REVIVING THE GLORY OF NIVADA GRENCHEN

Nivada Grenchen timepieces have been in the watchmaking industry since 1926, the year when Jacob Schneider first created it in Granges (Grenchen). In 1976, his son Max took over the business. In the United States of America (USA), the Croton Company distributed all Nivada Grenchen watches. The timepieces can have either the Nivada Grenchen or Croton signature, or both.

In 1930, Nivada Grenchen was one of the first companies to manufacture automatic watches. This led to the creation of Nivada Grenchen’s first waterproof automatic watch called the Antarctic in 1950. The watch was worn by the members of the American Navy’s Deep Freeze 1 during their expedition to the South Pole from 1955 to 1956.

Since then, Nivada Grenchen has become known for its Antarctic’s robust and reliable performance in extreme conditions. In 1961, the company launched the Chronomaster – a waterproof chronograph up to 200 meters. It had three distinct collections, namely: Chronomaster, Aviator, and Sea Diver.

In 1964, Nivada Grenchen released another breakthrough timepiece – this time, a diver’s watch called Depthomatic. It was the first diver watch with a depth indicator or bathymeter. A year later, another diving timepiece was introduced under the Depthmaster model – a dive watch that could withstand a pressure of 100 ATM or 1000 meters.