Has anyone ever seen any historical evidence to support the claim of polerouter.com that Gerald Genta designed the Polarouter? Everyone seems to cite that website as an unassailable factual source, but it provides no factual evidence. In Genta's interview with veryimportantwatches.com, he never mentions the Polarouter design, and in fact only mentions Universal Geneve once, in passing.

 

I don't see any mention of Gerald Genta on the Universal Geneve website either (universal.ch).

 

FWIW, it was mentioned in the Sala book that he designed it. There's also this article: http://users.tpg.com.au/mondodec//Gerald_Genta_Designed_Omega_Constellations.pdf from this site: http://omega-constellation-collectors.blogspot.com/2009/07/omega-constellation-gerald-genta.html

Still, I'd be interested to know more. What models did he actually design? Did he actually talk about the Polerouter in any interviews, etc?

 

...and yet that article cites no evidence either. It simply says that Genta designed the Pola/Polerouter. Is there a document from the UG archives somewhere, or a signed drawing, or an interview somewhere?

 

I followed up on this thread by contacting Desmond Guilfoyle, author of the above-noted blog post from 2009 that mentions Gerald Genta as the designer of the Universal Geneve Polerouter (and Polarouter), which was released in 1954 (http://users.tpg.com.au/mondodec//Gerald_Genta_Designed_Omega_Constellations.pdf). Below is his response, confirming that Genta told him personally that he designed the Polerouter. Many thanks to Desmond for allowing me to quote his emails to me here.

May 12-13, 2016

“I didn't make it as clear as I should have in that essay, but the information on Gerald's early life including his associations with Universal were gleaned from the Gentas during our conversations. Just looking at my original notes, Gerald said one of his very first non-contractual design assignments was in the early 50s for Universal’s Polerouter (Polarouter) project. The money he got for it was a pittance. Sadly, he is not here any more to confirm.

Some years ago there were more reference sources, including, as I recall, a long article about Genta, but over time, and despite the claim that 'once on the web always on the web', they have disappeared. That said, In conversations I had with the Gentas prior to and after that article I wrote, Gerald stated with clarity that he designed the dial and hands, and the case style was chosen after reviewing quite a number of samples from case makers. The name as you know was part of the 'over the pole' promotions of the time.

Universal's website is a bit of a hotchpotch, and, of course, the brand was defunct before the brand name was purchased, so most of the early Universal records were scattered to the wind when the company failed in the late sixties or seventies as it languished for some time until a Chinese company bought the name in the eighties.

Regards
Desmond”

 

Great initiative! At least now we know. Thanks.

 

For reference, a nice interview here:
http://www.veryimportantwatches.com/files/pdf/creating_desing_rules_en.pdf

 

Thanks, that's another great reference to have in this thread, though in that interview Genta never mentions the Pola/Polerouter.

 

FYI, this was also discussed here before : https://omegaforums.net/threads/ok-ill-bite-who-has-got-the-genta-polerouter-connection-proof.31388/


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As usual, thanks @mondodec for your efforts

 

Now, to find out who designed the Polerouter Subs! [emoji3]


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