Nivada Grenchen Super Antarctic 3/6/9

What could be cooler than wearing a beautiful tool watch with history, patina and charm? A watch that has a look and a soul. All eyes are on the new SUPER ANTARCTIC 3/6/9, black version or with a “tropical” twist. Two novelties paying tribute to vintage tool watches.

Nivada Grenchen timepieces have been a part of the Swiss watchmaking landscape since 1926, the year Jacob Schneider founded the brand in Granges (Grenchen in Swiss-German). In 1976, his son Max took over the business. In the US, the Croton Company was the official distributor for all Nivada Grenchen watches, which explains why some timepieces sport the Croton signature or both the Croton and Nivada Grenchen logos. In 1930, Nivada Grenchen was one of the first companies to manufacture automatic watches. This led in 1950 to the creation of Nivada Grenchen’s first waterproof automatic watch: the Antarctic. The watch was worn by the members of the American Navy’s Deep Freeze 1 expedition to the South Pole from 1955 to 1956.

Journey to the end of the Earth

Operation Deep Freeze, 1955-56 : the first watch to set foot on Antartica

With its shimmering light blue icebergs, ageless frozen expanses, Antarctica has no longitude, only a latitude of 90°. Terra Australis, as Antarctica was referred to on the first charts – the Earth’s southernmost, most hostile landmass and the last continent to be discovered – continues to be a source of fascination for explorers, scientists, and historians ever since it was first discovered over two centuries ago. In fact, in his treatise Meteorology of ca. 350 BCE, Aristotle speculated that there must be an antipode to the northernmost region, the Arctic as it was already known; hence a polar opposite or Antarctic.

In 1955, the United States undertook a series of missions to Antarctica in support of the National Science Foundation. Operation Deep Freeze, the first permanent base to be established in one of the coldest and most austere environments on planet Earth, has been in place since the 1950s. Year in, year out, people have been heading out to Antarctica in the name of science, exploration, and for a historically unique human experience. Antarctica in winter is one of the windiest, coldest, driest, and most desolate places in the world; traveling to and from the continent is not without danger.

Polar explorer Admiral Richard E. Byrd was President Eisenhower's logical choice to serve as Officer in Charge of Operation Deep Freeze I. On his wrist, a NIVADA ANTARCTIC tool watch. A watch originally conceived for Antarctic exploration. Nivada Grenchen has since been synonymous with reliable performance under the most extreme conditions, not least for its ability to withstand great variations in temperature and humidity. A robust, shockproof and anti-magnetic watch.

Golden medallion, a tribute to the original

If we flip the watch over, we see a large gold medallion on the case back: a tribute to the vintage Antarctic model – the first watch to set foot, as it were, on the 5th continent – which sported such a decoration. It is one of the most intriguing aspects of the watch, depicting a scene from Operation Deep Freeze I, the first of several missions to establish a permanent base in Antarctica: the engraving shows an airplane and an icebreaker under the stars and a crescent moon; a mountain range and glacier in the distance. The medallion was originally incorporated into vintage Nivada Antarctic models to commemorate the International Geophysical Year (1957) and the impetus it gave to the exploration of Antarctica.

“In the vintage models, these gold medallions were only adorned on the casebacks of chronometre certified Nivada Antarctic watches. Whereas on the modern iterations, they are present on almost all the models. A very refreshing change.” Said Guillaume Laidet, co-founder of Nivada Grenchen.

The watch is available in two versions:

Nivada Grenchen Super Antarctic 3/6/9 – with a deep black dial mounted on black perforated leather strap.

Nivada Grenchen Super Antarctic 3/6/9 “Cadran Tropical” – with an intense and shimmering brown dial, the color of dark chocolate, coffee beans or tobacco drying in the sun, mounted on a caramel leather strap.

Super Antarctic “Cadran Tropical” – far from a contradiction in terms, it’s the connection that makes the particular appeal of this faithful reinterpretation of a classic. With a twist. Time to unleash your inner adventurer, with this perfect tool watch to accompany you into uncharted waters.

