The Nivada Grenchen Chronosport Blue

Nivada Grenchen goes back almost a century to 1926 and has a sizeable portfolio to draw from for modern reissues, such as the Depthmaster “Pac-Man”, Super Antarctic and many more. Although a victim of the Quartz Crisis, like many other brands, it came back in 2020 with faithful releases at accessible prices. The latest Chronosport Blue is a little different as it’s based on a prototype that never saw proper production and joins the Chronosport with a black dial from last year. Only around 20 of the original prototypes were made, so you could say the revived Chronosport models are five decades in the making.

Guillaume Laidet took control of the brand in 2018 to begin a new chapter, eventually leading to the 2024 Chronosport (almost) by chance. He stumbled on a very rare prototype at an auction and posted it on Instagram, and it quickly went viral. The demand was clearly there, and plans for a production version began. The original has a unique aesthetic with a dial designed by Jean Singer, among the most celebrated dial makers in Switzerland. His unusual and exotic approach is seen in watches like the Omega Speedmaster Racing and Heuer Skipper, and he’s also behind the SpaceOne brand with Parisian watchmaker Theo Auffret.

The stainless steel case has vintage-inspired proportions at 38mm in diameter and 15.7mm in height (43mm lug-to-lug), although the latter is definitely bulky, and the watch has a surprising amount of weight on the wrist. That said, it wears well (outside of a cuffed shirt, maybe) and the unique three-link steel bracelet joins a smorgasbord of leather, rubber or fabric strap options, so finding the right look and fit won’t be an issue.

The case is mostly brushed with bold, polished lateral bevels, and the fluted unidirectional rotating bezel has a black aluminium insert with a main 60-minute scale and a small 12-hour counterpart on the inside perimeter. A yellow lume pip sits at 12 o’clock. Classic chrono pushers sit at 2 and 4 o’clock, while the oversized crown screws down to ensure 200 metres of water-resistance. A double-domed AR sapphire crystal protects the dial, and there’s a solid screw-in caseback.

The textured blue dial again joins the textured black dial from 2024, and there are two embossed, black sub-dials at 9 and 12 o’clock. You’ll immediately notice Jean Singer’s work as the exotic print on the sub-dials almost perfectly matches his Paul Newman Rolex Daytona sub-dials at 3 and 9 o’clock (ref. 6239 as an example). The 9 o’clock sub-dial has the small seconds, while the 12 o’clock sub-dial has a 30-minute counter. Black hour and minute hands have Super-LumiNova inserts, while applied indices have matching lume dots at the tips. A framed date window sits at 3 o’clock. If you want to measure speed, a tachymeter also circles the outermost perimeter, while a detailed minute/chrono seconds track sits just inside. The dial simply has different colours than last year, but they add up to make a significant visual difference.

Powering the Chronosport Blue is an ETA Valjoux 7750 automatic cam-lever chronograph with 25 jewels, a beat rate of 28,800vph (4Hz) and a 42-hour power reserve. Functions include central hours, minutes and chronograph seconds, 30-minute counter, small seconds and date. It’s a very proven and widely used workhorse chronograph movement.

The Nivada Grenchen Chronosport Blue retails for EUR 2,395 on a strap and EUR 2,625 on the steel bracelet, which isn’t bad for such a stylish and historic Swiss chronograph with Jean Singer’s dial design.

For more information and to place an order, please visit Nivada Grenchen’s website.