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SAS Polarouter - Black Dial

Diabolik
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I have heard of printing (using cliches), spraying, gilding and etching but not of galvanising when making watch dials. I never heard of or seen a galvanised watch dial from the 50s. I would ask your expert to give you an example of a galvanised dial from the mid 50s ...

here is an interesting video of watch dial making. The reason why only one side is printed is self explanatory ....

Edited:
 
styggpyggeno1
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Diabolik Diabolik
...snip...

The gold SAS examples were presented to:

Hans Hedtoft (Denmark)
Erlander Day (Sweden) (His name was Tage Erlander - Styggpyggeno1 comment)
Oscar Torp (Norway)

... snip...

I have, as you may know, one of the (supposedly) three gold SAS Polarouters and I have searched but never found any hard evidence about them being presented to the heads of state.

As this thread is all about evidence vs probability - it would not be too much to ask to see some hard facts in regard to this claim.

On a personal note – I of course would be enormously grateful if there were evidence of it and if - that you could share them.

On a further personal note – I commend the OP on his/hers attitude “under fire”. Keep it up and keep on digging.
 
Mazoue
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Diabolik Diabolik
I have heard of printing (using cliches), spraying, gilding and etching but not of galvanising when making watch dials. I never heard of or seen a galvanised watch dial from the 50s. I would ask your expert to give you an example of a galvanised dial from the mid 50s ...

Gilt dials on Rolex Submariners produced from the mid 50s to the mid 60s were created using a galvanic process.
 
Mazoue
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styggpyggeno1 styggpyggeno1
I have, as you may know, one of the (supposedly) three gold SAS Polarouters and I have searched but never found any hard evidence about them being presented to the heads of state.

As this thread is all about evidence vs probability - it would not be too much to ask to see some hard facts in regard to this claim.

On a personal note – I of course would be enormously grateful if there were evidence of it and if - that you could share them.

I would also be very interested to see any evidence regarding the awarding of SAS Polarouters to dignitaries and crew of that first commercial polar flight. I've read the story many times but not seen any evidence other than the rock solid provenance provided by @Fidjeland on this forum, whose father was Chief Flight Engineer.

Interestingly, I had thought that all of the white dialled examples were the same but the second example on the now defunct http://www.polerouter.de/frameset-sammlung.htm website has a different dial with lume dots and minute markers. Evidence that there were other variations?

polerouter60-big.jpg
 
Diabolik
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styggpyggeno1 styggpyggeno1
I have, as you may know, one of the (supposedly) three gold SAS Polarouters and I have searched but never found any hard evidence about them being presented to the heads of state.

As this thread is all about evidence vs probability - it would not be too much to ask to see some hard facts in regard to this claim.

On a personal note – I of course would be enormously grateful if there were evidence of it and if - that you could share them.

On a further personal note – I commend the OP on his/hers attitude “under fire”. Keep it up and keep on digging.

Sorry, cannot provide any evidence but remember reading somewhere that the Gold Polarouters were specially produced and presented to the three government dignitaries named, that were on board of the first commercial polar crossing. Scrolling through the swedish papers of the time (probably available on microfiche) is likely to provide further info.

You are a very lucky man ... That watch is well worth much more that its weight in gold. Any chance of some pics ?
 
styggpyggeno1
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Diabolik Diabolik
Sorry, cannot provide any evidence but remember reading somewhere that the Gold Polarouters were specially produced and presented to the three government dignitaries named, that were on board of the first commercial polar crossing. Scrolling through the swedish papers of the time (probably available on microfiche) is likely to provide further info.

You are a very lucky man ... That watch is well worth much more that its weight in gold. Any chance of some pics ?

Believe me - I have scrolled and searched for a couple of years:

https://omegaforums.net/threads/very-close-now-update-closure.21646/

(Sorry if derailling the thread about the black dial-investigation)
There are a couple of things about the "heads of state" theory. To my knowledge there are only two known examples (mine and the other one in the above link). Both have surfaced in Sweden. The other one, on a gold bracelet, was sold in Sweden at auction in 2011. The gold bracelet is not original to that watch - it says in the auction description. It also says it was sold with a "SAS original box". There could be a third but also a fourth and a fifth. Or - there are just two. There is no possible way to know.

If given to a Swede, a Norwegian and a Dane it would seem unlikely, but not necessarily impossible, two of them would have stayed in Sweden. Knowing a bit about Tage Erlander he would unlikely have kept the watch (a company branded gift) if given to him. If there is any substance to the rumour about them being given these watches and that there are three of them - there is the possibility that one or two of the other also would not keep their watches. We will very probably never know. IT is a nice theory but until I see a picture or other documentation of it - it is only an internet rumour.
 
Mazoue
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I would love to see the "SAS original box".

