Some watches arrive with fanfare. Others earn their place through a photograph, a gesture, or a glance across a pit lane. The Universal Genève Compax that circled the wrist of Nina Rindt in the late 1960s did all three.

Nina, born Nina Lincoln in Helsinki in 1943, had already built a career as one of Scandinavia’s most in-demand models before motorsport entered her orbit. Married to Jochen Rindt, Formula One’s future world champion, she turned the paddock into her catwalk. Her look of sleek headband, leather trousers and silk scarf knotted just so, made timing laps appear glamorous. On her wrist sat a Universal Genève Compax ref. 885103/02: white dial, black registers, red seconds hand.

Nina Rindt wearing her Universal Genève Compax

That jolt of colour, rumoured to have been swapped in by Jochen so she could read it more clearly amid the blur of race cars, became her signature. And when she slipped the watch onto a wide bund strap she’d found in a Paris boutique, she created something completely new: a chronograph with attitude, a tool turned fashion.

After Jochen’s fatal crash at Monza in 1970, Nina retreated from public life. Yet the image of her on the timing stand, with her chronograph in hand, endured. The watch she wore became one of the most coveted vintage chronographs of all time, an emblem of elegance that needed no endorsement, only presence.

Reclusive for decades, she quietly re-emerged to collaborate on the Tribute to Compax, guiding small details of the new design and sharing memories of her original watch. Her involvement lends the project a rare authenticity and proves that, even after half a century, she remains the quiet heartbeat of the Universal Genève story.

A Sleeping Giant Wakes

Fast-forward 60 years. Universal Genève, once the darling of mid-century chronograph design, had been silent for far too long. Its revival began quietly in 2024 with the Tribute to Polerouter, a tasteful re-introduction that reminded everyone why the maison was once nicknamed Le Couturier de la Montre or the tailor of watches.

Universal Genève Polerouter SAS Tribute, 2024

Now comes the follow-up, and it strikes straight at the heart: the Tribute to Compax, unveiled today in Geneva. It isn’t a remake so much as a love letter to Nina, to craftsmanship and to the spirit that first defined Universal Genève.

Universal Genève Tribute to Compax

The Watch

Featuring a 36mm case in 18-carat white or red gold, the watch has proportions lifted directly from the 1960s original. Inside beats the Universal Genève Calibre 281, a manual-wind, column-wheel chronograph that first appeared in the brand’s golden era of the 1940s. Measuring 28.5mm across and 7.1mm thick, it belongs to the famous 28x family of in-house movements that cemented Universal Genève’s reputation before the quartz years.

Universal Genève Calibre 281

The 281’s architecture of horizontal clutch, beautifully shaped bridges and crisp pushers is the stuff of connoisseur lore, often mentioned in the same breath as Valjoux or Lemania but with a more refined finish. For the Tribute to Compax, Universal Genève has restored original 281 movements from its archives, rebuilding and hand-finishing them in Meyrin. A quiet but meaningful decision, the brand is literally winding its past back to life rather than dropping in an outsourced ébauche.

The dials are grand feu enamel, powdered glass fired up to 10 times at more than 800 °C, giving the surface a depth of tone impossible to print or plate. Six dial variations exist including white, black, brown and a shimmering translucent blue, each punctuated by a crimson chronograph hand recalling Nina’s watch.

Close up on the dial

The enamel making post-furnace unpolished vs. polished

In a final nod to its inspiration, the watch is presented on a bund cuff by Satoru Hosoi, the Japanese leather artisan who trained in Tokyo and Florence before mastering his craft at Hermès and Moynat. His version is built from three interlocking layers of calfskin, sewn as one, stamped Universal Genève × HOSOÏ-Paris and offered in brown, black, taupe or olive. It’s more Paris couture than pilot issue, exactly as Nina would have demanded.

Making of the bund strap by Satoru Hosoi

Universal Genève Tribute to Compax

Available only in two sets of three, the proceeds from the sale of each set will go to fund apprenticeships at the Geneva Watchmaking School, ensuring that the crafts sustaining this revival don’t disappear when the spotlight fades.

The Men Behind the Curtain

Behind Universal Genève’s rebirth stand two figures who need little introduction to anyone who follows contemporary watchmaking: Georges Kern and Grégory Bruttin.

Kern’s fingerprints are everywhere. Since revitalising Breitling, he’s shown that revival doesn’t have to mean nostalgia, but energy, precision and narrative clarity. His decision to bring Universal Genève under the Breitling umbrella feels less like a corporate acquisition and more like a restoration project born of genuine affection for the name.

Bruttin, meanwhile, provides the counterweight: the watchmaker’s watchmaker, formerly Head of Product Strategy at Roger Dubuis, where he helped define that brand’s architectural calibers and expressive movement design. He brings depth, discretion and a reverence for the métiers that underpin fine watchmaking.

Together, they’ve re-established Universal Genève in new workshops in Meyrin, where production is deliberately small and intensely artisanal. “The Tribute to Compax is a statement of where we’re going,” says Bruttin. “Refined luxury shaped by the hand, not the algorithm.” Kern is, as ever, more direct: “Nina Rindt’s chronograph wasn’t about status; it was about attitude. That’s what we’re reviving.”

A full relaunch, with new manufacture movements, is planned for 2026. But this watch already signals the direction: fewer pieces, more personality.

Why It Matters

Every revival claims authenticity but few earn it. Universal Genève’s new Compax works because it isn’t trying to out-shout anyone. It leans into the proportion, restraint and craftsmanship that made the original great and layers it with a human story that still feels current.

Universal Genève Tribute to Compax

Collectors may debate which version of the 1960s Nina Rindt was the purest, but everyone agrees on the essence: it was a watch that looked as good on a woman timing a race as on a man winning one. The Tribute to Compax captures that same balance of elegance and grit as it quietly salutes a woman who made function look like freedom.

Tech Specs: Universal Genève Tribute to Compax

Movement: Restored manual-wind Calibre 281; 36-hour power reserve
Case: 36 × 12.67mm in 18k white or red gold; water-resistant to 50m
Dial: Grand feu enamel in white, black, brown or blue; red chronograph seconds hand; Super-LumiNova hands
Strap: Bund strap by Satoru Hosoi (HOSOÏ-Paris) in brown, black, taupe or olive calfskin
Edition: Two complete sets (six watches total) with proceeds donated to Geneva Watchmaking School