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Diving through the world of Enicar underwater watches

JimJupiter
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Hey guys,

some of you know, that my heart belongs to the watches with the Saturn on its dial. Since Enicar went bancrupt in the 80s and all documents were trashed, us collectors dont have the luxury of an archive like we are used from Omega. Though its challenging, its part of the fun to dig into the history and find interesting stuff.

Enicar is especially known for its dive watches with their special bayonet EPSA compressor cases. Hans Hass, the superstar of diving in the 50s and 60s (even before Cousteau) was involved in the first tests of an Enicar dive watch with a bezel: The Enicar Sherpa Dive.

Enicar_Sherpa_Dive_ad_2.jpg


With the help of Hass' book "Expedition into the unknown" and information I could gather around, I put the pieces together and wrote a small blog entry about it on my page. I found cool old pictures and interesting anecdotes, you may like it.

https://enicar101.com/2021/01/01/hans-hass-expedition-xarifa-ii-and-the-enicar-sherpa-dive/

No post without pics, so here some teasers 😁

20210101-DSC09221.jpg expedition_ins_unbekannte_page_118.jpg hans_und_lotte,1957.jpg expedition_ins_unbekannte_page_113.jpg
 
Dan S
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Great article, Nico. I wasn't aware that the early examples had Bakelite bezels. I doubt many have survived.
 
JimJupiter
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Robert M Robert M
Wonderful blog post, Jim. As you might know, an interesting documentary about Hans Hass was released last year.

https://www.mountainfilm.com/en/2019/film/12565/

Yeah, I came across this one during my research. The problem is, I don't have a physical DVD Player anymore 😁
I was thinking about buying the original 1961 Hass documentation on Amazon Prime, but the screens showed a very bad quality.


Dan S Dan S
Great article, Nico. I wasn't aware that the early examples had Bakelite bezels. I doubt many have survived.

Thanks Dan! The interesting thing is (and need to be researched as well) that we find different bezels at the same time. I do have this Diver 600 (40mm) for example with a bakelite bezel, but dated to 1960. A time when the alloy one was allready for sale.

20190223-DSC04870.jpg


Maybe later it was an option, due to better readability but the price of more radiation?

@all, thanks for you feedback!

Nico
 
Dan S
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JimJupiter JimJupiter
Thanks Dan! The interesting thing is (and need to be researched as well) that we find different bezels at the same time. I do have this Diver 600 (40mm) for example with a bakelite bezel, but dated to 1960. A time when the alloy one was allready for sale.

Interesting. Mine has the aluminum bezel, and the inside case-back date is 7-58. Perhaps it originally had a bakelite bezel. I never thought of that.
 
JimJupiter
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I guess the bezel was broken at one time and maybe changed.

To my research this is the evolution of the bezels (catalog and ad pics):

I. Bakelite with big lumedots at 3-6-9-12
II. aluminium with small lumedots at 3-6-9-12
III. aluminium with small lumedots at 3-6-9-12 and red ring
IV. aluminium with lumedots at 12 and red ring

(There is one variation missing: Alloy with lumedots at 12 and marker points from 0 to 20 only)

comparison.jpg
Edited:
 
Dan S
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JimJupiter JimJupiter
(There is one variation missing: Alloy with lumedots at 12 and marker points from 0 to 20 only)

That's what I have on mine. Markers from 0 to 20.
enicar_sherpadive.jpg
 
JimJupiter
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Nice one! Maybe those came with a red ring too....but as I said. Not really investigated yet on produrction date an serial. Will be the next project I guess 😉
 
Dan S
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JimJupiter JimJupiter
Nice one! Maybe those came with a red ring too...

Thanks and yes, I agree about the ring.
 
watchyouwant
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Slight deviation, Nico: what is the story behind the big 2 crown Sherpas with crown guards? Was there a black anodized version as well ?
 
JimJupiter
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Hey Achim, you mean these ones?
FC48CC52-D01D-476F-9437-807AE284A315.jpeg


It’s called the ultradive and OPS for the anodized version. The UD appeared around 1966, maybe 1965, the OPS a bit later. Looks like the OPS was the first black „coated“ watch, except someone knows an older one (WW I doesn’t count 😝).

i am working on the classification at the moment, but don’t have enough serials yet.
Until then, you can read my blog text about a big fan of the ultradive- Alain Delon!

https://enicar101.com/2021/02/04/alain-delons-ultra-dive/
 
watchyouwant
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Just bought one. Again. Had 3 so far over the last 30 years. Time to keep that one.... Kind regards. Achim
 
watchyouwant
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Looks like we are getting 2 new Ultra Dive soon..... 2 x Ultra Dive cases from France just sold on Ebay.... each over euro 1000 .
 
watchyouwant
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finally arrived and after a trip to the Watchmaker , ready for everyday wear. Very nice and now i`m on the lookout for an inner bezel ring.... can they be repainted? and experience with that ?
SAM_8936.JPG SAM_8935.JPG
 
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