Another German Watch Company I’ve always had a soft spot for is NIVREL which is a registered trademark of Gerd Hofer GmbH, located in Saarbrucken, in Germany’s federal state Saarland.  They have a neat range of watches that I personally like as they are out of the mainstream and have an individuality that personally appeals.  Out of quite a few I like I’ve chosen this model – the Chrono Heritage Grand Date N 580.001 which is a little unusual in layout.

ETA 2892-A2 belies a secret – an added Chronograph module with Month indicator.

The movement is interesting as it appears through the exhibition back to be a non Chrono Automatic.  The movement is recognized as the Swiss ETA 2892-A2, but interestingly here it is used purely as the base movement.  Then Nivrel with their design individuality showing strongly, decided to add their own complicated chronograph module, the effects of which can be seen in the dial configuration.

As well as the obvious twin disc Big Date aperture @12 if you look closely there is another smaller window between 4 and 5 for a Month indication.  The watch model is what is called a One-Year-or “Annual” Calendar and is adjusted just once per year on the 28th or 29th February.  I personally find the dial layout intriguing and yet satisfying at the same time – and I rather like it as it’s just so unusual.

The dial is silver-coated with Clous de Paris guilloche in German silver, rhodinated applied indexes and the 6 flame-blued steel hands set gives excellent readability under a Sapphire Crystal.

Nivrel’s Big Date plus Month complication ETA. Note the discrete Month between 4 and 5 o’clock.

The case is in 316 Stainless Steel with a nicely molded case crown protection swell (the crown is very well defined with a strong milled edge).  Water Resistance is 5 bar and the case diameter is just 38.2mm and at only 12.8mm depth is quite neat for an automatic Chronograph.  A high quality leather strap with signed Nivrel buckle completes the ensemble.

Overall this is a very neat and compact model and with it’s satin finish certainly does look the part.  Additionally the short lugs arrangement allows this model to to fit almost any size wrist and is one of my favorites from the range.  However it has to be said that there are other models in this NIVREL range that I also like very much, so rather spoilt for choice . .

The NIVREL range can be seen HERE.

I also featured a couple of Nivrel Calendar models HERE last February, which may be of interest.