Nivada Grenchen F77 MKII 100 Years: Seven Stone Dials and a New La Joux-Perret Movement

A hundredth anniversary gives a watch brand plenty of opportunities to look backwards.

Nivada Grenchen has spent much of 2026 doing exactly that, revisiting different chapters from an archive that stretches back to 1926 and includes everything from Antarctic expedition watches to the Chronomaster, Depthmaster and the integrated-bracelet F77.

The new F77 MKII 100 Years collection introduces seven natural stone dials, an exhibition caseback and a completely different movement supplied by La Joux-Perret. Six stones form the wider collection, Labradorite, Jade, Azurite, Shungite Black, Smoky Quartz and Black Opal, while a pale-blue Ice Agate sits separately as the numbered centenary limited edition. 

The result still looks immediately like an F77. The 38mm steel case, integrated architecture and broad brushed surfaces remain, but almost everything you see through the front and back is doing something new.

100 years of Nivada Grenchen

Nivada Grenchen began in Grenchen, Switzerland, in 1926, building its identity around watches intended to work in real conditions rather than simply look the part. Over the following decades came watches associated with polar exploration, diving, aviation and chronograph timing, including the Antarctic, Depthmaster and Chronomaster. The original F77 arrived in 1977, bringing the sharply geometric integrated-bracelet style of that decade into the Nivada catalogue. 

There is also a relevant thread running through Nivada's movement history. The company has never defined itself by manufacturing every calibre internally. Instead, it has worked with specialist Swiss movement makers including ETA, A. Schild, Phénix, Venus and Valjoux, followed more recently by Soprod, Sellita, Landeron and now La Joux-Perret. Nivada itself describes that as a century-long philosophy of selecting the movement that best suits the watch. 

That makes the movement change in the F77 feel particularly appropriate for the anniversary.

First, what is a stone dial?

A stone dial is quite literally made using natural mineral material rather than a conventionally painted, lacquered or stamped metal surface.

The stone has to be cut sufficiently thin to work within the dimensions of a watch dial, then shaped and finished before the markers, printing and other components can be added. Working with natural material introduces challenges that a conventional brass dial does not: stone can be brittle, colour is inconsistent and the pattern found in one section of material may be completely different from the next. Hodinkee has noted that this unpredictability is a large part of the renewed appeal of stone dials, with modern collectors increasingly valuing the fact that two examples cannot be visually identical. 

That individuality is particularly obvious across the new F77s.

Nivada is not printing an approximation of Labradorite or colouring a conventional dial to resemble Azurite. The natural stone is the dial material, so veining, inclusions, transparency and colour distribution naturally vary between watches. 

Seven stones consequently produce considerably more variation than seven ordinary dial colours would.

Ice Agate

The Ice Agate is the centrepiece of the anniversary collection and the only stone treated as the separately numbered limited edition.

Agate belongs to the wider quartz family and is known for the layers and patterns created as mineral material forms over very long periods. The Ice Agate selected by Nivada is particularly pale and translucent, with soft blue, white and almost cloudy areas moving across the surface rather than a uniform block of colour. Nivada describes the material as having crystalline textures and glacial tones, with patterns formed naturally over millions of years.

Against the F77's straight brushed steel surfaces, that irregularity works particularly well. The case and bracelet are highly structured; the dial is not. One is all controlled lines, while the other has been determined by the material itself.

The Ice Agate is also individually numbered and limited to 60 pieces worldwide, making it the most explicitly collectable watch in the group.

More importantly, the limitation makes sense visually. Every one of those watches will already be slightly different before the individual number on the back is taken into account.

Labradorite

Labradorite is arguably the most changeable of the seven.

At first glance it can appear fairly dark, but movement under light brings out blue, green and occasionally more muted earthy reflections. This optical effect is closely associated with Labradorite and is why a still product photograph rarely tells the full story, having deep blue reflections and iridescent flashes that shift depending on the angle of the light. 

That makes it an interesting match for the F77 because the case and bracelet already rely heavily on changing reflections from their brushed and polished surfaces. As the wrist moves, both the steel and dial change, but for completely different reasons. Labradorite is probably the least predictable in the collection.

Jade

The Jade version is visually simpler, although natural variation means it is hardly uniform.

Nivada has chosen the material for its rich green tone and smoother organic character. Compared with the fractured patterns of Azurite or the changing reflections of Labradorite, the Jade dial appears calmer and more consistent across its surface.

That suits the F77 surprisingly well. Integrated-bracelet watches from the 1970s already have quite a lot of geometry around them, and a cleaner green dial allows the octagonal bezel, exposed screws and angular bracelet to remain visually prominent. 

Azurite

Azurite is known for intense blue colouring, and the material selected for these dials mixes those dark blues with brighter green areas and irregular mineral patterns. The pattern is naturally abstract, and that is probably the important part. It does not resemble a conventional sunburst or fumé dial where every example follows the same treatment.

Some pieces will contain considerably more green. Others will be predominantly blue. The choice of where the dial blank is taken from the stone effectively becomes part of the design.

Shungite Black

A black dial sounds like the restrained option until the material is changed.

Shungite is a naturally carbon-rich material with a deep black appearance and subtle variation through its surface. Nivada has deliberately chosen it for a darker, more minimal interpretation of the stone-dial idea.  From a distance, it is probably the closest of the seven to a conventional black F77. Get closer and the texture begins to appear.

