Jacob Schneider founded Nivada in Grenchen in 1926. For its first decades Nivada produced conservative three-hand watches for the Swiss and export markets, switching to the name Nivada Grenchen (and Croton Nivada Grenchen in the United States, where a separate distribution arrangement operated through the Croton brand) from the post-war period onwards. The brand produced its largest commercial volumes in the late 1950s and the 1960s, during which the two most historically important references were created.
In 1961 Nivada launched the Antarctic, a mid-sized automatic three-hander marketed as a tough all-climate watch. Examples were supplied to US Navy personnel participating in Operation Deep Freeze, the long-running Antarctic logistics mission. In 1963 Nivada introduced the Chronomaster (also sold in the United States as the Croton Aviator Sea Diver), a chronograph with rotating bezel, 200m water resistance, and the distinctive 'broad-arrow' hand set. These two references define the brand's historical identity and are the models that drove the 2020s relaunch.
Nivada Grenchen contracted sharply during the quartz crisis and the brand largely disappeared from the market through the 1980s, 1990s, and 2000s, surviving as a set of trademarks rather than an active producer. In 2020 the brand was relaunched by watch entrepreneur Guillaume Laidet (in collaboration with the Severin Wunderman family, who had inherited the Nivada trademarks). The new line centres on near-exact Chronomaster and Antarctic reissues produced with Sellita calibres at prices below 2,500 Swiss francs - a deliberate position below most contemporary Swiss vintage reissues.
