case on the 39mm Polerouteres, and a 9.35mm thick case on the 37mm references. The UG-110 has a 72 hour power reserve.
As it is with any big new release, we expect much of the initial conversation around the Polerouter and other Universal Geneve releases to revolve around pricing. We were told very early on when news of the relaunch first broke that the revived UG would be positioned as a luxury brand, so we didn’t exactly have hopes that we’d be getting an affordable Polerouter, or any other watch, that would be in impulse buy territory. The basic 39mm and 37mm Polerouters in steel on a strap will set you back CHF 14,000, which equates to about $17,500 based on today’s exchange rate, and not taking import taxes into account. Pricing goes up from there: the blue dialed 39mm reference on a bracelet is listed at CHF 16,000, rose gold model in 39mm is CHF 32,000, and the steel stone dial is CHF 20,500 (precious metal stone dials are CHF 38,850 and CHF 65,100, the latter of which is tiger’s eye on a full gold bracelet).
So, yes, these are expensive, luxury watches, and I’ll be curious to see the reactions in the community to the pricing strategy, particularly in the wake of the almost universal consensus that the new Omega Constellation collection was dramatically overpriced (these Polerouters certainly exist in parallel with those Omegas in a lot of ways). Frankly, I was anticipating a $20,000+ Polerouter, so the fact that this comes in under that figure is a bit of a pleasant surprise. That said, I haven’t seen these watches in the metal, so have no way of knowing if the quality is there, but it would be a shocking development if it wasn’t after such a long wait and, by all accounts, carefully considered relaunch.
We’ll have more on the new watches from Universal Geneve in the coming weeks. Until then, you can check out the full collection at their website here.
