A Review of The Polerouter Book by Willis & Mazzucchi

By Charlie Dunne

In the world of watch books, I prefer those that focus on a single model. Titles such as MoonWatch Only, Eric Tortella’s Blue Book Volume 3 (dedicated to the Patek Philippe reference 1518), and Fred Mandelbaum’s Premier Story: Breitling Premier, Duograph and Datora come to mind. The Polerouter book is a labor of love to a model that many watch collectors are passionate about, or at minimum are familiar with.

The book is highly illustrative, which is important, but it has great balance with information and primary source material. It features a wide range of Polerouter bracelets, and/or dial configurations within different references. This is a welcome for collectors who obsess over all pertinent details and makes the watch more useful.

Although the Polerouter model has been an iconic watch for well over a decade for vintage watch collectors, I was impressed to see many models I had not been familiar with - as well as many Universal Genève archive photos that cover the Polerouter. The only other publication I have seen UG archive information were covering the 1940s, 1950s, for complication models within Sala’s book.

Often overlooked, the details such as font, text size, color, quality, etc, are beautifully executed. I often ask myself the question before purchasing a watch book: “Is it a resource or just a beautiful coffee table book?” This book is certainly a resource in that has a great deal of detail that collectors can justify purchasing. It is also a very beautifully-designed book that I would recommend as an essential in any watch library or office - the best of both worlds.