Otto Wüllimann, Hermann Schindler and Jakob Schneider founded Nivada Grenchen in Grenchen, Switzerland in 1926, and by 1930 the company was already among the first in the country to manufacture automatic watches. It built its reputation through the 1950s and 60s on collections like the Antarctic and the Chronomaster Aviator Sea Diver, with Schneider's son Max running the company by its 50th anniversary in 1976. The 1970s Quartz Crisis all but ended the brand, and it passed through several owners before all but disappearing, until Guillaume Laidet and Rémi Chabrat relaunched it in 2018 with faithful reissues of its classic designs.