TWO COLLECTORS, ONE CHRONICLE: POLEROUTER AS YOU'VE NEVER SEEN IT BEFORE

In their retrospective book, Andrew Willis and Mattia Mazzucchi capture in minute detail the spirit of the Polerouter, Universal Genève's iconic watch.

When Andrew Willis met Mattia Mazzucchi in London in spring 2019 to hand over a Polerouter, it was then with no idea of the magnitude of the collaboration to come.

The two UK-based Universal Genève enthusiasts were buying and selling watches within a community of collectors. Although they had crossed paths on numerous occasions, their relationship remained focused on watches. With Andrew Willis working in finance and Mattia Mazzucchi in yacht design, these professional worlds, though complementary, were distinct.

Theirs was a social circle of watch collectors and enthusiasts, with a particular interest in Universal Genève. Without this shared passion for watches, they would probably never have met.

Andrew Willis remembers this auspicious encounter. When, handing Mattia Mazzuchi a Polerouter he'd come to sell, he said, "It's a shame, I was going to include it in my book."

Mattia Mazzucchi later confessed that one of the reasons he wanted to meet him that day was to propose writing a book together.

"It couldn't have been a coincidence," says Andrew Willis.

Thus began a four-year journey to create a magnificent book dedicated to the Polerouter, an iconic watch from Universal Genève. According to Mattia Mazzucchi, it was also the first watch he ever gave himself.

Entitled The Polerouter, their book pays tribute to the watch made for Scandinavian Airlines System (SAS) on the occasion of the first transpolar commercial flight from Copenhagen to Los Angeles, which took place on November 15, 1954.

The two collectors didn't call on any publishing house, refusing to compromise on the quality of their work. It's the kind of attitude and creative drive to which the visionary creator of the Polerouter, Gérald Genta, would have been sensitive.

The book is in their image, meticulous and methodical, both in terms of the number of references and the design backgrounds of the illustrations for each watch (120 in all), which also reflects their respective professional skills.

The new collaborators were faced with an unexpected event, a global pandemic that would temporarily paralyze much of the world as well as the progress of their project.

They developed this unique book largely during the months and years marked by the Covid-19 pandemic. During this period, travel was forbidden and face-to-face encounters were not only rare, but dangerous to health, especially in the months before a vaccine became available.

The pandemic, on the other hand, made the collectors' project easier, as they could now indulge their passion without distraction. Andrew Willis explains, "Every day, we spent hours looking for watches."

The analytically-minded author took advantage of this suspended time to reference the Polerouter's complete collection. He set out to match the reference numbers to the original watches, to fill in the gaps in history and knowledge using a digital approach. He defines himself as "something of a completionist" who has developed an obsession with deciphering reference numbers.

For months on end, he would ask himself the same questions: "What do all these reference numbers mean? Why is this reference different from the other?" His final conclusion was based on his hypothesis. "I thought we could list them, and that's exactly what we did."

In parallel, Mattia Mazzucchi drew on his experience in yacht design to source over a hundred luxurious materials on which to photograph the watches. He stressed that some of these materials "would be used for special pieces of furniture".

He also imagined the book's fabric cover as a tribute to the watch that inspired them. Its three interlocking circular lines represent the Polerouter's most emblematic element - its inner bezel - but also recall old film reels. The design reflects a time when we were all prisoners of time.

"I think today we forget very quickly what we've all just been through. The project came into being thanks to the time granted by the pandemic," the designer points out wistfully.

The collectors were not at all reluctant to lend their watches for the photographs in the book, quite the opposite in fact. Everyone was eager to regain a social life after being deprived of one for so long.

During a trip to New York, Andrew Willis and Mattia Mazzucchi were hosted by retailer Analog:Shift. Together, they organized an event to which Polerouter enthusiasts were invited to bring their watches to be featured in the book.

"One person arrived with a shoebox full," recalls Andrew Willis.

They also traveled to Brussels, Paris, Geneva and Milan, where the generosity of collectors was on display every time. The Japanese advertisements that appear in the book were even shared by a Tokyo collector.

Much has changed in the last five years, but Andrew Willis and Mattia Mazzucchi are very grateful both for the unprecedented involvement of the community and for their own collaboration and friendship. As for the book, the two perfectionists finally took the plunge and published it. Universal Genève's rebirth coincided fortuitously with the book's 2023 release.

"We took our time to publish it at the right time," recounts Mattia Mazzucchi, "and when we felt it was ready. "

To buy the book The Polerouter at the special anniversary price of £150, go to thepolerouter.com