Knockoff nivada watches11/24/2023 ![]() ![]() There are three variants, described by Nivada’s new owners as “Are we just fine? Perhaps freaking out? Or are we fantastic?” So sunglasses for feeling fantastic, a broad smile for feeling fine and swirling eyes for freaking out. At first glance you’ll probably spot that the running seconds at 9 is, well, a bit odd. So all-in-all, this is a properly functional piece of kit. There’s a tachymeter scale on the outer dial edge too. The non-click aluminium bezel has two functions built-in a 60 minute counter but also a smaller 12 hour scale – so you can use your Chaosmaster as a dual-time watch just by giving the bezel a twist. The lug-to-lug measurement is 46.5mm taking a lot of that thickness away, so it doesn’t look like you’ve strapped a tin of tuna to your wrist. The case is 14mm thick, thanks to the mechanical movement inside (it would have been thicker with a self-winder, mind). No dinner plate recreations here, thank you. At 38.5mm it’s the same size as the original and, for our money, all the better for it. The case is now 316L polished and brushed stainless steel, water-resistant to 100m. That’s far from the most unusual thing about the watch though, as you’ll see later. It has chrono seconds mounted at the centre of the dial, running seconds at 9 and, unusually, a yachting timer countdown subdial at 3. That’s a 28,800 vph, 23 jewel movement with a decent 60+ hours of power reserve. 23 movement gets replaced with a manual-winding Sellita SW510 chronograph engine. In terms of tech specs, the original Valjoux cal. No need here though as these are all new watches. For example, if he replaces a set of hands with something new, the old hands come carefully packaged with the watch, should you want to return it to its original condition. Whether you call it art, watchmaking or iconoclasm, André’s work has humour and irreverence but also integrity. Imagine an original Omega Chronostop with its distinctive stop-seconds hand replaced with a ‘skip track’ icon from a CD player or an Air King with its second hand replaced with a fluffy white cloud. ![]() There was never any chance they would be, either, with Romaric André, the man behind seconde/seconde as a collaborator.Īndré is probably better known for turning vintage watches into, well, something a little different. Where Nivadas were always, well, a bit middle of the road, the new watches are most definitely not. Nivada Grenchen Chaosmaster x seconde/seconde x TIME+TIDEĪlthough firmly based on the Chronomaster Aviator Seadiver that launched, like fellow chronograph, the Daytona, back in 1963, there are a few features of the updated watch that are, shall we say, not traditional. Just like the old days, but for a very different market. ![]() There’s a lot of his work in the new Nivada – classic designs with outsourced movements. Monsieur Laidet took his brand William L from inception to a serious watch business. These are Hong-Kong-based Remi Chabrat, MD of the Montrichard Group for 30-plus years, and industry ideas guy Guillaume Laidet. The more desirable early chronographs like the Chronomaster are happily fetching £2,500 – £3,500 (ok, you can still pick up a three-hander for beans but you’d better get in soon) and the diving watches pull in even more.įollowing the industry implosion of the 1980s, the Nivada name itself has passed through a few hands before having a renaissance under its newest owners. A world turned upside down indeed.įor years afterwards you could find Nivadas in junkshops and antiques markets for a few quid – even fewer if you were happy to push for a deal. As with many other firms, they left little more behind them than the watches they’d made over the years and a name. Without anything unique to differentiate themselves, they struggled on for a while, but their ultimate demise in the 1980s was inevitable. Some of the first to go were those makers – like Nivada – who’d bought in movements and parts and offered a blizzard of models. Plenty of watchmakers tried to stretch their ranges with new models and new designs even trying the new quartz movements that were making the old mechanical ones obsolete. Archives that carried the stories of so many men, women and watches that were simply dumped. An entire industry quietly going to landfill. Or, more likely, just the usual, unremarkable weekly industrial rubbish collections, one after the other, across Switzerland in the early 1980s. Mark McArthur-Christie looks beyond the bewildering array of names and finds much to admire. The Nivada Grenchen Chaosmaster x seconde/seconde x TIME+TIDE is the latest member of the CHAOSMASTER Series drawing heavily on the Swiss watch brand’s CHRONOMASTER AVIATOR SEA DIVER collection for inspiration. ![]()
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