Rebirth is the process of reincarnation, being born again into a period of new life and growth; a revival
– it is one of the most exciting cycles in the watch industry as it once again makes available iconic watches from the past; reuniting fans with once loved but oft not forgotten models –
while allowing those at the helm of a newly resurrected brand to take advantage of current watch-making technologies, breathing more than only new life into their timepieces.
A time also for rediscovery for those that remember and once wore, and for the aficionado who enjoyed the pursuit of a fine vintage example or two for his collection.
But more than anything when an iconic brand is reborn, it is time for new discovery for today’s watch buying public who have a voracious appetite for neo-vintage and retro diver’s watches.
Today more than ever, the luxury watch industry is largely focused on bringing back historic models – everyone from Alpina to Zenith and every Swiss brand in between has some sort of reissue in their lineup.
It is one thing to bring back a new model, but to reincarnate a whole brand along with its portfolio – this is truly something, but something that Nivada Grenchen aspire to.
ALSTA,
AQUADIVE,
BENRUS (scratch that one, a new level of underwhelming, I’m afraid),
FAVRE-LEUBA,
LeJOUR,
OLLECH & WAJS,
TRITON,
YEMA,
ZRC and many more; once again the waters are breaking as another iconic brand prepares to emerge from time's womb.
BTW OceanicTime was first (in many cases) or among the first to report on all the above brand’s comebacks.
So who do we have to thank for the return of Nivada Grenchen?
French entrepreneurs, Guillaume Laidet, formally of Jaeger-Lecoultre and Zenith, and founder of William L.1985 along with Remi Chabrat the owner of private label watchmaker, the Montrichard Group, first conceived NG’s rebirth just two years ago.
Remi was in business with the Mexican group, Holzer Y Cia SA de CV, current owners of the Nivada brand.
Guillaume told him of the huge potential that such an iconic brand like Nivada Grenchen held with watches such as the mythical Chronomaster Aviator Sea Diver, the legendary Antarctic, the Depthmaster, Datomaster, Travelmaster et al.
Last year, the Holzer group gave them the license to use the Nivada Grenchen copyright. For the past year, they have been working on this exciting project to once again make Nivada Grenchen great!
The adventure will first start with the Chronomaster and the Antarctic. Then if the project works out they will reissue the Depthmaster and Datomaster and many other successes from past collections.
The samples were launched at the beginning of 2020 and preorders will be available in June on their website.
The production will start at the beginning of July and deliveries will be made in December 2020 (current Covid-19 crisis allowing).
The plan is to remain as faithful as possible to the OG models using authentic specifications while offering obtainable prices.
NG will be keeping a keen eye on their
FB and
IG follower’s comments. This is your golden opportunity to troll them into reissuing the NG of your dreams. ;)
Distribution will be kept to NG’s website plus a few very carefully selected retailers so that they can maintain reasonable pricing as well as exclusivity.
The CASD manual winding chronograph will be priced around 1600€ with a leather or tropic strap. The CASD automatic chronograph will be around 1800€ with a leather or tropic strap.
All NG collections will be Swiss made and Swiss assembled using Sellita movements.
Thoughts? Just the prospect of a Depthmaster reedition or better still the Pac-Man with its bonkers hour markers (Google it!) is going to put me and others in dire need of some Kleenex.
Seriously do you think they would have the cojones to do a Pac-Man dial? See what I did there with the Mexican reference – I dunno’ why I bother ;)
However these guys have chosen the safe and classy route with the Antarctic and Chronomaster collections.
The CASD is an absolute beauty but unfortunately it’s served up in a pint-sized 38mm, palatable only to the purist watch nerd.
So please hurry up and help make this a success so we can move onto the Depthmaster.
Follow the link embedded, below for more info.
