A History and Guide to Nivada Grenchen

Jacob Van Buren

Oct 12, 2025

For over 150 years, the Swiss town of Grenchen has been a byword for watch production. Nestled at the foot of the Jura mountains, the region hosts the headquarters of brands like Fortis, Breitling, and ETA. It is also home to a brand, once lost to time, that produced some of the most innovative tool watches of the 1950s and 1960s — Nivada.

Nivada was founded by Otto Wüllimann, Hermann Schindler, and Jakob Schneider in 1926 as Wüllimann, Schneider, Nivada SA. The young brand was dedicated to producing precise and highly functional watches, as evidenced by its pioneering work on automatic calibers, water resistance, high accuracy, and chronographs.

By the 1930s, they had achieved recognition through several national exhibitions and entered an agreement with the Croton Watch Company to distribute their watches in the United States. Previously, Movado had challenged its ability to participate in that market due to the perceived similarity of the two brands' names. The brand came up with a simple solution — watches in the U.S. market would feature Croton on the dial, thus resolving the issue. Nivada formally changed its name to Nivada Grenchen in 1958 as part of this.

The 1950s proved to be the start of a golden age for the young brand. To kick off the decade, Nivada launched the Antarctic in 1950. It was the sort of simple, elegant, everyday water-resistant watch that would define practical timepieces of the mid-twentieth century. In a twist of fate, it would be put to the ultimate test. That year also saw plans begin for what became the International Geophysical Year (IGY), based on the earlier International Polar Years, to promote scientific research and international cooperation during a time of growing Cold War tensions. Planners chose 1957-58 as the IGY, and nations began their preparations.

The U.S. Navy, with its rich history of polar exploration going back to the mid-nineteenth century, had begun charting the Antarctic coastline following the Second World War and making notes of future landing sites and bases. This experience saw the Navy charged with supporting U.S. scientists during the IGY, and a preliminary task force set sail to the South Pole to begin preparations from 1955 to 1956. Its commander, veteran polar explorer Admiral Richard Byrd, supplied the name: Operation Deep Freeze. And on the wrists of these explorers? The Nivada Grenchen Antarctic.

By the 1960s, Nivada watches were available in over 80 countries. In 1961, the brand released what would become its most iconic timepiece — the Chronomaster Aviator Sea Diver. There was nothing else like it on the market. Featuring a chronograph, tachymeter, yacht timer, and a dual elapsed time and secondary timezone, it was an ambitious design marketed at those living active lives, like pilots, racing drivers, doctors, and skin divers.

The mid-1960s saw further dive watch innovation from the brand, including 1964’s Depthomatic — though advertisements appear in Skin Diver Magazine as early as 1960 for it — with its charming integrated capillary depth gauge, and 1965’s Depthmaster, complete with a staggering 3,000 meters of water resistance. Its unique case and iconic“Pac-Man” dial layout became legendary, but it would not last.

Unfortunately, like many other Swiss brands, the Quartz Crisis of the 1970s deeply impacted Nivada. The brand was forced to close its Solothurn production plant in the late 1970s and underwent a series of changes. Soon, it disappeared from the market. The brand lay dormant for decades, taking on a new life in the enthusiast community as a classic for in-the-know collectors with an eye for unique mid-century design.

FEATURED NIVADA GRENCHEN WATCHES

That all changed in 2018 when Guillame Laidet and Remi Chabrat relaunched the Nivada Grenchen brand in its Swiss home after so many years. They started small with a three-watch collection of the brand’s greatest hits — the Antarctic, the Chronomaster, and the Depthmaster, all of which met with resounding acclaim by enthusiasts.

In the following years, Laidet and team have introduced variants of the watches featuring higher grade as well as vintage and mechaquartz movements, in addition to recently revived designs from the 1970s, including the lesser-known integrated-bracelet F77 and rate Chronosport prototype. Earlier in 2025, they also revamped the Chronomaster again, converting the entire line to use a unique interchangeable bezel system, allowing for rapid adjustments to the watch’s style.

Nivada has effectively shown the power of careful curation from a back catalog, offering the charm of vintage designs without the headaches. With nearly a century of innovation behind them, the latest incarnation of Nivada shows no signs of slowing. To see more of our favorite Nivada watches, check out the brand page on the Windup Watch Shop. As always, the Windup Watch Team is available via consultation to answer any questions you have. In addition, many of the products shown are eligible for free domestic shipping across the US.

People Also Read