The limited edition timepiece is a tribute to the rare vintage tool watch

Any watch is instantly made better when it has a story behind it, and in the case of the Nivada Super Antarctic 3/6/9, the story of this watch lies in its history. Based on the rare vintage tool watch, this Nivada pays homage to the success of the old but still very desirable watch in more ways than one.

Nivada Grenchen was founded in 1926 by Jacob Schneider and since then, has been a mainstay of Swiss watchmaking. In 1930, the brand became one of the first companies to manufacture automatic watches which led to the company creating their first waterproof automatic watch in 1950 called the Antarctic.

The original Antarctic watch was worn by members of the American Navy’s Deep Freeze 1 expedition to the South Pole from 1995 to 1996. This expedition was taken in support of the National Science Foundation and Operation Deep Freeze was the first permanent base to be established in Antarctica.

When you flip over the Nivada Super Antarctic 3/6/9, you can see a large gold medallion. This is a tribute to the vintage Antarctic watch which also featured a similar adornment. This remains one of the most intriguing aspects of the watch and it depicts a scene from Operation Deep Freeze 1.

Guillaume Laidet, co-founder of Nivada Grenchen, said, “In the vintage models, these gold medallions were only adorned on the casebacks of chronometre certified Nivada Antarctic watches. Whereas on the modern iterations, they are present on almost all the models. A very refreshing change.”

The Nivada Super Antarctic 3/6/9 is available in two versions, the Nivada Super Antarctic 3/6/9 “Cadran Tropical” which features a shimmering brown dial and a caramel coloured watch strap. The second version is the Nivada Super Antarctic 3/6/9 which comes in a black dial with a matching coloured black leather strap.

When talking about the Nivada Super Antarctic 3/6/9, Guillaume stated, “It’s a carefully guarded recipe and as a result, each piece is absolutely unique. Our intention is to produce models as close to the originals as possible, while remaining affordable. The watch industry has no shortage of sleeping giants to revive.”

Fancy a watch with heritage in it? Check out the Official Nivada Grenchen Website to find out more.