Most heritage remakes copy a watch people remember. Nivada Grenchen has built a small habit of copying watches nobody bought, because they were never sold. Two years ago it turned a 1970s chronograph prototype that never reached production into the Chronosport. A blue-dial version followed last year. Now the line gets a new colour, a new name and a slightly slimmer case: the Autochron Automatic Orange, introduced on Monochrome on 13 August 2026.
A case that reads bigger than it measures
The Autochron looks stout in photographs, but the numbers are moderate. The steel case is 38mm across and 12.75mm tall without the crystal, or 15.20mm with the domed sapphire on top. That makes it the same width as before and slightly slimmer. It is finished with broad polished bevels over brushed surfaces, and topped with a matte black-coated aluminium bezel that turns one way in 120 clicks, carrying a double white timing scale and a beige luminous pip at zero. The crown is knurled and flanked by two pump-style pushers. Water resistance is a genuine 200 metres, more than a watch of this style needs and a nod to the diving chronographs of the era.
The dial does the talking
The face is where the decade lives. The base is matte black with a grained texture meant to read like asphalt. Working inward there is a black tachymeter scale, then a bright orange minute ring, then two recessed beige subdials with a snailed finish and black printing. The asymmetry, the subdial shapes and the hand forms are all lifted from the 1970s. The applied markers and the central running hands carry Super-LumiNova, and the central chronograph seconds hand is lacquered bright orange so it stands out against the black. The date sits at three o'clock.
Valjoux 7750, seen or not
Behind a solid caseback sits the self-winding ETA/Valjoux 7750, the cam-operated workhorse that has driven mechanical chronographs since the 1970s, which keeps the automotive theme honest. It runs at 28,800 vibrations per hour, so the seconds hands step eight times a second, and holds 42 hours of reserve. That reserve is modest by current standards, though for a watch worn and wound daily it is no real handicap. Alongside running and elapsed time it shows the date.
Straps, prices and the one complaint
The Autochron comes on a black perforated racing-style leather strap or a three-link steel bracelet with narrow mid-links and a folding clasp. An orange FKM rubber Tropic-style strap is also offered, shown in the press images, with no stated price difference. On leather it is USD 2,295, and on the bracelet USD 2,495, listed at nivadagrenchenofficial.com.
The one recurring objection, raised in the Monochrome comments, is the ratio of 38mm width to more than 15mm of height. On the wrist a short, tall chronograph can perch rather than sit. Whether that reads as a flaw or as period-correct depends on how much you wanted a 1970s watch in the first place.
