1970 Nivada Grenchen Taravana Chronograph 87012

Nivada Grenchen Taravana Chronograph - Date 12H - Ref. 87012 Circa 1970 Rare version of the sports pilot's chronograph with a tonneau case and the date at 12 o'clock, produced by this manufacturer renowned at the time for its quality chronographs. Brushed steel case and screwed back (palm tree logo, signed and numbered). Silver dial with two black recessed counters and orange 5-minute marking (small seconds at 9 o'clock, minutes at 3 o'clock), second scale for the chronograph. Applied indexes, tritium dot and luminescent spatula hands.

The idyllic island engraved on the caseback relates very much to the name and mission of this Nivada. As exotic as it sounds, Taravana is actually a Polynesian word referring to a disease syndrome found among island dwellers who perform deep free dives without scuba gear – it is thought to be a form of decompression sickness observed among divers who do not allow for enough time at the surface in-between successive deep dives. Polynesian free-divers who want to avoid decompression sickness may be the most niche chronograph market ever, but it's still a cool watch.

The recommended minimum elapsed time between two dives is five minutes, which explains the orange sector marking out that interval in the minutes subdial. There's also a date window placed just below 12 o'clock, just as in the Heuer Dato 3147 1st generation. As a matter of fact, both watches rely on the same manual-wound chronograph caliber Landeron 187.

The watch comes with matching NSA bracelet in same style as that for the Heuer Monaco.

Condition:

In overall excellent condition.  Case, dial, hands, movement all original. 

The movement has been fully serviced by our in-house watchmaker. It is running strongly and accurately, gaining 11 seconds with an amplitude of 314.

There are some minor surface scratches to the plexiglass (age related) but only visible from certain angles.

To note: for this movement, the bottom pusher both stops and resets the timing function. 

Specifications:

Movement: Mechanical hand-wound caliber signed Nivada / Landron 187 Swiss base.

Diameter without crown: 39 mm

Diameter with crown: 42 mm

Inside Lug Width: 21 mm