RAOUL PERRET: FROM CRISIS TO “WATCH COUTURIER”

Raoul Perret’s leadership, innovation, and creativity at Universal Genève led to the creation of timeless and elegant pieces, securing the brand's place in history.    
 
Though Raoul Perret was likely already involved in Descombes & Perret, the watchmaking company co-founded by his father in 1894 and later known as Universal Genève, he officially joined in 1923. Perret brought a breath of fresh air and youthful energy to his craft. 
 
According to a 1963 interview in Europa Star, Perret was a lover of arts and aesthetics, favoring French impressionists and the Pompadour epoch, though he claimed his own era was the best time to be alive. The publication also credited him with being “responsible for many of the innovations in technique and design that have made the success of this brand.” By the 1960s, Universal Genève was one of Switzerland’s largest watch manufacturers with a global clientele.

Let’s rewind to 1932, when Perret was appointed director. This gave him the opportunity to implement his radical ideas. Embracing the belief that crisis can be an opportunity, he took charge at a time when the Swiss watch industry was struggling with the aftermath of the Great Depression. 
 
The industry had to adapt to survive. National statutes were created, demanding that watch companies decide whether they would operate as a manufacture—producing their own movements from scratch—or source raw movements, so-called ébauches, from watchmaking trusts.  

Perret decided to focus on refined, understated luxury timepieces that would later earn a place among the hall of fame of chronographs. The year 1935 saw the launch of the Compur, the company’s first dual-pusher chronograph. (This made Universal one of the first companies—alongside Breitling and Angelus—to adopt the dual-pusher design.) This was also the era when “Universal Watch Genève” started appearing on the dials, though it would take another five years before the company changed its name to Manufacture des montres Universal, Perret & Berthoud SA. 
 
Thanks to what many experts and collectors refer to as “the highest quality you could achieve on an industrial scale,” combined with innovative and consistent marketing, the company expanded rapidly in the Americas. It also grew in key European markets such as France, Germany, and the UK. In 1936, all these markets welcomed the Compax with open arms. It was one of Universal’s most revered chronographs, capable of timing events to one-fifth of a second for up to 12 hours.  
 
To meet the increased global demand, Universal soon expanded its existing facilities on Geneva’s central Rue du Rhône and, in 1941, built a new factory 130 kilometers away in Les Ponts-de-Martel. The latter was the facility that produced the Tri-Compax in 1944, a chronograph featuring a complete calendar, created to mark the 50th anniversary of the company.

These chronographs would live in Universal Genève’s catalog for decades, with several design updates to keep them of their time. 

Ten years after the war ended, Perret, who claimed that he was in constant touch with everything published in fashion, interior design, and architecture, dared to take on a collaboration with a budding 23-year-old designer named Gérald Genta. This young designer would go on to change watch history forever by designing watches like the Nautilus and Royal Oak, but in 1954, he had his breakthrough moment with the Universal Genève Polerouter.  
 
The Polerouter, initially named the Polarouter, was the official timepiece for the newly introduced transpolar flights by Scandinavian Airlines. Its understated style and effortless sophistication perfectly captured the optimism of the era. It was somewhat ironic that, despite the Polerouter's success, Perret once told Europa Star that air travel “leaves me completely cold, I find it the least poetic of all transport.”  
 
The Polerouter played a key role in Universal’s decision to build another manufacture the following year in Carouge, on the outskirts of Geneva. Raoul’s interest in architecture became evident when he commissioned a state-of-the-art factory with a 60% glass façade for optimal light, set on a concrete slab to minimize vibrations, and equipped with sound-proofed control rooms.