Hey guys, the beginning of the year was very informative regarding new stories and facts about the Swiss brand Enicar. A few weeks ago a Swedish guy got in contact with me, cause he inherited an early Enicar Sherpa Graph from his father in law. Turns out, his father in law was part of the salvage of the famous Swedish King's ship "Vasa". Every child in Sweden knows the story, how the ship sunk in 1628 after it sailed just 20min. In the 50s of the last century some men wanted to find the ship again an bring it back to normal sea level. Enicar played a small part in this adventure by sponsoring some watches and advertise with this story their own watches for the next decade. "Some have called it Sweden’s Apollo Program, a dramatic and complex technical effort over several years to do something few thought possible: raise an intact 17th-century warship from the bottom of the sea. Even today, many still remember where they were when Vasa finally rose from the deep after 333 years in darkness.” (Vasa Museet) This is Per Edvin Fälting, the head diver of this mission. Despite wearing a Submariner in private, here we see him with a Enicar Sherpa Dive Ref. 100/224 BaANXS. Enicar used this motive in several of their publications, like in this brochure: At Enicar101.com I gathered more facts and more pics, that show the salvation and the involvement of Enicar in this project. https://enicar101.com/2021/02/20/swedens-apollo-program-the-salvage-of-the-kings-ship-vasa-in-1961/ Cheers Nico
Thanks, glad you liked it. I especially love the work to browse through hundreds of old pics. It's great when you find digital archives for that. Especially Switzerland and Sweden do have really good ones. If anyone is interested in more Media about the Vasa Salvage or other topics with Swedish background, the "Digital Museum" is the place to be: Link Digital Museum Nico
I recently aquired all issues of a 1960s German Diving magazine. In one of them of 1961 I found a review of an Enicar Sherpa Dive, like they used in the Vasa Salvage (except this time, it had a red ring ). The english translation you will find on enicar101.com Nico
The daughter of Swedish Archeologist Sven Bengtsson wrote me, that her father also was involved in the Vasa salvage and got a Sherpa Graph as a gift, shortly before the Vasa saw the surface. He was wearing it at least until 1975 during his work on the restoration, as these pictures proof. Bukowskis is selling this watch in his coming watch auction. https://www.bukowskis.com/en/auctio...dius-hands-tachymetre-base-1000-stirling-moss
Hallo Nico, tolle Geschichte und Respekt vor deinem Engagement mit eigener Website. So macht Geschichtsunterricht Spaß. Viel Erfolg bei deinen digitalen Erkundungsgängen Gruß Sigi
Thanks Sigi, I hope there is still a lot to discover Anyone with unkown documents here? No? Damn Nico
Another Sherpa Graph with Vasa history is going to be sold through Bukowskis. This time the watch is in better shape, just the hands were relumed some time ago. It was owned by Bengt Ohrelius, the PR coordinator of the salvage. https://www.bukowskis.com/en/auctions/634/65