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The engraving looks to be of very poor quality and I'm not sure it's even central or level but someone has gone to a great deal of effort to remove the logo and engrave the SAS emblem assuming it is a fake.

 

A clip from a great movie comes to mind ...

 

Don't get me wrong, I am not comparing this to the original SAS Polarouter De Luxe watches.

I think it's hideous and, in isolation, would assume it was a poor fake and move on without giving it any further thought.

However we have seen other gold Polerouters that were made for the US market with engraved dials.

If you were picking a watch to create a fake, would you really choose this one? There are few Polerouters that are less desirable. The cost of engraving the dial would be significant compared to the low value of the watch.

However if you were an SAS Exec in the US in the late 60s/70s . . .

 

Is this a legit movement? Looks like it's a replica.

 

Why do you think that?

 

I'm not that familiar with the later movements but I think it's a Cal 72 and absolutely fine.

 

Never seen that movement before but I'm not familiar with later microtor movements. Thought it was strange that it is unnumbered and the rotor is kind of large. Just wanted to check.

 

I am with you on why someone would create a fake out of this watch. Maybe it was for practice. Maybe it's not even fake, and it is for an executive in the later years. But looking closely at the engraving I can't help but feel that this is a wackjob. The lines are not straight. The flags and the crowns are not symmetrical. The SAS font is uneven. And to top it off, it's not even engraved in a right angle.
But why go through the trouble? It is an enigma this watch.

 

My favorite movie of all time

As for the watch, I have no idea.....

 

Perhaps we should send up the Bat Signal for @Dre to chime in with his two cents, as he just "landed" an original engraved version...?

 

There are lot of similarities between this watch and the first gold SAS that he landed (not the Polarouter De Luxe) albeit the standard of engraving here seems to be much lower.

 

I’m thinking legit, but someone added the engraving later, after removing the normal logo.

Looks like a family crest or some organization. Either Swiss or catholic is my guess.

 

The fact that it’s a legit late Polerouter is not disputed (my original post had a picture of another example with a standard dial).

The engraving is the Scandinavian Airlines emblem. We’ve seen it on other gold Polerouters that were made for the US market (as well as the spectacular early SAS Polarouter De Luxe models).

The question is whether this watch has had the engraving added more recently in order to deceive or whether it was created for a US based SAS employee in the late 60s/70s.

The consensus seems to be that it’s a fake because the engraving is poor but I know that not everyone agrees with that viewpoint.

 

Looks like a custom deal by an engraver, hard to believe its done by UG !

 

Someone spent some time on it.

 

If it were legit, would that not have been the case?

SAS could have simply bought the latest Polerouter model in gold that was available locally in the US market and then got it engraved locally with the SAS logo.

 

The discovery of that other late-model SAS Polerouter by @Dre ...
(described here: https://omegaforums.net/threads/polerouter-sas.39910/)


...lends credence to the theory that SAS might have commissioned these as presentation watches. Can anyone tell if both watches were produced about the same time?

 

And this one too (I know that it was not universally accepted as being legit before anyone gets too excited).

One similarity between Dre's watch above and the one below, is that the text was moved from its usual position on the dial (and not just removed) in order to fit the engraving in the top half of the dial. In my opinion, this makes it much more likely that these watches were genuine.

This latest version has simply had text removed.

 

The movement is a 2-66 caliber. It was shown at the Geneva watch fair in 1972 and used on a number of models from 1974 until approximately 2001. By the time that watch was produced, there would have been far better machinery and techniques for engraving dials. Judging by irregularities, mistakes and differences in the engraving that can be seen, I would conclude that the dial was engraved by hand and not by an experienced one come to that. It probably looks nice from a distance, without magnification but it is completely out of place in terms of chronology, style of font on dial, quality (non existent) and model.



Bottom line is that it is a 70s (not 60s) polerouter that would be worth more if it had not been butchered!

 

As I noted above, the movement is a Cal 72. It has the date and weekday indicator. I'm not sure the Cal 66 was ever used in the Polerouter range.

I agree that the engraving has been done by hand and that it is not of high quality.

Could you explain what you mean by "it is completely out of place in terms of chronology, style of font on dial . . . and model"?

If there was a practice of buying and engraving gold Polerouters for SAS employees in the US extending into the 60s and 70s, why would this not fit?