Nivada's latest watch connects in its name two regions of the world that are worlds apart: Antarctica and the Tropics. A voluntary dichotomy, a wink to the cognoscenti of vintage codes.

Some background…

One of the attractions of vintage watches is precisely that they have lived. A beautiful patina, yellowed indexes, visible aging are part of their charm. Like any mechanical object, watches are subject to wear, both aesthetically and mechanically. Very often, prolonged exposure to light and humidity – as in the tropics – can cause the dial to age prematurely, the hands to fade and the indexes to yellow. The developers at Nivada Grenchen decided to replicate this effect on the hands and indexes; the dial bears the imprint of an accelerated “chocolate” discoloration. The result is stunning in realism.

Among experts a “tropical" dial is watchmaking jargon for a watch face that has seen the passage of quite some time. The transformation over the years of a black dial into a "tropical" dial is rare, random and depends on several factors: the action of time; the slow oxidation of the components of the dial in contact with the air present in the case; the quantity and dosage of radium or tritium present on the indexes and hands; the composition of the lacquer or other coating used by the dial makers when the dial was made; etc.

It took a several hundred accelerated aging tests and a complex (and proprietary) recipe to produce this "tropical" dial: baking, dyes, lacquers... It is a sensitive and quite unforgiving process. Finally, one may wonder if the impact of time itself can actually be imitated?

That is the wager Guillaume Laidet, co-founder of Nivada Grenchen: “The idea was to reinterpret the style of vintage watches of the time. The dial, originally black, underwent many aging processes to obtain this characteristic ‘Tropical’ tone where warm oranges and browns blend with the indexes and hands, which have also been aged, to obtain this creamy latte effect typical of vintage watches. Our intent was to emphasize the retro aesthetic and we’re quite proud of the result,” says Guillaume Laidet, the brand's co-founder and CEO, adding: “It’s a carefully guarded recipe and as a result, each piece is absolutely unique.”

Since its digital rebirth more than 2 years ago, Nivada has been able to develop with a growing community online, especially Instagram. Since its relaunch, the brand has always relied on a sales model consisting of successive and time-limited capsule collections, offered exclusively online via a pre-order system. An intelligent and virtuous entrepreneurial model, as Guillaume Laidet, its co-founder, points out: “Our intention is to produce models as close to the originals as possible, while remaining affordable,” he explains. “The watch industry has no shortage of sleeping giants to revive,” he concludes.

The Super Antarctic 3/6/9 watch will be available at an unbeatable 750 USD, starting this coming 15 November 2022, exclusively on nivadagrenchenofficial.com. The order desk will open at 04:00 pm CET (10:00 am EST) sharp for a limited time of two weeks only. A first batch of watches will be immediately available, with a guaranteed delivery before Christmas. The second part of the orders will be fulfilled before the end of January 2023. Place yours!

Technical specifications

Nivada Grenchen Super Antarctic 3/6/9

Reference: 32032A10 - black

Reference: 32031A23 - tropical 

Case

• Material: 316L stainless steel, polished & satin-brushed
• Diameter: 38 mm
• Thickness: 12 mm
• Lug-to-lug: 45mm
• Glass: Double-domed sapphire
• Caseback: Golden medallion, representing an ice-breaker and a plane
• Water-resistant to 100 meters (10 ATM)

Dial and hands

• Black or "tropical" 
• Indexes: Creamy color patina, 3/6/9

Movement

• SOPROD P024 Calibre (based on ETA 2824-2), 3-hand
• Self-winding movement
• Diameter: 26mm
• Thickness: 4.6mm
• Frequency: 28,800 vph (4Hz)
• Number of jewels: 25
• Power reserve of 38 hours

Functions/Indications

• Hours, minutes, seconds

Strap and buckle

• Black or brown leather strap
• Strap width: 20mm
• Stainless steel buckle

MSRP: USD 750

For more information, please visit nivadagrenchenofficial.com