There is no sign that the current trend for reviving historic designs is reaching exhaustion for the watch industry.
Driven by a new breed of watch lovers discovering vintage styles and origin stories, and fuelled by limitless educational resources from the specialist press, throwback watches are here to stay.
Nivada Grenchen, with lineage back to the mid-1920s, but mothballed following the quartz crisis in the 1980s, was relaunched in 2018 by Guillaume Laidet as he saw the rising popularity for historic marques and their mid-20th century timekeepers.
Today it is building on early momentum, and growing interest in its vintage watches, with the launch of a limited edition Depthmaster dive watch using “new old stock” (NOS) movements and dials.
NOS movements are increasingly commonplace, with manufacturers rescuing, refurbishing and reusing mechanisms that were rendered all-but worthless when quartz deposed mechanical watches.
NOS dials are less common, and have a bit of a perception problem to overcome because they are associated with Frankenstein watches that have been cobbled together to make a certain style of vintage watch out of old parts.
Nivada Grenchen will not face that issue with its new Depthmaster NOS, which is limited to 10 pieces because that is how many slightly faded glossy orange vintage dials Mr Laidet discovered in the company’s storage.
The Depthmaster was first seen in 1965, and set a new standard of 3,300 foot water resistance when 1,000 or 2,000 feet was more common at the time.
Its dials used Tritium for luminescence (replacing radioactive Radium, which was used by the industry into the early 1960s).
This gives give the dials a different, more authentically retro, glow compared to the modern Super-LumiNova that is used in new core collection (not limited) Depthmasters.
Another distinction from core collection models is that the ten NOS models have a date display at 3 o’clock, which exposes the vintage date wheel below.
Both the core collection and limited edition NOS Depthmasters use the same 39mm cushion-shaped steel case with a steel diver’s countdown bezel.
The core collection uses a three-hand SOPROD P024 automatic movement while the NOS piece is equipped with a refurbished ETA 2472.
Customers can choose from a wide range of straps and steel bracelets for the NOS Depthmaster.
Nivada Grenchen has the limited edition NOS Depthmaster on sale from January 18 for $2,890 while the core collection piece is available now for $995.
