Unboxing The Nivada Grenchen Depthmaster Pac-Man Dial + Seconde Seconde Collab
This week we received something really interesting in the mail and wanted to to talk about it right away! Its Nivada Grenchen’s Limited Edition re-issue of the Depthmaster with the Pac-Man Dial and their collaboration of Seconde Seconde.
Why we like it
For some who have heard about Nivada and their 're-birth', would also know that they re-issued their popular 60's 'Pac-Man dial' Depthmaster recently in their catalogue. What differentiates this version from the previous editions would be the quirky and artistic touch of Seconde Seconde from France, to have five different versions of colored jellyfish (Blue, Orange, Yellow, Grey and Purple) as the seconds hand. Only 10 pieces have been made in each color.
Image from Nivada Grenchen Official Website
Right off, it was the orange jellyfish that got us excited, having a similar shade of the colour as our our brand logo. When taking a closer look at the seconds hand you can tell that the idea is not only to have something quirky but about the fine detail as well when it comes to Seconde Seconde. They are well known for taking in vintage watches and then add subtle changes to the watch hands, contrasting it’s age, while storing the vintage hand in a safe in a little case. In a way, a respectful and thoughtful gesture towards heavily aged vintage watches.
Image From Esquire.com
The origin story
The Depthmaster was designed in 1965 by Nivada Grenchen and was recognized for mainly two aspects, one is the nicknames provided by collectors: "Pac-Man" for the art-deco numerals inside the dial and also "Mini Panerai" derived from the piece's specific case shape similarity with the famous brand that outfit the Italian divers. The Depthmaster was also regarded at that time, as one of the world's most "waterproof" watches having a thousand meter depth rating.
Image from Nivada Grenchen Official Website
Other stuff we also like..
In this specific watch we can see the jellyfish as well as the Pac-Man-esque numerals bring out such a nostalgic feeling of Tory Iwatani's well-known video game by Namco, from the 1980s.
Image from Nivada Grenchen Official Website
The watch also contains a helium escape valve suitable for deep diving expeditions. We were pleasantly surprised to see some lovely finishing on the beautifully shaped case.
Image from Nivada Grenchen Official Website
The bezel is a 39mm aluminum unidirectional Rotating 60 minutes graduated, the watch is fitted on a supple tropic strap. Of course, we had to try one of our own straps with this beauty and found the caramel vintage strap work effortlessly to provide a fresher outlook to the watch.
We've always been big fans of Nivada Grenchen, and their association with Seconde Seconde was an absolutely irresistible propostion! You can have a look at some of Seconde Seconde's other masterpieces here. Watch collecting can often get too serious and technical - it is always refreshing to see something like this put the fun back into the hobby.