If you look at all the details in this Nivrel watch, you’ll understand why I like it – especially as compared to many of the other minute repeater watches out there. In a nut shell, you have a base ETA Swiss movement that is highly decorated in a highly polished gold case. The dial is beautifully skeletonized, and the watch has a 5 minute repeater complication. So many nice features for the price of about $23,000 – which is far below that which you’d find from a Swiss made watch as Nivrel is German.
Nivrel has a lot of 5 minute repeater watches, it is one of their core specialties. A 5 minute repeater is a minute repeater that tells time back to you acoustically to the closest 5 minute minute interval. For example, if the time was 10:41, the minute repeater would probably play back the tones for “10:40.” The minute repeater works via a series of hammers and gongs in the movement which is provided by a special Dubois Depraz module (which I believe is specially made for Nivrel) that affixes to the base movement – which is an ETA 2892-2 automatic. Thus, you have a decorated and gold plated reliable automatic Swiss movement with a special module on it for the 5 minute repeater complication.
To operate the 5 minute repeater you depress the pusher located on the bottom of the case at 6 o’clock. The watch will then play back a melody that you decipher to determine the time. Pretty nice. Getting automatic minute repeater watches is very hard as they are quite rare (most are part of manually would movements) – Nivrel of course being an exception. The watch case and strap buckle are in 18k pink gold, with the case being 38mm wide and 13mm thick. The crown for the watch is in an “onion” style and located at 2 o’clock. Both the crystal on the front and rear are sapphire and anti reflective coated. The black straps are crocodile. These watches from Nivrel are a perfect rendition of a classically decorated 5 minute repeater watch with the convenience of an automatic movement and the luxury of a gold case and rotor. Plus, the price of about $23,000 isn’t cheap relatively speaking, but is an excellent value compared to comparable watches.
See this Nivrel 5 Minute Repeater skeletonized gold watch on James List here.