Picture yourself in your favorite spot in the world doing your favorite thing with your favorite people. Can you see it? Can you feel the warm and calming feeling of equanimity that comes from having the best experience of your life? Well, as a watch nerd and horological journalist, I get a kick out reviewing certain watches and experience similar emotional and physical symptoms as if I was doing my favorite thing in the world in my favorite place on earth with my favorite human. I’ve waited many lonely moons dreaming of holding certain timepieces in my little hands, for once appreciating the unboxing experience, taking in the first on-wrist experience second-by-second, admiring each little design aspect of the dial and case, reading over and over again about the history and spec sheet of this model, as if I had finally gotten my hands on a grail watch. Some watches (a few, not many) make me feel this way and I relish in these rare moments of pure horological nerdom. Today is such a moment. 

About two years ago a good friend and I were strolling down the aisles of the WindUp Watch Fair in New York City and made a stop in front of Nivada Grenchen’s booth. My friend pointed to a soon-to-be released model which was special in two ways: first, it is the brand’s most vintage-looking and coolest model it has ever released and re-released; two, my friend had something to do with its rebirth as he was the one to have suggested to Nivada to recreate the 1960s-ish Antarctic GMT after he had found a rare picture of it online. This interaction took place barely a year before our stroll at WindUp and I was immediately taken aback by how exceptional the vintage model was and how even more special its modern recreation is: the Antarctic GMT Black is a bit of an alien in today’s watch world as there is nothing that looks like it, and there was nothing that looked quite like it more than six decades ago. It is vintage through-and-through and makes incredible sense today. Oh my, I’m so excited. 

Specifications 

Obviously, one of the main advantages of re-issuing a vintage watch is to bring it up to speed with the latest and greatest tech the world of horology has to offer without denaturing its original charm, so that it looks as good as it did before but is on par with modern timekeeping devices we feel comfortable wearing in our daily lifes. Oftentimes, however, when brands re-launch old collections they tend to inject steroids into the case to enlarge it so that it will be easier to sell to the contemporary watch enthusiast. A practice I find to be a crime against genuine watchmaking. Luckily, Nivada Grenchen doesn’t follow this trend as we saw with the Antarctic 35mm as the brand preserved the dimensions of the original to the precise micron. Nivada continues this tradition as it kept the original dimensions of the Antarctic GMT which makes it a real delight—and a Vincent-perfect—watch to wear: the modern GMT clocks in at 36mm in diameter, 42mm lug-to-lug (thanks to a sort of barrel case), 11.1mm thick and comes with a 20mm lug width. 

The other modern technical amenities we find in this re-issued Antarctic GMT include a top-hat flat acrylic crystal a la vintage Nivada, literally a mound of see-through material which plunges down the mid-case and englobes the dial, endowing this model with strong vintage vibes. Contrary to what you might believe, acrylic crystals still make sense in 2026 as they are more resistant to shocks than sapphire crystals—which is perfect for a travel and exploration-bound watch—and that scratches, even deep gashes, can be polished out thanks to Polywatch. (I’ve had this experience with other acrylic crystals and it does work.) So the material of the crystal doesn’t immediately come across as being modern but it does make sense (at least to me) in a modern-era tool watch. What is also modern are the two screw-down crowns and case-back, even though Nivada Grenchen indicates that the Antarctic GMT “only” has 50 meters of water resistance, I imagine it is the same kind of 50 ATM depth-rating we find on a modern Omega Speedmaster Professional. 

This gem is equipped with a Swiss made Soprod C125 caliber, a caller-style GMT movement I have never experienced before (I typically handle Seiko NH34s, Miyota 9075s, and Sellita SW330-2s) which ticks at 4Hz and comes with 42 hours of power reserve. For all intents and purposes the C125 appears to be as good as any other Swiss made traveler’s movement in the same price range as the Antarctic GMT is—here €1 795/$2,122 USD as presented on the brown leather strap (€1 995/$2,358 USD on a bracelet). I have been on record saying that I prefer caller-style GMT movements over flyer-style ones as they better match my actual lifestyle—of a suburban man who only travels a few times a year—as they make it easier to track time in a different timezone and to switch from one to another whenever I want to see what time it is elsewhere from a stationary location on earth. Lastly, there is the question of lume: there are pretty good applications of a compound called SLC3 on the applied markers and hour and minute hands. 

