Few collectors realize that one of the largest producers of Geneva Seal movements during the 1920s has been absent from watchmaking for more than fifty years. In 2026, Niton returned, not as a nostalgic revival, but as a modern independent brand built on one of Geneva’s most overlooked legacies.
Our newest brand partner, we had the opportunity to sit down with Leopoldo Celi, one of the two co-founders of Niton alongside Yvan Ketterer during Watches & Wonders 2026. A great in-depth look at the Prima, today we’re diving into the history, the revival, and the timepiece.
Niton: an underappreciated part of watchmaking history
It may come as a surprise to some, perhaps most, that Niton was the largest producer of Geneva Seal movements during the 1920s. Founded in 1919 by former employees of Vacheron Constantin, the manufacture quietly supplied ultra-thin calibers to some of the most celebrated names in watchmaking, including Patek Philippe, Cartier, and Breguet. These movements, almost exclusively destined for refined jewelry and dress watches, embodied the highest standards of Genevan finishing. Later, Niton became particularly associated with jump-hour displays after registering the design in 1928.
Unusually for the era, however, Niton wasn’t simply a movement supplier. The company also produced its own watches in limited numbers, developing a distinct design language informed by the Bauhaus and Art Deco movements that defined the period. Long before the emergence of purpose-built tool watches, Niton’s creations occupied a unique space between functional timekeepers and wearable works of art, almost always crafted in precious metals.
Niton’s golden era spanned the 1920s and 1930s. As the Swiss watch industry consolidated, its movement-production business became part of Ébauches SA, later ETA, while the Niton trademark eventually passed to Sarcar, the Swiss jewelry watchmaker. Following a full merger in the early 1970s, the Niton name quietly disappeared from watchmaking. For more than half a century, it remained a forgotten chapter in Geneva’s horological history.
The revival without the repetition
Reviving a historic watch brand is relatively easy. Reviving its identity is considerably more difficult.
When we spoke with Leopoldo, what stood out most was the determination to approach Niton through the lens of contemporary independent watchmaking rather than nostalgia. The ambition wasn’t to recreate a vintage reference, but to imagine what Niton might look like had it continued operating uninterrupted into the twenty-first century.
That vision rested on three non-negotiable pillars: the brand’s signature jump-hour display, uncompromising Geneva Seal finishing, and an artistic design language rooted in the architectural spirit of historical Niton. Everything else was open to reinterpretation.
Rather than reproducing historical references, Leopoldo and Yvan immersed themselves in the archives to understand the principles behind Niton’s original creations. Art Deco and Bauhaus weren’t treated as aesthetic templates but as philosophies centered on geometry, innovation, elegance, and modernity. Those ideas became the foundation for the Prima’s design.
That philosophy extended beyond the watch itself. Historical Niton never relied on a single, enduring logo, instead adopting multiple visual identities throughout its existence. Rather than resurrecting one of them, the founders developed an entirely new mark, reportedly exploring more than one hundred variations before arriving at the final design. The result feels unmistakably contemporary while remaining sympathetic to the graphic language of the early twentieth century.
Perhaps the most meaningful discovery came from Niton’s own archives. One historical advertisement described the company’s work as “artistic and highly precise horlogerie.” That phrase became the inspiration for the modern brand’s guiding principle: Art + Precision. More than a slogan, it captures the balance Niton seeks to achieve today, combining creative expression with technical rigor while allowing history to inform, rather than define, the future.
As Leopoldo explained, nostalgia can easily become a shortcut. Niton’s objective was never to copy and paste the past, but to understand what made the original company distinctive and reinterpret those qualities for a new generation of collectors.
The Prima: a warm welcome back
The Prima immediately feels unlike most contemporary dress watches. Its compact proportions, architectural layout, and jumping-hour display create a watch that is simultaneously modern and unmistakably connected to Niton’s historical identity.
Housed in a rose gold case measuring 27mm by 35.5mm and just 7.9mm thick, the display is organized around a striking vertical composition: a square jumping-hour aperture at 12 o’clock, a rotating minute disc at the center, and a sweeping seconds indication at 6 o’clock. The result is both mechanically expressive and remarkably intuitive to read, blending the clarity of a regulator display with the character of one of watchmaking’s oldest complications.
The Prima offers more than an unconventional way of displaying the time. At the top of each hour, the jumping-hour mechanism is accompanied by a delicate chime produced by a hand-soldered copper gong, adding an unexpected auditory dimension to the experience. A stop-to-zero setting system further enhances precision by allowing the seconds hand to reset during time adjustment.
Turning the watch over reveals the in-house manual-wind calibre NHS01, developed exclusively for the Prima and finished to the demanding standards of the Geneva Seal. Particularly noteworthy is TimeLab’s approval of Niton’s reinterpretation of the traditional Côtes de Genève. Rather than classical striping, the movement features broad, deeply sculpted waves that preserve the spirit of the finish while giving it a distinctly contemporary identity. Extensive anglage, polished steelwork, a variable-inertia balance, a traditional Breguet overcoil, and a 72-hour power reserve complete what is an exceptionally accomplished debut movement.
Ultimately, the Prima succeeds because it avoids the trap that many historical revivals fall into. Rather than reproducing a watch from Niton’s archives, Leopoldo Celi and Yvan Ketterer have sought to revive the company’s way of thinking: combining artistic design, technical refinement, and a willingness to challenge convention. The result feels less like a tribute to the past than the continuation of a story that was interrupted more than fifty years ago.