Timeline Watch
1964

Enicar Sherpa Ultradive

China detonates its first atomic bomb

1964 Enicar Sherpa Ultradive 144/35/03 Super-compressor 40.3mm. case. Movement cal. AR 1145,

The Enicar Sherpa Ultradive was rated water resistant to 200 meters due to its patented back. The bezel was oil-embedded which guaranteed a long lifetime and watertight seal.

Enicar Sherpa Ultradive Super-Compressor refers to a patented case sealing method developed by watch case manufacturer Ervin Piquerez. The design takes advantage of the water pressure the case is exposed to at depth to press the case back against the o-ring seal. More depth equals more water pressure equals greater seal. Over 100 different brands used one of the many variations of super-compressor cases. Some notable brands used the dual crown design, including: Jaeger leCoultre, Longines, Universal Geneve, IWC and Blancpain.

Created in 1931, the Sherpa family, probably the most well known Enicar range featuring a multitude of different models including the dive,divette, mini-dive, Sherpa-graph and more. In 1951 the Sherpa Jet-graph released.

A strange combination of the chronograph. Along with GMT through a rotating twenty-four hour bezel. Among a movable plastic marker to keep track of timing long events.

Right now, Vintage Enicar watches, hot and recognized for both the quality and resilience of their designs. They intended to build these timepieces as tool watches and people such as competitive race drivers originally used it.

Founded in 1913 the Enicar Watch Company. The first to use Radium in 1914 to make dial readable in the dark.

From the mid-forties Enicar developed its first chronograph models. In the sixties and seventies they developed their own automatic movements and focused mainly on the sport watches.

In 1956 Enicar enlisted as the official watch of the Swiss attempt to climb to the top of Mount Everest with expedition leader Ernst Reiss. Giving great praise to his Enicar watch which gave the then relatively small company a huge boost in public awareness. Soon Enicar were gaining popularity and even scored Sterling Moss as a spokesperson for their “Ultrasonic Sherpa”.

Some say that Enicar was the first watch ever to been taken to the top of Everest and not the Rolex Oyster Explorer that Sir Edmund Hillary worn on his expedition in 1953. Because of the expedition not being documented properly Enicar could not claim to be the first to on the top.

Enicar was one of the first Brands to focus their marketing on Divers, Racing and Pilot watches. After that, In 1960 the racing pilot Stirling Moss promotes an Enicar watches.

Jim Clark also wears the Sherpa Graph and the first edition of the Sherpa Graph links to his name, in what has since become a collectors favorite.In 1963 Jim Clark gave his chief engineer Dick Scammell. A Sherpa Graph in appreciation for his help in winning the F1 World Championship.

What separates Enicar from other brands lost to time is that they were incredibly popular in Asia, specifically China and Russia, due to their relative low cost and high quality compared to domestic made timepieces of the time.

Unfortunately the end of Enicar came much like that of Universal Geneve. Enicar did manage to put up a good fight during the quartz crisis. As they were already at a lower and more competitive price point, however they were by no means immune. Enicar were in fact among the first watch brands to make use of the Beta 21 movement that the Swiss hoped to combat the influx of cheap Japanese quartz however it was a losing battle.

In 1987 Enicar filed for bankruptcy and piece by piece the Enicar name dismantled. The remaining watch cases sold to the owner of ChronoSwiss.

The brand name put up for auction and bought by a Hong Kong investment company.