Nivada Grenchen is hotly tipped to be challenging in the affordable luxury space in the coming years, having been revived under the direction of Guillaume Laidet in 2018 and the relaunch of its iconic mid-century Antarctic and Chronomaster Aviator Sea Diver timepieces.
Mr Laidet is still under-40, but has an impressive CV that includes marketing roles at LVMH’s Zenith, Sowind Group’s Girard-Perregaux, and Richemont’s Jaeger-LeCoultre, which put him at the heart of the action in Swiss watch circles.
He then gained a different perspective during the 2016 launch his own fashion watch brand, William L. 1985, and then moved onto supporting the relaunch of historic marque Vulcain.
This year’s first launch for Nivada is a Chronoking Aviator Sea Diver has a movement that uses battery-powered quartz to ensure smooth accurate power with mechanical gearing to drive hours, minutes, seconds, date and its chronograph.
Only 100 are being made of the watch, which comes in a polished and brushed steel case measuring under 13mm high.
“I wanted to give all Nivada Grenchen lovers the opportunity to acquire an affordable chronograph that doesn’t look like a hockey puck on their wrist. The battery replaces the barrel, and the quartz replaces the balance. Everything else is gearing. It shows in the thinness of the case, and in the fine price point. The meca-quartz movement was the ideal solution to get the thinnest chronograph possible at an extremely competitive price. More than that, the meca-quartz movement brings together two watchmaking schools, combining the precision of quartz with traditional mechanics, the poetry of cogs in a way,” Mr Laidet describes.
The watch is on sale now for €438.
