NIVADA SA
NIVADA SA was founded in Grenchen, Switzerland in 1926 by Otto Wüllimann, Hermann Schindler and Jakob Schneider, with the name WULLIMAN, SCHNEIDER, NIVADA SA (source: Swiss Timepiece Makers 1775-1975, by Kathleen H. Pritchard). Jacob Schneider’s son, Max, took over from his father and was still running the company on its 50th birthday in 1976. In the first 50 years of its life, the NIVADA company developed a wide range of watches, having decided to case up calibers supplied by various Swiss movement manufacturers. It was notably present at the 1939 Swiss National Exhibition in Zurich.
From the journal of the Federation of the Swiss Watch Industry of June 1939.
NIVADA was quick to offer several watches of a professional nature in its collection, namely models with specifications that go beyond the simple indication of the time. These include the water resistant Reglavit that can be adjusted by a screw on the back of the watch to avoid opening the case; the Depthmaster, which is water resistant to 1,000 meters; the selfwinding Depthomatic watch, water resistant to 200 meters, and the Alertamatic alarm watch. In the mid-1950s the company made its name as the official purveyor to US Navy Admiral Richard E. Byrd’s Deep Freeze expedition with the Antarctic model.
Extract from a 1950s NIVADA advert extolling the merits of the Antarctic model that went with the US Navy’s polar expedition.
CROTON WATCH CO. INC
For its part, this American company was founded in New York in 1878 by Jacob Horton to do business in the watch and jewelry trade (source: Croton Cortlandt News, July 19, 1973). It assumed the name of CROTON WATCH CO. INC. in 1928 when it decided to branch out into assembling watches from Swiss and American components.
The company was then managed by the founder’s son, Harold I. Horton, who succeeded his father and continued to run the company when he celebrated its 95th birthday in 1973. Harold I. Horton was at the time one of the few Americans who had completed a five-year watchmaking course in Switzerland. In 1963, the company left New York for bigger premises in Croton-on-Hudson. By an interesting coincidence, the company found itself in this eponymous village despite the fact that its name had been previously chosen in 1928 for entirely different reasons.
The building site of the CROTON WATCH CO. INC’s headquarters in 1963.
Acknowledgement: The Croton Historical Society.
Extract from the Croton Cortlandt News of June 19, 1973. Acknowledgement: The Croton Historical Society.
The NIVADA/CROTON association
The first signs of cooperation between the NIVADA and CROTON companies date from the end of the 1930s, or more exactly in 1939. It seems that it was not easy to do business together, not because of any disagreement between the two parties, but because of American competition from one brand in particular: Movado.
From the Archives de l’Horlogerie, 1937-1939, including an announcement from NIVADA SA from December 9, 1939 mentioning its links with the CROTON brand.
The first joint venture between the two companies could have been discussed at the New York World’s Fair in May 1939. During the exhibition the Swiss pavilion organized a “day of watchmaking” on May 16 which was intended to strengthen ties between Swiss manufacturers and American importers.
From the journal of the Federation of the Swiss Watch Industry, dated June 1939, with an article about the “Day of Watchmaking” staged by the Swiss pavilion at the New York World’s Fair in May 1939.
However, as already mentioned, initial agreement was not so easy to achieve because of action by the Movado Watch Agency Inc., which tried to prevent NIVADA watches from being marketed in America.
The details of this litigation are revealed in the court documents, namely the United States Court of Appeals, Second Circuit, Docket 22869.
When the Movado brand learned in November 1952 that the CROTON company intended to import NIVADA watches and movements, it applied for an injunction forbidding it to use the NIVADA brand name because it considered it was too similar to Movado.
It arranged to have NIVADA watches and movements stopped by the American Customs service. A similar dispute had already taken place in 1939 between William C. Horowitz, then an import agent linked to CROTON, and Movado. The ruling banned Horowitz from using the NIVADA name alone, but allowed it to be used combined with GRENCHEN in watches (hence the NIVADA GRENCHEN brand name). For movements, S.A. was added between NIVADA and GRENCHEN (NIVADA S.A. GRENCHEN).
During the legal action of 1953 brought by CROTON following the Customs interdict, Movado went much further than in the 1939 dispute, claiming that even when associated with the CROTON name, the NIVADA GRENCHEN brand was damaging to them and demanded an import ban on movements marked CROTON NIVADA GRENCHEN.
This application by Movado was finally thrown out by the New York court of appeal which confirmed the 1939 ruling, which stated that the name NIVADA GRENCHEN adequately avoided any confusion. It therefore allowed the CROTON company to import watches and movements under the same conditions ruled in the first court case in 1939. Nevertheless, the company decided to also use the CROTON NIVADA GRENCHEN brand name in the United States.
Five different badges
Over the years CROTON’s activities expanded considerably as it accumulated a wide range of watch models under its name. In 1970, the company seemed to have changed its name, becoming CROTON TIME CORPORATION INC.
This change can be seen engraved on movements from that time on.
It also appeared to coincide with the introduction of a new identification, CROTON 1878, which emerged on the models in the collections of the time.
It is possible to distinguish five badges among the Chronomaster models:
It should be noted that NIVADA GRENCHEN watches sold in the United States seem to have been marketed by CROTON WATCH CO. INC. rather than directly by NIVADA SA. They are in fact given a reference code that is specific to CROTON.
The different badges observed on the Chronomasters’ dials.
Story’s end
In the 1970s, the watch industry had to confront the quartz shock immediately after the oil crisis of 1973. It was a difficult time for the whole sector and proved fatal for some brands that lacked the means to fight off Asian competition.
Among them were NIVADA SA and CROTON TIME CO. INC., which failed to cope with the times and had to give up their businesses. The two brand names have changed hands several times since and still exist today, but they have nothing in common with their prestigious predecessors.
That is why it is impossible to find archives or any official information about models that came out before the end of the 1970s.
Everything changed in 2018 when Guillaume Laidet, a young entrepreneur in his thirties, obtained the license to revive the brand’s prestige.
Guillaume Laidet
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