Polarouter, Polerouter & Polerouter Date dials: a brief survey with some observations

Very impressive effort and insights displayed here - thank you for sharing your insights.

Can I humbly second this sticky suggestion?

A rather intense period at work over the past several months has now subsided; to help me unwind, I’ve taken a look at some watches, in view of trying to better understand the issue of hour and minute markers on Polerouter dials. I’ve assembled some information for my own reference; I share it here for your interest and input.

I focus below on describing hour and minute marker configurations found on a few types of Polerouter models: SAS/Polarouter, Polerouter, Polerouter Date and, to a small extent, the Polerouter De Luxe. I have not looked at other Polerouters such as the Jets, Supers, Electrics, etc. In addition to describing the various configurations, I’ve made a first attempt at organizing them in some basic way for purposes of discussion and further analysis.

In a nutshell, here is my read of what I’ve seen so far:

1. Some dials have crosshairs, some do not

2. Crosshairs can be full or partial (i.e. lines on a full crosshair go north-south and east-west, lines on a partial crosshair only go east-west)

3. Some dials have hour/minute markers, some do not

4. Hour/minute markers come in at least six varieties:
- Applied “arrows”
- Ticks
- Ticks and dots
- Stipples
- Applied “batons”
- Applied “rectangles”

5. Some dials with tick-and-dot-style markers have one dot at 12, some have two dots at 12

6. On dials that have a full crosshair and either tick markers or tick-and-dot markers with two dots at twelve, sometimes a tick overlaps the crosshair at 12, sometimes it does not

7. A full crosshair sometimes extends all the way to the chapter ring’s edge, sometimes it does not

The schematic immediately below depicts these observations in concept. While some of the observations are fairly obvious when considered individually, they get more interesting when considered in combination. Subsequent figures further illustrate with aid of dial photographs I found on the internet (some of which are my own, many of which are yours (thank you)).




While the combinatorics in the figure above are not exhaustive for the parameters considered, I trust they will form a useful starting point for discussion, nonetheless. There are also likely to be key parameters I have simply missed: I hope we can expand this together over time.

It will be seen that I have labelled relevant branches above with either a letter or number. For example, Dials with no crosshairs are labelled “A”, dials with a full crosshair are labelled “B”, dials with a partial crosshair are labelled “C”. The absence of markers is denoted as a zero, different marker types are respectively assigned a non-zero number. Further branches are also numbered, including in reference to the number of dots at twelve, the presence or absence of a tick and crosshair at twelve, and whether the crosshair extends the full length of the dial or not. While this numbering approach is quite cumbersome, it is intended to help us cite specific “paths” in our discussion (and help identify missing paths, where applicable). I expect that we will develop a more intuitive parlance as we go along.

The following figures provide some visual examples for each of the paths identified (starting from the left of the schematic and generally moving towards the right). I went into this with the intent to show as wide of a range of different references as I could for any given path, and minimize the use of identical models to support the same observation. This turned out to be easier said than done in many cases. For instance, I wasn’t able to find many examples of stipple markers, applied baton markers or applied rectangle markers. Likewise, certain combinations tended to show up only on a limited range of model types – in these cases, I relaxed my own rules in the spirit of “more pics = more better”. Also on the subject of pics, I wasn’t too fussy about correct crystals, hands and crowns in my image selection – my focus here was on the dials. That said, I may have inadvertently let a redial or two slip in; if you spot one, please let me know.

There are some paths for which I could not find any examples whatsoever. These paths are shaded in the tree diagram above. I’ve left them in for now in case some examples eventually come along that fit the bill. Over time, we may want to prune the tree (and/or expand it as required). Of further note, there is one path for which I did find a few examples, but I am suspicious of them – these examples are flagged by question marks in the images below and the path’s terminus is shaded in light red in the schematic above.

While all of this is limited to description rather than analysis, I do hope that we can take it further. To this end, I invite you to point out anything that is incorrect here and/or anything that is missing. In either instance, I’d appreciate if you could provide a few good supporting examples to clarify and better complete the record. I’d also appreciate any advice on a more sensible way to organize this information. Moreover, as one next step, I’d be interested to better understand whether certain marker configurations are well correlated with certain types of models, movements or serial number ranges (the answer is clearly yes in some cases, but I haven’t yet given it much thought). Any insights you could offer in any of these or other regards would be greatly appreciated.

In closing, please don’t be shy: I’d love to hear from you, including any thoughts you might have based on your own scan of Polerouter dials. Thanks very much for listening and thank you again, ΩF, for the space!

Thanks much, gents - I appreciate the kind words. As for crazy collectors, this place is certainly full of them (where do you think the inspiration came from?😉)

A, you certainly are the leader in Polerouter research. Simply impressive stuff.

I share another Polerouter I got, think it's not on your archive.

Hope this helps.

Great work, A!

I didnt see this one so maybe a possible add but I have a doubt on the dial...
Full cross hair, no logo, white dial, arrow marker

Great work! Thank you so much!

I would argue for a sticky thread so that we can find this easily.

Great work with a lot of intelligence to the public thanks to your diligence Severin. Just want to throw this up here and get some thoughts from the pole router expert. What do you think about this dial?

We've seen a variety of such cloisonne dials, my favourite is discussed here: https://omegaforums.net/threads/ug-polerooster.3857/#post-305052

I've included pics below of some examples I have on my phone right now. I honestly have no idea where these come from or why. Others will no doubt have more insight. Fwiw, ref on the "knights on horseback" piece is 112167. Number for the Saudi piece is cited a 102221 and 1629306 (claims to have a 138 movement, others i've seen claim a manual wind movement, I forget the caliber). Plenty of them to see in the auction catalogues, "Universal Geneve Cloisonne" as a search term will generate many hits. Sorry I could not be of more help on this one - I'm really only a one-stringed fiddle. Looking forward to hearing from you as you find out more about these.

The Antiquorum book on UG features some of these cloissones:

Is this authentic?

It's a (bad) redial at least...

Thanks. That was my feeling also. It looks like a bad copy of this -

Somebody selling it to me for USD600.

A redial is essentially not a fake? The dial was just retouched?

Thanks again.

I agree with @gop76 that it is a redial. As for the rest of it, it may be a bit of a pot pourrie. For example, the case and crown look to me that they might belong to a bumper model, notwithstanding the word Microtor on the dial. I am not sure/could very well be wrong. Do you have pics of the inside? Thank you

(edit: p.s. Here's a slightly better pic of the watch you show above (it is mine)):