Hands-On: Nivada Grenchen’s Affordable Entrypoint Into Chocolatey Dials: The Tropical Chronomaster
“A man who lives a placid, unvarying life doesn’t need a Nivada Chronomaster.”
Nivada Grenchen chose one of the most eloquent ways you could call someone boring with their first advertisements of what would become one of their most iconic watches. Back in 2020, the Chronomaster Aviator Sea Diver (CASD for short) was one of the brand’s core pieces as the brand re-launched itself in the modern landscape while reaching back into a deep archive of great watches that were eventual victims of the quartz crisis.
There’s been a number of variations of Nivada chronograph reissues since then – Chronoking, Broad Arrow, Lollipop, Orange Boy, Big-Eye – all recognizable to fans of the vintage brand. But the standout among them – in mind – has been the manually-wound “Tropical Broad Arrow” launched all the way back in February of last year.
It’s fair to say a person with a “placid, unvarying life” doesn’t need a brand-new Chronomaster that looks like a vintage watch roasted in the tropical sun for decades. Nor did a brand need to poke the bear, so to speak, and launch this watch into a sea of enthusiasts that are quick to decry “fauxtina.” Let’s be honest, that’s what this Chronomaster Aviator Sea Diver is – a fauxtina watch – and while I’m sure there will be a ton of people that disagree, I absolutely love it.
This specific vintage Croton Nivada Grenchen Chronomaster Aviator Sea Diver published in the book “Chronomaster Only” inspired the re-issue. Photo courtesy WATCHFID.
Photo courtesy Nivada Grenchen.
Putting aside the tropical dial for a moment, this particular Nivada Grenchen re-issue is a pretty faithful reproduction of a very specific variant of CASD from the early 1960s known as the “Brian Kelly” model. Kelly was an actor who rose to fame partly due to his role in the 1963 film Flipper and his watch was the first of the CASDs.
Compared to what was on the market then, the CASD was a remarkable watch with a chronograph with a tachymeter on the dial, a dive bezel and 200m water resistance, a second time zone on the bezel, and a regatta countdown timer. Among other interesting features of these specific early watches is the fact that according to the minds behind the collector’s tome “Chronomaster Only” every example now has a brown tropicalized dial.
Now I’ve used the term “tropical” a number of times so far, and while I’d say most readers are probably familiar, it’s worth a quick refresher for the uninitiated. To ensure that my understanding of the topic is buttoned up, I turned to my good friend and watch dealer Jacek Kozubek who runs the appropriately-named business Tropical Watch. If you’ve seen an incredibly cool and unusual-looking Rolex in the last few years, good bet it went through Kozubek’s hands.
Back in the 1960s, a number of brands – Rolex, Omega, Nivada, and others – used faulty black paint that, over time, would start to fade to a brown hue. It took quite a while for the issue to come to life, and as legend would have it, the problem started occurring more quickly in tropical latitudes with exposure to intense UV light.
“Usually, Rolex dials from the early to mid 1960’s change the most,” Kozubek told me. “Gilt dials have the tendency to fade more than others. Rolex Submariners from 1962 with the two-line silver dial seem to really fade ultra brown. But there are a lot of watches that can turn brown, and not just from that era. For example, 1969 Red Submariner Mark II dials tend to fade tropical and the ref. 16520 Daytonas from around 1998 to 1999 are starting to turn brown now too.”
A 1960 Rolex “Pointed Crown Guards” Submariner ref. 5512 with gilt chapter ring sold by Tropical Watch.
1962 Rolex 5512 with an extremely tropical dial sold by Tropical Watch.
And man, do tropical dials each come out wildly different. That’s a big part of what makes them so compelling. A lot of these dials were replaced by service departments over the years, which makes them rare. But as collectors started to understand the value of unique watches with honest character, the prices have skyrocketed for what was once considered a defect. When you look at the results, it’s easy to tell why.
There is a little bit of “buyer beware” on tropical dials. I’ve heard stories of baked dials aimed at a tropical effect, and bezels can be artificially aged to a nice “ghosted” quality. But Kozubek tells me if someone tried, it would be easy for him to see the difference. “These materials have a tendency to degrade over time, so it makes sense you could try, but if you push it too fast it would destroy the dial.” And that’s why you always “buy the seller” – especially one can tell (and find) the real deal.
If only because of their value, a vintage “tropical” watch is not one of those watches I’d wear haphazardly. I’m hard on my watches. Call it my distinctly “un-placid and varied life,” more accurately, I’m someone best described most days as a “six-foot-seven uncoordinated mass of limbs.” Because of that, my watches pick up a lot of mystery scratches and dings. While I’m much more careful with my vintage watches – and incredibly, incredibly precious with anyone else’s watch – there’s something reassuring about a watch you don’t have to baby.
A 1965 Rolex Submariner ref. 5512 with a gilt Tiffany & Co.-signed dial sold by Tropical Watch.
Kozubek sold the Tiffany-signed Rolex Submariner above for a whopping $90,000 (I’m not ashamed to say that sounds like a steal the more I look at the watch) and while this Nivada Grenchen is distinctly not a real-deal vintage tropical watch, at $1795 it certainly gave me a lot of enjoyment.
For that price, it’s hard to beat the taste of the tropical while not worrying about having to be too gentle with a vintage watch. That’s where the real value is – this is a new watch with all the bells, whistles, and water resistance to really enjoy to the fullest.
Since it’s the star, let’s talk about the dial (and the handset while we’re at it). Remember how I talked about the stories of some vintage tropical dials being “baked” instead of “earned” the old-fashioned way? Well, in this case, it’s true. Nivada Grenchen has developed a special process to bake dials and handsets in batches to achieve the aged look below. That also means that each dial is unique depending on how the parts react to the process.
