Some recent additions... A hooded/hoodless lugged gold case with silver lumpy dial, a gold model with pearlized white dial, a Glacier in a cushion case with original bracelet (that fits!), and a rare one I might not have posted before, This one is an Arctic model with date. Who knew they made and Arctic model? After buying this I looked for an Equator, just because.

 

Oooooh .... some lovely catches there. Very nice

 

My dad's Aquamatic, circa 1960....

 

Hi all - I've been reading OF for years but never posted - I thought as I'm gradually falling into a spiral of Nivada Grenchen this would be a good start! Here's my I, II and III from the Roman Numeral Antarctic series.

 

Lovely little collection

 

He has a bigger one...

 

lol - him or me

 

Great set!

 

I only have the one ( Antarctic) but its lucky as I am sure we need to address the deficit of equally nice ( but less valued) women's watches that fills the Humanosphere.

Picked it up a few weeks ago for NZ$50.00 on the understanding that it was not working but on arrival it was like new and works as though it just had a fresh service!.....Score!

PS. My photo is not that great, the watch lens and body are pretty much as new but my phone camera doesn't like such close photos especially in the low light I took it in.

 

nivada was suppose to re-release their depthomatic. but it seems like it was scrapped.

i just picked this up. 38mm, 1000m elab-eta

 

Thanks all - if you have any more Antarctic pictures and would not mind me using them on a site I'm putting together that would be most welcome.

Here's the site link, only the Antarctic page up at present, and very much a newbie at this website business.

https://www.vintagenivada.com/antarctic

I can't find guidance on posting links in this forum, but as I see posting up links to their own youtube channels and such in the review section hopefully this is acceptable!

 

What a wonderful undertaking....many thanks from an Antarctic fan. Also love your remake of an iconic Antarctic ad as your avatar....clever!

 

Thanks! I was inspired by chats with those that own polerouter.de and vintagecertina.com during lockdown - got to try, and not every internet site on watches has to look like an MTV website.

The ad recreations are also a product of lockdown - my wife has a massive selection on vintage gear and keen eye for photography. Here's another from the Nivada selection:



And a rare Penguin, soon to have a write up on the site:

 

I've added a section on the 'Roman Numeral' series of Antarctics over at vintagenivada.com - here's my II and III as a bonus.

If anybody has any photos or details of others in this series please let me know, it would be great to document all the variants.

 

Excellent mate!

 

Ordered what I'd thought to be a cheap 60's mens watch dirt cheap but found on arrival that it was a tiny ladies watch. Decided to keep it just to examine the movement.
It was locked up tight when I got it. I had left the movement sitting on a shelf over my work table and knocked it off. The movement fell on a aluminum ash tray and bounced into the air then fell back in the ash tray. After blowing all the debris out of it I found it was now running like a top. Checked it a couple of days ago and its still working like new and keeping near perfect time.

PS
I wonder what lubes they used to allow a watch to work properly in sub zero weather?
I'm guessing whale oil. I found that NASA has used whale oil on deep space probes including Voyager because it doesn't freeze at extreme sub zero temperatures. Probably no longer PC these days.

 

Hey @Spinakerr, amazing work on your website! Photo looks kinda newish, so I made it look a little bit vintage. Hope you like it

Before:

After:

 

Thanks Zapatta! yes I had it in black and white from the original print adverts, but this looks like the true negative from the period!

 

Wow there are some beautiful Nivada’s on here, thought I’d better add a couple of mine! I keep the Antarctic pristine but the aquadatic is a daily wear! Thanks for the website Spinakerr, really good stuff!

A couple of questions... was the Antarctic released before the geophysical year mission or after!? Also with the Nivada/Movado name lawsuit would anything with just Nivada as the logo be earlier or would that just denote a European release watch? Oh and has anyone on here ordered a new Nivada from the rerelease?
Cheers

 

Lovely pieces - would it be ok to add the gold plated Antarctic to the website? I love the linen dial on the steel too - another example of Nivada's great dial designs. The crown looks like it is from a Polerouter Super - is it signed?

As far as I can tell the Antarctic was released on the year, just after it was used by Byrd and the US team. The earliest advertisements with prices I can find are in 1958.

On branding - Croton branding was applied from 1940 through to the 70s, though in the 50s and 60s some were dual branded, possibly to lessen the number of variants. Not sure if the objection lapsed after a time limit or after the Zenith/Movado company tribulations.