Nivada Grenchen Antarctic Thoughts

philby

Probably stupid newbie question, but: I've recently discovered a Nivada Antarctic I'm very much tempted to buy, I think it's a really, really nice watch.
However, I found that a quite similar watch was sold a few years back, and that if these are indeed the same watch, the dial must've been extensively reworked.

So here's my question: would an early 60s Nivada Antarctic have a serial number on the back side, or are these numbers and letters like a watch type or model indication? Unless I'm misreading, the inscription is 8852M2107 on both images/watches.

xbarx1

The first Antarctic models were based off an Aquamatic with the deco indices and they simply removed the Aquamatic callout. There's no date and date models. Here's mine. Seeing 25 Jewels on this is interesting. That's the peak variant of the ETA 1256 and I thought it was a later upgrade. One watchmaker commented on servicing one and how impressed by it he was compared to 17 and 21 jeweled versions. I saved a screen shot of his comment that included more info but I can't find it. I almost bought an 25 jewel count version just because, but have enough for one lifetime.

chadpowe11

My Antarctic. Really love this model and wear it often.