Watching everything mesh and work together is a chronograph enthusiast’s dream come true. The balance on one side of the distinctive “Y” bridge, which features the Nivada logo in gold, reflects the column-wheel on the other side. An incredibly complex array of gears, plates, levers, screws, springs, and jewels, in its day, it was rarely seen by anyone except for watchmakers as display backs are a relatively new phenomenon. Through the open case back the restored Valjoux 72 movement is on full display.

The hour, minute, and seconds hands are rendered in a deep cherry red, while the chronograph hands are in bright, cyan blue, making them easy to see and tell apart at a glance. Large applied lume plots mark the hours, day or night.

Black sub-dials with cream indexes break up the surface, adding attitude and functionality. A ring of black encircles the fog gray on which a racing-style chrono-seconds index is printed in undulating cream lines, with dark red breaks at 5-second marks. Starting with a racing-dial design from Nivada’s archives, we made the primary dial surface a deep fog gray with a strong blue undertone. One might go so far as to say, it gave birth to the modern chronograph. Though it’s been nearly 50 years since production ended, the Valjoux 72, and the watches that were based on it, still inspire and inform the chronographs of today. It’s easy to spot with its balanced three-register design featuring running seconds, elapsed minutes, and hours, as well as an asymmetric pusher layout (the start/stop pusher is closer to the crown than the reset). From various Rolex Daytona references, including the Paul Newman, to the Heuer Carrera 2447, to Universal Geneve Compaxes, and, of course, the Nivada Grenchen Chronoking, the Valjoux 72 helped make them so great.Ī manually wound caliber, the Valjoux 72 has a frequency of 18,000 bph and features a column wheel and lateral clutch.

The most revered chronograph caliber of all time, from 1918 to 1974 it was used as the engine for what ended up being some of the most iconic timepieces of the 20th century. Say “Valjoux 72” to a watch collector and you can watch their ears perk up and eyes get a bit wider.

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