Design 

The other crime brands often commit when re-issuing an old collection is to slightly alter its design in order to again make it easier to sell to today’s watch enthusiast. How dare they? The whole point of doing it all over again is because someone got it extremely right the first time and nothing warrants tweaking the visual DNA of the watch when re-creating it. Instead, if brands do want to go through this adaptation process they should not rename it as it was several decades ago but instead come up with a name and simply indicate it was inspired by an old model they don’t have the balls of bringing back as it was. So it should be. Thus the Antarctic GMT is every bit as cool as the original was (I handled a vintage model) and its almost singular looks* are what make it so interesting. There is indeed nothing like it on the market today and as far as my brain recollects, there was nothing quite like it before. Of course we’re going to start analyzing Nivada's design where we ought to, by dissecting its dial—here the true star of the show. 

*I did find similar design elements in other vintage GMTs from the same time period which doesn’t surprise me. 

There are two elements of its visual vocabulary which immediately jump from the dial: the black and red checkered GMT hand and the black and yellow bezel insert. The first element powerfully brings us back to the 1960s when brands were more creative and could more easily think outside the box without doing strange things, for example making a GMT hand rectangular instead of arrow-shaped and playing with different patterns and colors to make it stand out and unique. A bit akin to how Airain designed the seconds hand of the Sousmarine as if it was a ceremonial scepter. That is what makes the GMT hand on the Antarctic GMT so unique and interesting, which is the same reason why I find the inner-rotating bezel also so compelling: the AM segment is painted in black, the PM section in bee-yellow, and each hour of the 24-hour GMT scale got its little slice so that one can easily read the time in a different part of the world. Moreover, the bezel rotates in both directions and is complemented by gentle clicks so that we know where each hour falls. 

The rest of the dial is to me equally interesting as the GMT hand and bezel are actually, as I now realized I have a thing for smaller, polished applied hour markers on smaller dial apertures. (They are rightfully proportioned to one another and to the handset.) At the twelve, six, and nine, we find chamfered batons with lines of lume in their middle, and everywhere else hobnail-shaped and chamfered markers with rectangular lumed sections at their center. The hour markers are indeed small and leave plenty of room for the baton-shaped, multifaceted hour and minute hands to fly over the dial, so that nothing about it feels cramped and that telling the time locally and internationally is easy and pleasurable. I do believe that smaller watches with smaller hands and markers come with a lot of charm and make sense for daily use. (Read: visually and functionally versatile timepieces.) To complete the functionality of the Nivada Antarctic GMT we find a framed date aperture at the three complete with black printed numerals on a white date disc. 

As you noticed, there was a lot that needed to be said about the dial of this model and there are a few things to be said about its case as well. Earlier I mentioned that it comes with a sort of barrel shape as it does remind me of one, though here it comes with its own singular charm: it is entirely polished, the lugs, which are molded from the mid-case into one solid piece of stainless steel, have small protruding extremities which angle down towards the wrist, and the aforementioned mid-case is composed of a flat top but chamfered lower sections which visually thin it out. However, the case measures a reasonable 11.1mm in thickness as we know which means the Antarctic GMT wears superbly on my wrist of 6.50”/16..5cm and so it would on yours. (I know we have similar wrists.) Moreover, what endows this case with so much charm are the two screw-down crowns which are both decorated with the brand logo, measure 5.9mm in diameter and come with excellent knurling that make them easy to operate. Yes, the Antarctic GMT is pure horological gold to me. 

The Heart of the Matter

You may have already guessed what is at the heart of the matter today: the fact that Nivada Grenchen, on wise man’s advice, recreated what many journalists and content creators define as having been its more singular model since the brand was founded in 1926 and relaunched in 2018. At the risk of repeating far-fetched phraseology, there doesn’t seem to have been anything quite like it in the niche world of watchmaking since, at least as far as I can tell, which not only makes this re-creation historically interesting and viable, but also visually and creatively fascinating because, as I pointed out earlier, it shows that designers could come up with singular ideas that weren’t too strange but which helped the brands they work for to demarcate themselves from the already aggressive competition of the 1960s. Moreover, Nivada, luckily for people like me, opted to be loyal to the original and picked from modern horological technology only what it made sense to have in order to make the Antarctic GMT a practical and reliable watch. It truly is superb. 

Conclusion 

Nivada Grenchen was relaunched in 2018 and has been more prolific than most houses of watchmaking I know of. This means that most of its models are readily available to purchase directly from the brand’s website which is a fact that matters to some of us because it is quite pleasurable to be able to read a review of a model that came out last year or three years ago and to still be able to purchase it. In other words, the black version of the Antarctic GMT is in stock and ready to ship (there are actually 144 units ready to ship at this very moment…or maybe 143 now?) and retails for €1 795/$2,122 USD on a strap (and you have the choice between six of options) and €1 995/$2,358 USD on a Beads-of-Rice bracelet. I mean, I would go for any of the seven options in total, you know what I mean? And yes, there was also a Tropical version which of course sold out pretty rapidly. 

Thanks for reading.