PW Project Watch

In 1926 the watchmaking house Nivada SA was founded in Grenchen, Switzerland. Years later, driven by the progressive success of its watches, Nivada decided to expand its trade even beyond Oceano. For this reason in 1939, he signed a commercial agreement with Croton Watch Co. Inc., a company founded in 1878 in New York and dedicated to the import and trade of Swiss watches in the United States.

In the same year, Movado, a Swiss watchmaking house, believing that the name Nivada was too similar to its own, tried to prevent the marketing of these Swiss watches in the United States of America. For this reason he filed a lawsuit against the Grenchen company. Initially the dispute was resolved in favor of Movado and it was thus that the Nivada Grenchen was created. However, in 1953, believing that the addition of Grenchen was not enough, Movado reopened the issue, but this time the American judge did not recognize the charges. Despite this, Nivada decided to add Croton to his name. From this moment on, many watches produced by Nivada and sold in the United States have been branded as Croton Nivada Grenchen, Croton 1878 or simply Croton.

Nivada’s story continued and in 1961, it launched the Chronomaster Aviator Sea Diver (CASD), a multi-function chronograph that was produced for about a decade. As the long name suggests, this model was able to combine in itself a 200 m impermeability, a tachymetric scale, a diving bezel and a second time zone.

The Chronomaster Aviator Sea Diver is undoubtedly the most iconic model in Nivada. All Chronomasters have a round case, straight lugs, two counters, bidirectional black steel bezel with double function, tachymeter scale and yachting area in the minute counter at 3 o’clock (area with a countdown of five minutes before the departure of the sailing regattas).

Despite this, over the years this iconic model underwent variations, some minimal others more important. In addition to the colors used in the dial, the most obvious example is the hour hands. Basically, the Chronomaster was marketed with two types of hands: the broad arrow hands, seen in the first models and the subsequent baton hands. In addition, there are a couple of references with the lollipop second hand, a choice dictated by the fashion of those years.

Let’s now focus on the calibers of the Nivada chronograph. The movements used by the old Chronomaster were basically five: Venus 210, Valjoux 92, Valjoux 23, Landeron 248, Valjoux 7733. Among these there are both cam-based caliber (Venus 210, Landeron 248, Valjoux 7733) and column wheel caliber (Valjoux 92, Valjoux 23).

The first Chronomasters used the Venus 210 movement, which between 1962 and 1963 was replaced by the Valjoux 92. Subsequently, around 1966 and 1967, the two brands chose different calibers. The Nivada or Nivada Grenchen brand models adopted the Valjoux 23 caliber (also used by Croton but only for a reference). It is important to remember that the Valjoux 23 (bi-compax) was used on the chronographs of prestigious watchmakers such as Audemars Piguet, Patek Philippe, Rolex and Vacheron Constantin. The very famous Rolex Daytona used the tri-compax version: the Valjoux 72. Unlike Nivada, the America company preferred to use, at first, the Landeron 248 caliber (used by Nivada in a single model) and finally, between 1969 and 1970, the Valjoux 7733. This movement animated the last Chronomasters initialed Croton 1878 or Croton.

In all this explanation it must be remembered that Venus SA, Valjoux SA and Landeron SA, over the years, came under the control of Ebauches SA (ASUAG group). This passage is fundamental because it testifies to the connection that exists between these calibers. In addition, in 1966, the Venus was absorbed by the Valjoux. The Venus (188/210) movements effectively formed the basis for the Valjoux 7730 caliber and consequently its derivative ETA 7750.

Two further clarifications:

• the Valjoux 7733 used in the last Croton models of the 70s is nothing more than the 7730 caliber with some modifications.
• The caliber seen in the Chronomasters of this millennium the Sellita SW 510 is practically the remake of the ETA 7750.

Inactive for 40 years, Nivada was reborn thanks to two French entrepreneurs already active in the watchmaking sector: Guillaume Laidet and Remi Chabrat (CEO of the Montrichard group). The new owners, after taking over the Nivada license of the Mexican company Holzer y Cia S.A. de C.V. (Grupo Industrial Omega S.A. de C.V.), have relaunched the brand by re-proposing some watches from the past.

The name Holzer may be familiar to Omega fans, especially. This company is just the same one that produced some of the bracelets used by Omega, also in the Speedmaster, for the American market.

Interest in this legendary model has also grown thanks to the Chronomaster Only guidebook created by two professionals in the sector such as Grégoire Rossier and Anthony Marquié (the same authors of Moonwatch Only) and with the help of an important Italian collector Matteo L..

It is precisely from this book that Nivada took inspiration by re-proposing the Chronomaster Tropical dial model that I will talk about in a future article.