That makes Shungite useful within the collection because not everyone interested in a natural stone dial necessarily wants vivid blue, green or multi-coloured reflections. Here, the material adds depth rather than dominating the watch. It is the quiet stone dial of the group.

Smoky Quartz

Smoky Quartz introduces considerably warmer tones.

Rather than the blues and greens seen elsewhere, the material moves through grey, brown and translucent areas. Nivada describes it as the softer and more atmospheric interpretation of the F77, and the colour gives the otherwise industrial steel case a noticeably different character.

Quartz itself is a crystalline mineral, while the smoky colour comes from changes within that crystal structure. In dial form, the interesting part is the way the material can retain a sense of depth rather than simply looking brown. The F77 has often been at its most convincing with colder steel, blue or black combinations. Smoky Quartz makes it feel warmer without changing anything about the underlying case.

Black Opal

Then there is Black Opal, probably the most obviously colourful stone once the light reaches it.

The name does not mean the dial is simply black. A dark base provides the background for flashes of blue, green, red and violet, producing the characteristic play-of-colour associated with opal. The exact balance and position of those colours varies naturally from one piece to another. 

On what is otherwise a relatively restrained three-hand sports watch, that gives Black Opal considerably more visual theatre than the basic specification suggests.

Seven dials, one F77

Underneath the stones, the architecture is shared.

The F77 MKII uses a 38mm stainless-steel case, double-domed sapphire crystal, screw-down crown and 100 metres of water resistance. The familiar integrated case-and-bracelet design remains, with vertical brushing broken up by polished details. Nivada also offers the watches on rubber and canvas Velcro straps, although the broad steel bracelet remains the configuration most closely associated with the F77. 

It is a useful base for natural stone because the F77 itself is so controlled. Straight lines, brushed steel and exposed bezel screws provide a rigid frame around something that can never be reproduced exactly. The bigger change is on the other side.

For the 100 Years watches, Nivada has moved to a sapphire exhibition caseback, allowing the movement to become part of the design for the first time in this anniversary configuration.  And that movement is new to the F77.

La Joux-Perret and the G101

The G101 comes from Manufacture La Joux-Perret in La Chaux-de-Fonds.

Calling La Joux-Perret a movement supplier undersells what the company actually does. It describes itself as a true movement manufacture, with an internal technical office, laboratory, component-production workshops, decoration departments and watchmaking teams covering the complete production cycle. Around 120 specialists work across those disciplines. 

The G101 used here is a Swiss automatic three-hand movement with 24 jewels, a 4Hz / 28,800vph frequency and 68 hours of power reserve. The 2824/SW200 format has become one of the standard architectures of modern Swiss watchmaking. Building the G101 around similar dimensions allows brands to use a more contemporary movement without needing to redesign an entire watch around it.

The practical improvement for the F77 is easy to understand. Previous versions commonly used the Soprod P024 with around 38 hours of reserve. The G101 increases that to 68 hours while continuing to run at 4Hz. 

What are Geneva stripes? (Côtes de Genève)

The new display back also means Nivada has had to think about how the G101 looks. The rotor carries Nivada Grenchen lettering in gold with striped decoration, while further striped finishing is visible across the movement beneath it. The decorated rotor is one of the obvious visual changes introduced by the open caseback. 

Those parallel decorative bands belong to the tradition generally known as Côtes de Genève, or Geneva stripes. They do not make the watch run more accurately. The effect is a finishing technique, traditionally used across bridges, plates and rotors to create broad parallel waves that catch the light as the movement changes angle.

La Joux-Perret offers Côtes de Genève as one of the traditional finishing treatments available across the G100/G101 family, alongside details such as blued screws and polished chamfers on higher specifications. For an everyday closed-back F77, none of this would particularly matter. For a watch celebrating 100 years of Swiss watchmaking, being able to turn it over and see a properly presented Swiss automatic movement feels considerably more appropriate.

A century celebrated through materials rather than nostalgia

Nivada could have marked 100 years by recreating something from 1926.

Instead, it has used a watch from 1977, developed it into its current MKII form, fitted it with a movement the brand has never previously used in the collection and then given it seven dials created from materials considerably older than the company itself. 

The stone dials provide the obvious visual attraction, but the G101 is arguably the more important long-term change. A 68-hour La Joux-Perret movement, sapphire display back and upgraded finishing move the F77 forward mechanically at the same time as Nivada celebrates its past.

That also fits the way the company describes its own century of watchmaking. Nivada's history has never depended on one proprietary movement architecture. ETA, Valjoux, Soprod, Sellita and others have all played a role at different points. The constant has been choosing an appropriate movement for the watch being made. 

A century later, La Joux-Perret joins that list.

The six regular stone editions give the F77 a completely new set of personalities, while the numbered Ice Agate provides the more overtly commemorative piece. None of them can be completely identical because the material itself will not allow it.

For a watch built around the precise geometry of 1970s integrated-bracelet design, that contrast is probably what makes the collection work.

Same architecture. Seven pieces of stone. No two dials quite the same.

The Nivada Grenchen F77 MKII 100 Years collection launches at WatchNation on Thursday 24th September, at £1,450 on canvas or rubber and £1,630 on the integrated steel bracelet.