Nivada Grenchen Chaosmaster
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. Mark McArthur-Christie looks beyond the bewildering array of names and finds much to admire.
The quartz crisis
It must have been one hell of a bonfire. Or, more likely, just the usual, unremarkable weekly industrial rubbish collections, one after the other, across Switzerland in the early 1980s. An entire industry quietly going to landfill. Equipment weighed in for scrap. Seventy percent of workshops closed. Archives that carried the stories of so many men, women and watches that were simply dumped.
It wasn’t for want of trying. 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. But for most, it was too late.
Some of the first to go were those makers – like Nivada – who’d bought in movements and parts and offered a blizzard of models. Without anything unique to differentiate themselves, they struggled on for a while, but their ultimate demise in the 1980s was inevitable. As with many other firms, they left little more behind them than the watches they’d made over the years and a name. A world turned upside down indeed.
For 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. Not any more. 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.
Remi Chabrat and Guillaume Laidet
Following the industry implosion of the 1980s, the Nivada name itself has passed through a few hands before having a renaissance under its newest owners. These are Hong-Kong-based Remi Chabrat, MD of the Montrichard Group for 30-plus years, and industry ideas guy Guillaume Laidet. Monsieur Laidet took his brand William L from inception to a serious watch business. There’s a lot of his work in the new Nivada – classic designs with outsourced movements. Just like the old days, but for a very different market.
Nivada Grenchen Chaosmaster x seconde/seconde x TIME+TIDE
Although 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.
Where Nivadas were always, well, a bit middle of the road, the new watches are most definitely not. There was never any chance they would be, either, with Romaric André, the man behind seconde/seconde as a collaborator.
André is probably better known for turning vintage watches into, well, something a little different. 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. Whether you call it art, watchmaking or iconoclasm, André’s work has humour and irreverence but also integrity. 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.
No need here though as these are all new watches. In terms of tech specs, the original Valjoux cal. 23 movement gets replaced with a manual-winding Sellita SW510 chronograph engine. That’s a 28,800 vph, 23 jewel movement with a decent 60+ hours of power reserve. 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 far from the most unusual thing about the watch though, as you’ll see later.
The case is now 316L polished and brushed stainless steel, water-resistant to 100m. At 38.5mm it’s the same size as the original and, for our money, all the better for it. No dinner plate recreations here, thank you. It’s got some heft to it though. The case is 14mm thick, thanks to the mechanical movement inside (it would have been thicker with a self-winder, mind). 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 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. There’s a tachymeter scale on the outer dial edge too. So all-in-all, this is a properly functional piece of kit.
Now look at the dial. At first glance you’ll probably spot that the running seconds at 9 is, well, a bit odd. 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.
Andrew McUtchen, founder of TIME+TIDE
The three variants are, in turn, a collaboration with Andrew McUtchen, founder of TIME+TIDE who says: “It feels more than ever like we live in a mad world. Through war, pandemic, extreme weather, we’ve had to ask ourselves; how do we react when the world is upside down?” As McUtchen says, “There’s a choice of swirly, phew or sunglasses – the cool one.”
But look closer at the dial. It’s not just the running seconds dial that’s unusual. André has, appropriately, inverted the printing on the entire dial – it’s all upside down. Hence the ‘Chaosmaster’ re-christening.
As André explains, “As usual, I worked on replacing the seconds hand (in three variations). But this time, the seconds hand reacts to a discreet modification of the dial’s markings. The name of the brand and the name of the watch are upside-down, to express the idea of disruption, of chaos. In short, a watch and a world flipped on their heads.”
Nivada Grenchen Chaosmaster – look closely at the details
You might spot the tiny ‘S+’ (or ‘+S’ depending on which way up you’re looking) just to the side of the inverted Nivada Grenchen name at the top of the dial. That’s for seconde/seconde, signing André’s work. The ‘L’ above ‘Swiss’ at the foot of the dial is a little more functional – it simply indicates the lume is Super-Luminova (rather than the original tritium).
Despite the humour, these are all proper watches. The customisation is done in a way that’s not shouty and that doesn’t detract from their function but will still raise a smile. The inversion of the dial printing is a bit of genius – one expects to see a maker’s name at the top of the dial and, so at first sight, that’s exactly what you do see. It’s only after a split second you notice things are different. The changes to the running seconds could be, again at a first quick look, a Fifty-Fathomsesque radiation symbol. But again, look closer and things start to make sense.
This isn’t just a gimmick though – it’s clever watch design. Making something shouty is relatively easy. Designing and creating something that makes a point but that is still absolutely usable takes a great deal more skill and nous.
Spring bars and scarcity
There are only two downsides to Nivada’s latest offering. One is easily solved, the other not. The first is the strap. The Nivada Grenchen Chaosmaster x seconde/seconde/ x TIME+TIDE arrives on a Tropic-type rubber strap, similar to the diving watch straps of the middle of the last century. It’s vulcanised rubber and you’ll have to try hard to damage it in any sort of normal use; it’s happy in hot or cold, dry or wet, fresh or salty water. But it comes on quick-release springbars which are an invention of the devil. An easy enough fix, mind, for a few pence.
The more challenging problem is that Nivada is only making 33 of each watch, they’ve priced it at £1,830 and – unsurprisingly – they’ve sold out. That said, we can see these going very well indeed on the second-hand market so keep your eyes peeled. One imagines a re-release would sell out just as rapidly.
All this goes to show that it’s a very different world today from the one the firm left in the 1980s.
Further reading
https://nivadagrenchenofficial.com/
https://timeandtidewatches.com/
Technical specifications
- Model: Nivada Grenchen Chaosmaster x seconde/seconde/ x TIME+TIDE
- Reference: /86007M
- Case: stainless steel 316L, diameter 38 mm, height 13.7 mm, water resistance 10ATM (100m), sapphire crystal to the front and solid screw-in case back.
- Functions: hours, minutes, chronograph, yachting timer
- Movement: Sellita SW510 M BH B, hand-wound movement, frequency 28,800 vph (4Hz), power reserve 63 hours.
- Strap: Tropic-type rubber strap
- Price: US$ 1,995 (RRP as of 30.11.2022)
- Limited Edition: 33 pieces for each one of the 3 versions