I wonder if it was one of these, which I think were probably just Polarouter boxes that happened to refer to the relationship with SAS, or something even more exciting.

336168-505d34828fd22f91d7f4fc0afad5ce62.png
 
styggpyggeno1
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Mazoue Mazoue
I would also be very interested to see any evidence regarding the awarding of SAS Polarouters to dignitaries and crew of that first commercial polar flight. I've read the story many times but not seen any evidence other than the rock solid provenance provided by @Fidjeland on this forum, whose father was Chief Flight Engineer.

...snip...

I would say there are as close to evidence as one can reasonably ask - the above Chief Flight Engineer provenance together with these pics. Of course we do not se the dials in the pictures but together with above provenance one could not ask for more.

https://omegaforums.net/threads/1954-sas-universal-polarouter.3806/

Universal-polerouter-SAS-Piloter.jpg
26271-9b759d52079a4b9b6f63f4fdd25f82b1.jpg
Edited:
 
Mazoue
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Totally agree but it would be great to know more.

The Leif Viking, sister plane to the Helge Viking, flew the same polar route at the same time, only in the opposite direction from Los Angeles to Copenhagen.

The final photo from the post above is actually the crew arriving in Copenhagen on 16th November 1954. This is the crew of the Leif Viking and not the crew of the Helge Viking. You can tell based on the aircraft registration number. As you can see from the photo below of the Leif Viking leaving Los Angeles, it has registration number "LN-LMP".

Given that @Fidjeland confirmed that his father was in the above photo, then it means that the watches were awarded to the crews on both the Helge Viking and Leif Viking. This seems feasible as both flights were very high profile and were seen as firsts in their own right.

sastranspolarlax1000.jpg
 
Mazoue
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Below is a photo of Prince Axel of Denmark being greeted having arrived in Los Angeles on the Helge Viking (note the totally different aircraft registration number).

Given that Prince Axel was on board, in addition to the three prime ministers, this would suggest that at least four of the gold SAS Polarouters were created.

It's not impossible that the American and Canadian dignitaries that flew on the Leif Viking to Copenhagen were also awarded gold SAS Polarouters - the governor of California, the mayor of Los Angeles, and Canada’s minister of transportation were on board.

aadenmarklazfotoebay.jpg
 
Mazoue
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As the owner of the much later gold engraved SAS Polerouter, I was interested/amused to spot that Tore Nilert was on board the Leif Viking. Here's a picture of him with Cyd Charisse who christened the Leif Viking before its first polar trip.

sasarticlelat901rev.jpg
 
Vitezi
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The Prince at the creation of the SAS consortium in this photo:
321305_07.jpg
(thanks)
Edited:
 
Vitezi
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Mazoue Mazoue
Evidence that there were other variations?
Yes there apparently were two variations. This version with minute markers and lume dots appeared on IG in November 2016:
15056671_535707326636877_1770389530910654464_n.jpg
(thanks)

And Jose Carlos Saldanha's version appeared in May 2017:
18380783_299470407145186_8446041286229622784_n.jpg
(thanks)
 
carlosvg82
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I love Polar and Polerouter watches, also the sub ones. Geral Genta made a good work with the design of these UG watches.
 
Mazoue
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Vitezi Vitezi
Yes there apparently were two variations. This version with minute markers and lume dots appeared on IG in November 2016:
15056671_535707326636877_1770389530910654464_n.jpg
(thanks)

And Jose Carlos Saldanha's version appeared in May 2017:
18380783_299470407145186_8446041286229622784_n.jpg
(thanks)

Wow, thanks, I had not seen that first picture before. Perhaps one version was given to the crew of the Leif Viking and the other version given to the crew of the Helge Viking?
 
Vitezi
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Notice the scalloped crown on the "lume dot" version. I've searched for additional images of this watch but cannot find a crown shot. Here are a couple more photos:
13151259_945537368897994_1878460065_n.jpg
(thanks)
15623940_1193945620694214_6731723369412034560_n.jpg
(thanks)

Two more photos of Jose's "non-lume" watch with different lighting:
13248843_255044381552708_1380354550_n.jpg
(thanks)
13741250_284609365235626_158891198_n.jpg
(thanks)
 
Diabolik
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Vitezi Vitezi
Notice the scalloped crown on the "lume dot" version. I've searched for additional images of this watch but cannot find a crown shot. Here are a couple more photos:
13151259_945537368897994_1878460065_n.jpg
(thanks)
15623940_1193945620694214_6731723369412034560_n.jpg
(thanks)

Two more photos of Jose's "non-lume" watch with different lighting:
13248843_255044381552708_1380354550_n.jpg
(thanks)
13741250_284609365235626_158891198_n.jpg
(thanks)


bloody gorgeous (the cat) ...
 
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