This Affordable Chronograph Looks Like a Rolex Daytona Paul Newman, But It’s No Copy

Nivada Grenchen recreates one of its rare prototypes from the 1970s.

Published July 8, 2024

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Want to send watch collectors into a frenzy? Just mention these three words: Daytona Paul Newman. A nickname for a specific style of Rolex Daytona from the 1960s worn by the late actor decades ago, the Daytona “Paul Newman” has set numerous records at auction and is partly responsible for creating the insanely hot vintage watch market of the past several years.

For the vast majority of us, owning a Daytona Paul Newman is a pipe dream. The watches are quite rare and incredibly valuable; examples have previously sold at auction for several million dollars (including Newman’s own watch, which nabbed a then-record $17.8 million), and even the most affordable examples on the market cost well into six-figure territory.

If you love the unique look of the Daytona Paul Newman but don’t have the funds to go ham on the vintage Rolex market, there are far more affordable alternatives.

The best examples come from Swiss brand Nivada Grenchen, as their Paul Newman-esque chronographs aren’t mere Rolex copies — they’re actually based on vintage watches from the brand’s own mid-century history. And they’re about to drop another one.

Nivada Grenchen Chronosport

$2,180 at Nivada Grenchen

Rolex Doesn’t Own the Paul Newman Dial

First things first, let’s go over a little bit of history as it relates to the Rolex Daytona Paul Newman.

The nickname refers to a number of vintage Daytona references — 6239, 6241, 6262, 6263, 6264 and 6265 — produced between the mid-1960s and early 1970s. But not all Daytonas with those reference numbers are Paul Newman Daytonas. The difference is the dial.

Daytona Paul Newman watches have a unique dial style that is missing from other Daytonas, with the dial’s most prominent feature being the bold art deco-style font and square-tipped lollipop markers used on the chronograph registers. It’s this avant-garde look that makes a Paul Newman special, but Rolex was not the only brand to use such dials.

Rolex-Collecting-Gear-Patrol-Tiff-Newman-1 — The unique Singer-made dial is what sets the “Paul Newman” apart from other Daytonas.

Rolex referred to its Paul Newman dials as “exotic” dials, and they were produced by a third-party supplier called Singer. Back in the 1960s and ’70s, Singer made these exotic chronograph dials for many other brands other than Rolex. Among them were LIP, Vulcain and, perhaps most notably, Nivada.

A Lost Vintage “Paul Newman” Is Found

Nivada churned out several exotic-dial chronographs as contemporaries of Rolex’s Daytona Paul Newman. The brand has reissued some of these over the past few years, and they always sell out in a flash. Now, another obscure Singer-dial reference from Nivada’s past is getting a second chance at life.

Nivada Grenchen is one of several Swiss mechanical watch brands that went defunct during the Quartz Crisis of the 1970s and ’80s to be reborn in recent years. The brand, which returned in 2018, has found tremendous success in faithfully recreating vintage models from its 20th-century heyday.

vintage nivada watch — The vintage Chronosport prototype that inspired the modern reissue.

Two years ago, brand owner Guillaume Laidet saw a vintage 1970s Nivada chronograph up for auction that he wasn’t familiar with. The watch, called the Chronosport, featured a Singer “Paul Newman” dial in a unique asymmetrical two-register layout, along with a rotating dive-time bezel and a tapered integrated bracelet.

Just 20 prototypes of the original watch are believed to have been made, and they were never offered to the public. It’s taken Laidet and his team two years to faithfully recreate the modern version. But now it’s finally here … and it’s spectacular.

Meet the New Nivada Chronosport

Like most modern Nivada watches, the new Chronosport is visually identical to its ancestor. The watch features the same black dial with an inner tachymeter bezel and khaki-colored Paul Newman-style sub-dials at 12 and 9 o’clock for tracking elapsed minutes and running seconds, respectively.

nivada chronograph watch on wrist — With its Singer-designed dial and 38mm case size, the new Chronosport is like a mid-century time capsule for your wrist.

The watch carries over the original’s fully aluminum rotating bezel in black, the white date window at 3 o’clock, the 200m depth rating — which is still thankfully labeled in red on the dial — and the period-correct stainless steel 38mm case.

The steel bracelet, while integrated, now has a flat three-link design in place of the original’s broad single-link style (Nivada also offers 10 different strap options). The watch’s box-style crystal has also been upgraded from acrylic on the original to sapphire on the new release.

The new Chronosport is nearly indistinguishable from the ultra-rare 1970s prototype.

Nivada Grenchen

Then there’s the movement, which is nearly identical to the OG. The vintage Nivada uses a hand-winding Valjoux 7765, while the modern reissue utilizes the automatic version of that same calibre, the Valjoux 7750. This offers more convenience than the hand-wound version, but the drawback is its thickness — the new Chronosport measures a beefy 15.7mm thick.

Pricing and Availability

The new Chronosport is priced at $2,180 and is available with either white or fauxtina-colored lume. A pre-sale period for the watch will open on Nivada’s website on July 25 at 10 am EDT and is scheduled to last for four weeks, but I’ll be very surprised if stock doesn’t sell out before then. The watches are then expected to ship in October.