Superb 1955-1956 Universal Genève Polerouter Ref. 20217/4

Launched in November 1954 to celebrate Scandinavian Airlines System’s first transpolar flight, Universal Genève’s Polerouter is the founding work of a young Gérald Genta. Antimagnetic and shock-resistant for pilots flying over the North Pole, it introduced his signature design choices. Reference 20217/4 features the 35.5 mm steel case with a glossy black lacquered dial, powered by the Universal Genève caliber 138 SS with bumper rotor – and thus belongs squarely to the first-generation Polerouters, before the introduction of the micro-rotor caliber 215.
The example we have the pleasure of offering (serial number 1807xxx, produced in 1955-1956) is in excellent overall condition. The steel case has almost certainly never been polished. The superb black dial is equally fine: the original luminescent material (radium-based), on both the hour markers and the Dauphine hands, has developed a warm, even patina of unmistakable vintage charm. The caliber 138 SS has recently been serviced by one of our experienced watchmakers and runs perfectly. We present this watch on a new Amplitude° strap in “Gold”-coloured pigskin leather, hand-stitched by our craftsman, whose shade echoes the patina of the radium, completed by a vintage steel pin buckle.
A direct witness to the very beginning of Genta’s body of work, in one of its rarest configurations.

On 15 November 1954, a Douglas DC-6B in Scandinavian Airlines System livery took off from Copenhagen bound for Los Angeles, charting a route over the North Pole for the first time in commercial aviation. To commemorate the event and equip its pilots, SAS had commissioned from Universal Genève, in advance, an antimagnetic and shock-resistant watch designed to withstand the proximity of the magnetic pole: the Polarouter – which would be renamed Polerouter in 1956. The design was entrusted to a designer then external to the house, aged just 23: Gérald Genta. For the future father of the Audemars Piguet Royal Oak, the Patek Philippe Nautilus and the IWC Ingenieur SL, it was both the first major commission of his career and the piece that marked his entry into watchmaking history.

The Polerouter introduced several of Genta’s signature design choices: a round case with so-called “twisted lugs”, an “engine-turned ring” around the periphery of the dial, a central two-axis “crosshair”, and tapered Dauphine hands. Mechanically, the very first Polerouters, made between late 1954 and mid-1956, were fitted with the Universal Genève caliber 138 SS, an automatic with bumper rotor – a system, specific to the earliest automatic movements, in which the weight does not rotate but swings between, and knocks against, two buffers. Between 1955 and 1956, Universal would replace it with the celebrated micro-rotor caliber 215, which powered the Polerouter for the rest of its career. Examples powered by the 138 SS, produced over just a few months, are consequently among the earliest and rarest of the lineage.

Reference 20217/4 presents the Polerouter’s steel case in its canonical 35.5 mm format, with a solid screw-down caseback and a superb glossy black lacquered dial. The example we have the pleasure of offering, serial number 1807xxx (produced in 1955-1956), is in excellent overall condition. The steel case has almost certainly never been polished: its bright surfaces have retained their original geometry, and its twisted lugs their characteristic sharpness. The superb black dial is equally fine: the original luminescent material (radium-based), on both the hour markers and the Dauphine hands, has developed a warm, even patina that lends the piece unmistakable vintage charm. The movement, Universal Genève caliber 138 SS with 17 jewels, has been fully serviced by one of our experienced watchmakers and runs perfectly.

We present this watch on a new Amplitude° strap in “Gold”-coloured pigskin leather, hand-stitched by our craftsman, completed by an unsigned vintage steel pin buckle – a choice of attire that extends the spirit of the piece and echoes the colour of the radium. The engravings of the serial number and reference remain perfectly legible on the outside of the caseback.

The Polerouter is, strictly speaking, Gérald Genta’s founding work: everything he would later deploy – the geometric audacity of the Royal Oak, the integrated profile of the Nautilus, the confidence in direct legibility – is already sketched out here, in this watch commissioned by an airline for its transpolar pilots. To acquire a 20217/4 with caliber 138 SS today is to own a direct witness to that debut, in one of the rarest configurations of the lineage.

This Universal Genève Polerouter reference 20217/4 is preserved in excellent overall condition.
The steel case has almost certainly never been polished: its bright surfaces have retained their original geometry, and its twisted lugs their characteristic sharpness. The engravings of the serial number and reference remain perfectly legible on the outside of the caseback.
The superb black dial is equally fine: the original luminescent material (radium-based), on both the hour markers and the Dauphine hands, has developed a warm, even patina that lends the piece unmistakable vintage charm. The background remains a deep black, and shows a few small superficial pits or oxidation spots, visible in full light.
The self-winding mechanical movement, Universal Genève caliber 138 SS with 17 jewels, has been fully serviced by one of our experienced watchmakers and runs perfectly.
The Amplitude° strap in “Gold”-coloured pigskin leather, hand-stitched by our craftsman, is new, and completed by an unsigned vintage steel pin buckle.
An excellent example!

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