Nivada Grenchen – Cal R34 – SS – 1960’s - Serviced

Nice dressy Nivada Grenchen with light cream dial and silver batons marking each hour. The sub-dial for the seconds is at 6 o’clock. The hands are silver color with Dauphine. It is a stainless-steel case with engraved outside “Gruen Guildite Base Metal – H23035” and inside “Case and time in the USA by the Gruen Watch Co. 10K rolled gold filled bezel – 415-972”. Manual winding with Nivada Grenchen Croton R34 caliber and 17 jewels. The watch comes with a brown leather band and width between lugs is 17mm. Serviced in 09/2026.

History

One company that went all-in for explorer-connected watches is Nivada, yet they are all but forgotten today. Once a major Swiss watch company, Nivada was early to bring an automatic watch to market, enjoyed success in chronographs and dive watches, and produced a successful line of chronometers. Nivada was unable to sell under their own name in the United States after the threat of a name-similarity lawsuit by Movado. They added their home town of Grenchen to the dial and struck a deal with the Croton watch company for distribution. So these watches are often known today as “Nivada Grenchen”, “Croton Nivada Grenchen”, or just “Croton”, if they are known at all. 

In time for International Geophysical Year, Nivada supported the US Navy “Operation Deep Freeze” with a durable waterproof, anti-magnetic watch they named “Antarctic”. This would become one of their signature products, alongside the solid Chronomaster chronograph line.

Technical details

Nivada Grenchen Croton manual winding movement with caliber R34 and 17 jewels. Serviced in 09/2026.

Measurements

Diameter excluding winding crown: 34mm


Length including lugs: 39mm