Since its revival in 2020, Nivada Grenchen has been catering to enthusiasts by tapping into its archives, and among its most celebrated vintage models is the Depthmaster, which first appeared in 1965 as one of the world’s first dive watches to offer a depth rating of 1,000 meters. Certain dial variations of the Depthmaster picked up the “Pac-Man” nickname due to the unique font used for their luminous hour markers, and the entire collection garnered a cult following due to its compact cushion-shaped profile and borderline-excessive levels of water resistance. Among the Swiss brand’s recent releases for 2024 is the Nivada Grenchen Depthmaster Bronze, which faithfully reimagines the classic “Pac-Man” diver in a copper/aluminum bronze alloy, while simultaneously incorporating improved materials and updated manufacturing techniques.
Typically dive watches with 1,000-meter depth ratings are properly sizable and chunky timepieces that appear entirely capable of providing such insane levels of water resistance. With a sufficiently thick case and crystal, modern manufacturing technologies allow brands to achieve virtually any level of water resistance, although I personally find it far more impressive when brands are able to create a diver with a mind-boggling depth rating that still manages to retain a wearable size and sensible proportions. Despite having a chunky cushion-shaped profile and a properly generous 1,000-meter depth rating, the Nivada Grenchen Depthmaster Bronze provides a surprisingly compact and comfortable on-wrist experience, and its exterior dimensions come in at just 39mm in diameter by 13mm thick, with 20mm lugs and an overall lug-to-lug distance of 47mm.
About a millimeter of the Nivada Grenchen Depthmaster Bronze’s total height consists of its gently domed sapphire crystal (with anti-reflective treatment), which slightly sticks up above the rim of its bezel. Rotating with a 120-click unidirectional motion, the bezel offers a springy and satisfying action, and fitted to the bronze bezel ring is a black ceramic insert that is engraved with a 60-minute scale finished in bronze to match the case. To help guarantee its 1,000 meters of water resistance, the Depthmaster Bronze is fitted with a signed screw-down crown at the 3 o’clock location, while the reverse side of the watch receives a solid screw-down caseback that is made from stainless steel and engraved with Nivada Grenchen’s logo. Additionally, just as you would expect from a diver that offers such generous levels of water resistance, the Depthmaster Bronze includes a helium gas escape valve, which appears flush against the 9 o’clock side of the case and allows the watch to be used for saturation diving applications.
While many bronze watches use a traditional alloy of copper and tin, the Nivada Grenchen Depthmaster Bronze opts for a copper/aluminum alloy (CuAl8), which consists of 92% copper mixed with 8% aluminum. In addition to having a color that more closely resembles burnished yellow gold or brass (rather than the copper/rose gold hue of traditional bronze alloys), CuAl8 bronze also benefits from superior corrosion resistance due to the aluminum oxides that form on the surface of the metal. My previous experience with watches that use similar bronze alloys is that they develop a patina a bit more slowly, and the patina also tends to be darker with hues of black and gray, rather than the green-colored patina that is frequently associated with bronze. Due to its heavier case material, the Nivada Grenchen Depthmaster Bronze weighs slightly more than its stainless steel siblings, and the weight of the watch comes in at approximately 76 grams, not including its strap.
Like most bronze watches, the Nivada Grenchen Depthmaster Bronze uses a bronze alloy for its middle case, crown, and bezel ring, while its case tube threads and caseback are both made from stainless steel. Although bronze is celebrated for its ability to develop a patina, this can ultimately inhibit the mobility of threaded bronze-on-bronze components, especially if they are infrequently operated. Having one side of the threads in stainless steel remedies this potential issue, and using stainless steel for the caseback also prevents instances where a heavy patina might transfer to the wearer’s skin and discolor their wrist. Similar to how a patina can present issues for threaded components, the use of bronze for the helium escape valve might not be ideal from a functionality standpoint, although a stainless steel plug on an otherwise entirely bronze case is hardly ideal when it comes to aesthetics, and since very few people actually require a helium gas escape valve, I ultimately agree with Nivada Grenchen’s decision to use bronze for its exterior components.
While the Nivada Grenchen Depthmaster can be found with a handful of different dials, the Depthmaster Bronze is fitted with the “Pac-Man” style that gets its nickname from the distinctly retro font used for its Arabic numeral hour markers. Featuring a matte black surface with gold-colored text and applied luminous hour markers, the dial is very much a modern rendition of what can be found on vintage “Pac-Man” models, and displaying the time on the Depthmaster Bronze is a trio of centrally-mounted hands, with each one appearing as a distinct shape to maximize the legibility of its display. To complement the warm bronze hue of its case and the gold-colored text on its dial, the hands and surrounds for the hour markers receive a brushed bronze finish, and all of the hands and indexes (plus the luminous zero-marker on the bezel) are filled with Super-LumiNova to provide them with a green-colored glow in the dark.
Powering the Nivada Grenchen Depthmaster Bronze is the Soprod Caliber P024 automatic movement, which is based upon the familiar design of the ETA 2824-2. Running at a frequency of 28,800vph (4 Hz) with a power reserve of approximately 38 hours, the 25-jewel Soprod Cal. P024 offers a dependable (albeit rather ubiquitous) design, and since the Depthmaster Bronze is a time-only watch, Nivada Grenchen uses the no-date version of this highly popular caliber to eliminate the irksome “ghost position” that often exits on time-only watches that rely on this same Swiss movement. While a 38-hour power reserve undeniably feels a bit low compared to what can be found elsewhere within the industry, the Soprod P024 (along with its equivalents from ETA, Sellita, Landeron, etc.) is the definition of a proven design, and its core architecture serves as the single most commonly used Swiss mechanical movement in the entire watch industry.
Fitted to the drilled lugs of the Nivada Grenchen Depthmaster Bronze is a black tropic-style rubber strap, although just like many of its models, Nivada Grenchen also offers the Depthmaster Bronze with the option of a variety of different leather straps, including both standard and perforated “racing” styles. The black rubber used for the tropic-style strap is quite soft and supple, and it offers a more premium feel compared to what you get from the various budget-friendly alternatives that exist within the industry. Attached to the case with integrated quick-release springbars, the rubber strap tapers from 20mm at the lugs down to 16mm at its tang-style buckle, and just as you would hope, the signed buckle is crafted from the same copper/aluminum alloy that is used for the Depthmaster Bronze’s case.
While Nivada Grenchen has been a consistent favorite among vintage enthusiasts for decades, the revived brand has firmly asserted itself as a major player when it comes to reasonably priced watches that offer strong doses of retro nostalgia. Additionally, while the Depthmaster Bronze is very much a reinterpretation of the brand’s famous 1960s diver, Nivada Grenchen has resisted the urge to update its case sizing, and its compact profile offers a properly vintage on-wrist experience. With an official retail price of $1,750 USD, the Nivada Grenchen Depthmaster Bronze is expectedly more expensive than its standard stainless steel equivalents, although it costs significantly less than most bronze-cased Swiss divers, and it ultimately makes an excellent alternative to something like the Panerai Bronzo that can be purchased for a fraction of the price. For more information on the Nivada Grenchen Depthmaster Bronze, please visit the brand’s website.