Universal Genève Exotic Nina Rindt

Universal Genève was founded in 1894 by Numa-Emile Descombes and Ulysse Perret as ‘Universal Watch.’ In 1917, the company brought a first to the world by releasing a wrist-worn chronograph. At the time, wristwatches were mostly reserved for women, but Universal saw the increase in functionality as the one wouldn’t need an extra hand to hold or operate the chronograph.  Two years later, the company relocated to Geneva after briefly being based in Le Locle. This move cemented the name for the brand as Universal Genève.

1933 brought the tragic passing of the company’s founder as his son was poised to replace his father, keeping the business in the family for the next 30 years. Perret’s son began the big push for mass productionas they began creating some of their most regarded models today. In 1934, Universal produced their first serially produced wristwatch: the Compur. In 1936, the brand launched their first pilots watch: the Aero Compax. The same year, the company replaced the Compur name with Compax which served as the company’s first serially produced version of their wrist-worn chronograph. The company would then begin to use the Compax architecture to build a number of different models that included various ‘complications.’

Shortly after, Universal began work on one of their most prolific collaborations in their history. Working with Hermès, Universal designed the Pour Hermès line of chronographs that were based off of Universal’s existing series of Compax chronographs. Square pushers, telemeters and tachometers, and Breguet balance springs came together to produce one of the company’s rarest creations to date. Advertisements show this collaboration and are exceedingly desirable today.

The late 1930s brought the start of WWII as the brand began gearing up for the production of military watches. Watches were delivered across Europe to both Axis and Allied Powers. The first to receive Universal military watches were the Dutch Royal Forces with every watch featuring then-Queen Wilhelmina’s initials on the dial. As the war progressed, Axis Powers such as the Royal Italian Air Forces and Nazi Luftwaffe began receiving watches. As legend goes, Nazi Reichsmarschall Hermann Göring exchanged his oversized Compax for a cyanide pill to his cell guard during the Nuremberg Trials. Despite this tale, most believe that Göring simply administered his Nazi issued cyanide capsule and the watch was merely a coincidence. The war closed with Universal on the right side of history as U.S. President Harry Truman was famously spotted wearing his Universal Tri-Compax at the Potsdam Conference in the Summer of 1945. The watch was engraved with the inscription “WORN AT POTSDAM – July 1945 – BY Harry Truman.”

Speaking of Tri-Compax’s, the company launched the now well regarded model in 1943 at the Basel Watch Fair amidst the destruction of WWII. The watch bears an uncanny resemblance to the layout of the Patek Philippe ref. 1518, with some believing that the watch was a direct response to that model as the brand potentially hoped to provide an affordable alternative. Even more amazing is that the brand was able to secure a relationship with the Henri Stern Watch Agency in Manhattan, the sole distributor of Patek Philippe in the United States. This allowed patrons to view both the incredulously expensive ref. 1518 alongside the Tri-Compax.

After WWII, Universal began experimenting with more casual models as they had the great fortune of working with world famous watch designer Gèrald Genta. Genta produced one of his first watch designs that resulted in the creation of the Polarouter, announced in 1954 with a caliber 138SS Bumper movement. One short year later, Universal replaced with caliber 138SS with the innovative caliber 215 micrometer movement. It wasn’t until 1958 that patrons saw the name change from Polarouter to Polerouter. The model was produced until late 1969 as Universal explored many variations, even working with Scandinavian Airlines to produce Polerouters for their pilots.

The 1960s also brought the rapidly increasing popularity of sports watches, and as a result, Universal began changing their existing product line to capitalize on the trend. Watches like the Compax and Tri-Compax were redesigned in larger cases and their dials were slightly changed. The resulting watches were more aggressive and robust in appearance, catching the eye of many celebrities and well known individuals. One such individual is Eric Clapton, otherwise known as Slow Hand, God, or the best guitarist of all time (sorry, John Mayer). One of Clapton’s frequent wears was a panda dial Tri-Compax that has been well photographed on the musicians wrist during his time as Cream’s lead guitarist and vocalist.

The Compax was spotted on the wrist of Nina Rindt, the wife of the famous Formula One Driver, Jochen Rindt. As a result of this appearance, the 1960s Compax was dubbed ‘Nina Rindt.’ These watches were produced in two dial colors, black and white, both with contrasting sub-dials. Additionally, Compaxes were produced in extremely low production numbers with a pair of exotic dials. It is known that less than 25 of each reference, both blue and silver dials, still exist today and it is not entirely known why they were produced in such low numbers.