Available Now: Fratello × Nivada Grenchen Racing Chronograph

The first month of spring is a special one for many reasons. At Fratello, it is mainly due to our latest collaboration, the new Fratello × Nivada Grenchen Racing Chronograph. We are offering five dial variants with 10 watches in each color for a total of 50 pieces. The exclusive pre-order week starts NOW and ends on the 26th of March at midnight CET. This week, you can get one of the 50 Fratello × Nivada Grenchen Racing Chronographs for a special price of only €1,499 (excluding VAT). Head over to the Fratello Shop and get yours now.

But only after you have read the article. We are super excited about this collaboration as it focuses on a genre of watches that most of us love — chronographs. Not only that, but it also comes with a hand-wound movement, as so many of Nivada’s great vintage watches did. But let’s not get ahead of ourselves yet; let’s start at the beginning.

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Fratello × Nivada Grenchen Racing Chronograph

It may not be our last collaboration, but it is my favorite. For starters, I was heavily involved with the design process. Guillaume Laidet of Nivada Grenchen and I were bouncing ideas back and forth off each other. We looked closer at the vintage Nivada catalog since both of us are fans of models from a bygone era. The final product is the result of this collaborative effort. Additionally, thanks to its external and internal features, the Fratello × Nivada Grenchen Racing Chronograph is an amazingly versatile timepiece. The size is perfect for everyone; it’s not too big or small. The complication is something most watch lovers enjoy too. Who would not want a 38mm chronograph on their wrist, right? Finally, its introductory price of €1,499 (excl. VAT) is more than competitive in this segment.

Five dials, five styles

As overused as this sentence may sound, a dial can completely transform the look of a watch. Sure, a bracelet or a well-picked leather strap can as well, and while our Fratello × Nivada Grenchen Racing Chronograph comes on a bullet-style steel bracelet, you can always throw your favorite 20mm strap onto it. But what sets the watch apart is that we created five different dial versions for the first time in the history of Fratello collaborations. We have black, panda, reverse panda, brown, and white, so everyone can find a color or style that matches their personality. However, one common thing about all of them is the racing scale that we took from a vintage Nivada model from the ’70s. The only change was that we used orange instead of red for the scale and the central chrono seconds hand. After all, if it’s a Fratello watch, it must have something oranje.

Easy on the wrist

While the inspiration for the dial and the overall look for the Fratello × Nivada Grenchen Racing Chronograph came from one specific model, for the case, we reached back to another timepiece from the brand’s vintage catalog. The Nivada Chronosport is as rare as hen’s teeth. I’ve only ever seen a couple of examples in the world. However, its district case shape and bezel were the perfect housing for our watch. So we took that case as inspiration, changed the bezel to steel, and blew the case up to 38mm. It’s only 13.75mm thick and just 44.3mm from lug to lug, which makes the timepiece easily wearable and extremely comfortable, even on larger wrists like mine. I love how the bullet-style bracelet tapers down from 20mm to 16mm at the buckle end. It’s a superb vintage style that puts the focus on the watch itself more than the bracelet.

Sans date and automatic winding

What brands often don’t get is that if you want to create a vintage-inspired watch, you must go all the way. You can’t reproduce a vintage timepiece and add a note to it. The die-hard fans won’t like it. Especially when it comes to vintage chronographs, a true connoisseur will always celebrate a re-edition with a manual-wind movement rather than an automatic one. Well, that’s what we chose. You will also find no date window on the Fratello × Nivada Grenchen Racing Chronograph. Furthermore, the Sellita caliber SW510 M b is a nicely decorated movement that you can adore through the sapphire crystal on the case back. It offers the wearer a 63-hour power reserve, a 28,800vph frequency, and 23 jewels. What more could you ask for? Water resistance. Our Fratello × Nivada Grenchen Racing Chronograph has that too. The case is rated water-resistant down to 100 meters.

The Fratello × Nivada Grenchen Racing Chronograph is available now

I hope that by the time you read this, the watch you picked from our selection of five is still available. Remember, we are only offering 10 pieces of each dial color for this exclusive pre-order week until midnight, the 26th of March. As mentioned above, the price is also unique at only €1,499 (excl. VAT) for this week only. So head to the Fratello Shop now and order yours today. Just a quick note: all orders will be delivered in early June, but by then, we won’t have any left of this batch or for this price.

Let us know in the comments below what you think of our latest collaboration and what dial color you would choose!

Watch specifications