That unique quality is even more apparent under natural light, where the color of the dial can shift from a dark chocolate in shadow to something much more rich and orange. Between that and the unique nature of tropical dials, there’s a lot of similarity between the new and the vintage.
On my example, the lume on the dial and hands – and the hands themselves – is “crunchy,” to put it mildly. Most brands have settled on a “fauxtina” that’s a little too perfect, a little too creamy, and a little too consistent across the board. At first I thought “Oh, the patina on this is kind of unattractive” but it only took a short while to appreciate how much closer it is to true vintage character than something too perfect.
From a technical standpoint, the watch has most of the hallmarks of what made the original CASD so great and (maybe a little unnecessarily) versatile. You have the tachymeter scale on the dial, a dive bezel, and hour markers on the bezel so you can also use it as a second time zone indicator.
Unfortunately, the watch only has 100m of water resistance (despite being a chronograph), but the fact that it is new and rate to that amount means I actually wouldn’t feel bad (or worry) about taking it in the water. In fact, I’m hoping to do that later this summer. And as a “do it all” kind of watch, you still get the red regatta timer countdown at the three o’clock subdial.
There are other great vintage touches. The double-domed sapphire makes the watch a bit thick in measurement at 13.75mm, but at 38mm wide and 46.5mm lug-to-lug, the watch wears like a vintage watch should. This version of the CASD also says “Chronograph Aviator Sea Diver” on the dial at 6:00, which isn’t a misprint. The “Brian Kelly” vintage model had the same text on the dial, changed to say “Chronomaster” on later versions of the watch. It’s a nice little nod to authenticity.
The drilled lugs are a nice touch, though I have to credit Nivada and all the other brands that include straps with quick-change spring bars as standard options. I got the model with a leather strap and immediately swapped it to a rubber tropic option I had on hand from my other recent review of Nivada’s new skin diver.
Inside the watch isn’t a Venus or Valjoux movement that you’d find in the vintage models (though last year Worn & Wound did an awesome piece with Nivada Grenchen that featured refurbished Valjoux 72 movements) but rather the workhorse Sellita SW510 M BH B. It’s a compax movement with hours, minutes, seconds, a chronograph, running seconds at nine on the dial, and a 30-minute totalizer at three. I call it compax, not bi-compax as has become the norm to refer to the two subdials, because originally that term referred to the number of complications not subdials and I’m sticking with the original definition.
The movement runs at 4Hz and while the specs aren’t listed on the website, it seems like power reserve is around 48 hours on the manually-wound movement. And I think the manually-wound CASD is really the way to go. You get a watch that wears like a vintage watch on the wrist, winds like a vintage watch, and pushers that give you the same sensation of a vintage watch, just with new reliability.
The lume on the CASD works well despite whatever aging it went through.
In fact, one of the few downsides of getting a new CASD with a tropical dial is that the rest of the watch is so new. I’m reminded of the folks at Pre-War Guitar Co., who make faithful 1:1 reproductions of vintage guitars (largely from Martin) from the golden era of acoustic guitar making with varying levels of wear, from lightly played to nearly destroyed. At first, people were incredulous at these beat-up guitars with cracked finishes and cost more than a new Martin. Surely, it had to be a gimmick. Then people played them and realized it wasn’t just visual mojo – the guitars played nearly as good as vintage ones that cost nearly 20x the price.
I’m not saying there’d be a massive market for Nivada to make CASDs that looked like they were dragged behind a truck for a mile, nor am I saying they’d work better. I also know that earned wear and tear will always be better than something fake. All I’ll say is I would be curious to see what it looked like. So don’t be surprised if you see this watch after I’ve left leaving the aluminum bezel insert on my roof for a few months to try to get a bit of ghosting going on. I also won’t be upset when I start getting scuffs and scratches on that shiny brushed and polished 316L stainless steel case.
There are certainly also a few people that are rightfully saying, “Why not buy the real (vintage) thing?” I always wanted a vintage CASD, and I still think they’re a great entry point into vintage collecting. But starting around $3500 and going up to $7000 or more for a rare or tropical dial, I’ll they always seemed as out of reach as a Patek chronograph when I began as a collector.
As I’ve learned more and handled more watches, I’ve always invariably ended up with something else in that price range that was slightly more compelling or decided it was worth saving up for something even bigger. I probably could afford a nice one now. But at the end of the day, I’d still have to wear it carefully out of respect. And while that’s not a dealbreaker, I’ve often bought newer versions of some of my vintage favorites just for ease of use and reliability.
So for now, I’m sticking with something new that gives me a taste of the old, at a price that’s even more affordable and hard to beat. So I’m going to make sure this watch doesn’t live a “placid, unvarying life.” It can take it. And I’m really interested to see how it comes out on the other side.
Nivada Grenchen “Broad Arrow Tropical Chronomaster Aviator Sea Diver” mechanical manually-wound chronograph. 38mm diameter x 13.75mm high polished and brushed 316L stainless steel case with 46.5mm lug-to-lug, with 100m water resistance. Double domed sapphire glass. Unique “tropical” brown dial and handset achieved through a special baking process. Sellita SW510 M BH B movement with hours, minutes, running seconds at 9:00. Chrongraph with 30-minute totalizer (and regatta timing indicator) at 3:00. 28,800vph frequency movement. Strap and bracelet options available, with measurements tapering from 20mm to 18mm. Price: starting at $1,795 on a leather strap.
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The Hodinkee Shop is an authorized retailer of Nivada Grenchen watches. Explore our collection here. For more on the Tropical Broad Arrow CASD, visit Nivada Grenchen’s website.
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