The Roundup: the "Universal Genève Relaunch" Edition
The Roundup
Each week, EWC will be gathering horological industry news, cultural conversations and moments surrounding our favorite topic: timepieces. Happy Friday; here’s what’s on our watch.
In case anyone thought there would be a calm before the storm of Watches & Wonders releases, Universal Genève rocked up this week with the ultimate mic drop in the form of the full relaunch of the brand. A handful of indie releases and a little bit of celebrity and industry news rounds out the week. Let’s get right into it.
New Releases
The relaunch of the Universal Genève brand was a doozy, with multiple models of the Polerouter, Disco Volante, Compax, Cabriolet, and Dioramic.
Polerouter
The highly anticipated Polerouter relaunch includes 11 variations of the iconic model, all featuring a new in-house caliber UG-110, an automatic microrotor movement. The collection is in two lines, the core Prêt-à-Porter line (in fashion terms, ready-to-wear) and limited Capsule editions. In the core line, there are five models overall, with two in 37mm cases and three in 39mm. The 37mm pieces are available in steel with a black dial or rose gold with a mother-of-pearl dial and a diamond-set bezel, and the 39mm varieties include a black or blue dial in the steel version and a chocolate brown dial in the rose gold model.
The Capsule versions include three 39mm Hardstone models with Lapis Lazuli or Tiger's Eye dials in rose gold and Bull's Eye (aka red Tiger’s Eye) in steel, and three 37mm Camaïeu models with diamond bezels and crosshair dials.
Compax
The Compax, another storied icon of Universal Geneve’s past, comes in six models - three in the core Prêt-à-Porter line with white, black, or midnight blue lacquered dials, and three in the Capsule collection with a linen-textured lacquered dial in a choice of lavender, sage green, or indigo. All of the Compax models have 39.5mm cases in either steel or rose gold, with 100m of water resistance and an in-house Caliber UG-200 column-wheel chronograph with hours, minutes, running seconds, and 1/4th second, 30-minute and 12-hour totalizers.
Dioramic
The Dioramic, in a 37mm case, has a striking and distinctive concentric fluted bezel that flows into its polished twisted lugs, with the bezel taking up much of the real estate on the dial side. The rose gold version has a black lacquered dial, while the steel version has a blue lacquered dial, and both feature a small cutout date window at the six o’clock position on the mesmerizing bezel. Both are powered by the in-house twin-barrel automatic Calibre UG-110, which features a micro-rotor.
Disco Volante
The most fun of all of the names in the entire brand catalog, the Disco Volante - flying saucer in Italian - makes it much-anticipated return, with a lugless 45mm case design and an in-house automatic Calibre UG-200 column-wheel chronograph that has hours, minutes, chronograph seconds, a sixty-seconds counter subdial on the left, and a thirty-minute counter on the right. It comes in a rose gold version with matching textured dial and a steel version with a textured blue dial.
Cabriolet
Universal Genève is also bringing back the Cabriolet, originally named the Ideo when it was introduced. These watches feature a reversible construction that is hinged so that the dial can be reversed to display what’s on the back. The Cabriolet collection has five pieces, four in the Prêt-à-Porter collection, and one in the Capsule, called the Cabriolet De Lempicka, that features hand-painted miniatures of Tamara de Lempicka's artwork on its 18K rose gold case. The Prêt-à-Porter versions have blue, white, black, or red dials in either a steel or rose gold case. All models in the Cabriolet collection are powered by an in-house manually-wound Calibre UG-111.
Other new releases
Rexhep Rexhelpi released his first eponymous chronograph, the Rexhep Rexhepi Chronograph Flyback, or RRCHF. The timepiece has a new in-house manually-wound movement with asymmetrical movement architecture that was intended to create a slim silhouette, resulting in a case thickness of only 9.7mm. It features a flyback chronograph, a jumping-minute counter, and an unconventional dial layout with hours and minutes displayed on an off-center subdial at the twelve o’clock position, running seconds at four o’clock, and minute counter at seven o’clock. The seconds hand is at the center of the dial, running along the outer track that marks the seconds. A grand feu enamel dial, smoked sapphire counters, and exhibition caseback offering a full view of the expertly finished movement round out the beauty of this piece.
Urwerk released the UR-101 Diamond Sky in a limited edition of 25 gem-set pieces. It has some of the core Urwerk features like a satellite display, crown at 12 o'clock, and angular lugs, adding a sparkling array of diamonds to represent the stars in the sky. It’s powered by the in-house automatic Calibre UR-1.01V and is in a 41mm steel case that is an impressively thin 9.33mm.
First introduced in 2025 as a collaboration with designer Eric Giroud, the M.A.D.Editions M.A.D.2 returns in two versions: the R&B and REDemption. The R&B stands for red and black, and serves as a nod to the music genre. It has a black dial plate and strap with red hour and minute discs, and will be offered via the brand’s standard randomized raffle process. The REDemption has a red dial plate with black hour and minute discs, and will be offered only to people who have participated in all four prior raffles but were unable to secure a M.A.D.1 or M.A.D.2.
Celebrity Sightings
Legendary sprinter and Hublot brand ambassador Usain Bolt made an appearance at the Ligue 1 McDonald's football match between AS Monaco (ASM) and Olympique de Marseille (OM), where he was seen wearing the Hublot Big Bang Unico Carbon Sky Blue 44M. The watch features a lightweight carbon case, skeletonized dial, and an in-house Unico flyback chronograph movement.
In a feature in Elle Magazine, Sofia Coppola was photographed wearing a Cartier Tank Louis Mini. The model was among a handful of mini models that Cartier released at the 2025 edition of Watches & Wonders.
Watch Industry News
The Chanel J12 Boat Race took place in London on April 4, marking the second year of the brand’s partnership with the race as its Official Timekeeping Partner and Title Sponsor, with its J12 watch. The race took place on the River Thames, with students representing Oxford and Cambridge Universities competing in a Men’s and Women’s race.
Minerva, the historic Swiss brand that has been nestled within the Montblanc product line as its high-end movement maker, has repositioned as a distinct entity within Montblanc, with the Minerva name appearing on the dials of its watches. Previously, Montblanc watches with Minerva movements have been double-signed with both brands. As part of the repositioning, Minerva announced several new pieces, including the Unveiled Crownless, a 41.5mm time-only watch that pulls from the brand’s history of military watches with bezel-operated complications.
