Universal Geneve’s demise is especially startling because if you look at the 1960s, no one was doing it like them. I mean, if Hermes felt comfortable putting its name underneath Universal Geneve on the dial, that says it all.
market, also sold Universal Geneve timepieces alongside Patek. Hell, Henri Stern Agency, the firm that sold Patek Philippe into the U.S. Universal Geneve is widely remembered as one of the most tragic losses to the Quartz Crisis: a brand that once held a status approaching that of Omega or Longines. So I guess Universal Geneve was similarly charted on a health-care based model to realize synergies on these two acquisitions? From the looks of it, Stelux has quite the portfolio: according to its website, a year before acquiring Universal Geneve, it acquired “an up and coming optical business,” subsequently moving it to a health-care based model to capture the fast-growing 'silver-haired' demographic. The acquisition came after Universal Geneve had hollowed itself out over the previous two decades, heavily transitioning to producing quartz watches in response to the Quartz Crisis. In 1989, Universal Geneve - or rather, the shell of the once venerated Swiss watch brand - was bought by Stelux, a Hong Kong-based investment group.
Instead of starting at the beginning this week, let’s start at the end.
