There are a few watch brands that are synonymous with dive watches, but one that may not immediately come to mind is Enicar and their Sherpa Dive wristwatches. Enicar, which is an anagram of the family name ‘Racine,’ are well-known for being instrumental in the watch world. However, it wasn’t until around the mid-20th century, under the leadership of Ariste Racine, Jr., that things really started to kick into gear.
With a new modern factory, Enicar started to experiment, but it wasn’t until the late 1950s that Enicar really started to take their watertight wristwatches more seriously. In 1957, a ship named the Mayflower sailed across the Atlantic, but perhaps more interesting was the watch Ocean Pearl attached to the keel of the ship. This watertight case led to the creation of a family of affordable dive watches from the Seapearl line.
Single Crown Dive Watches
The Seapearl 600 dive played a very important role in shaping Enicar’s dive watch history. So much so, it was even featured in a copy of Life Magazine in 1957. However, it wasn’t until July 1958 that the US Navy Experimental Diving Unit reported on the performance of the Seapearl 600 watch, seeing as several of its members were already using this model. The divers compared the Seapearl 600 to the Blancpain 50 Fathoms Milspec 1 and the Rolex Submariner 6538.
The Seapearl 600 was favorably recommended for situations where a rotating bezel was not required. In their assessment, the broad second hand was considered of value. It was also positively noted that the Enicar was much cheaper than both the Rolex and Blancpain. Though it may be hard to believe, the report stated that the Submariner was “not sufficiently waterproof.”
While there were quite a few variations of the Sherpa Seapearl 600 made during the late 1950s, it was perhaps the model introduced in 1958, which featured a rotating bezel for the first time, that really cemented Enicar’s dive watch credentials. This feature brought the watch more in line with the typical dive watch we’ve become accustomed to seeing. These pieces were released in a few variations and bore the inscription ‘Sherpa Diver 600’ on the dial. By 1965, Enicar started using the word ‘Star’ in their model types, and the Star Diver models succeeded the Sherpa models. However, the engraving ‘Sherpa’ continued to be used on the super compressor case backs.
There were other models, in addition to the Sherpa Dive 600 examples, known as the Sherpa Mini Dive. The Mini Dive featured a Sherpa 300 super compressor case back, and true to its name, was much smaller, measuring in at just 27 mm in diameter. It featured many of the same traits as its bigger diving brother, the Sherpa Dive 600. There was even another model called the Sherpa Divette, which in many ways was reminiscent of the earlier Seapearl models. The Divette was an intermediate size between the 27-mm diameter Mini Dive and the 40-mm Dive models, measuring in at 36 mm. Again, like the Sherpa Dive 600, the Divette was produced with different variations of dials, hands, and bezels.
Two-Crown Sherpa Dive Watches
All the pieces mentioned above were single crown Enicar Sherpa dive models. By 1964, however, Enicar had started producing two-crown dive models. These early two-crown dive models were known as Sherpa Super Divette and featured internal 60-minute diving bezels. These were also produced with a variety of dial configurations as well as case types. Another model that was available at the time was the Super Dive, which was larger than the Super Divette by 4 mm, measuring 40 mm in diameter. One model that was an oddity amongst the Enicar Sherpa dive range was the Sherpa Ultradive, which used the same case as the Super Dive and featured the same two crown configuration, but made use of a crown guard to protect both.
Conclusion
While Enicars dive watches are, as mentioned, not a household name, you can see just how active they were during this period. While their single crown dive examples are probably better known, their twin crown pieces also played just as important a role in shaping their dive watch legacy. Not only were they producing some cool, diverse, dive watches, but these beautiful vintage pieces are still very affordable today.
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