How many Enicar Sherpa Sports watches made?

Enicarfan

New member
Sherpa
I know more research has gone into Enicar recently (especially with the book 'Time For A Change') but I am curious if anyone has any ideas of how many Enicar compressor sports models were actually made?

While I know some Enicar models were mass produced for export to markets like Russia, India, and China, I am not sure if the same is true of the compressor models.

There seems to be some rough numbers for the Sherpa Graph models (cobbled together by owners), but how about for models like the Ops, Super Jet, Super Dives, and Ultradives?

Some people seem to think these models are common (and the number of Instagram photos, Google photos via search seem to indicate this) yet no one also seems to really know for sure.

For example I haven't seen a whole lot of Ultradive photos available on the Internet and the majority seem to be later versions with an neon orange marker around the track ring (personally not too keen about that look) and sharp pointy orange minute hands (similar to Mk 4 Sherpa Graphs), while earlier track rings seem to be white/silver and have a double lollipop minutes hand or in some cases a single red lollipop (which I personally think looks the coolest).

Also there seem to be different revisions of all the sports watches as well (Mk. 1, Mk. 2, etc) which have different hour & minute hands, dials, and track rings.

The Enicar book indicates all archives were lost and destroyed after the original Enicar company fell apart in 1987, so maybe we need to create a registry system so owners can provide serial numbers to piece the story together?
 

JimJupiter

Moderator
Staff member
Enicaristi
Sherpa
Enicar didnt produced those cases by themself, so maybe its an approach to get documentaton from EPSA, how many cases they delivered to Enicar.
I am in the beginning to start to collect some data on OPS and Ultra Dive. Looks they are in a similar serial range, that is not very big. Smaller than the Chronos for sure. I also have seen more dial variations than expected, so the old MK-MKIII rule is maybe obsolet. But still needs a lot of work to gather that stuff.

Nico
 

Enicarfan

New member
Sherpa
Isn’t EPSA also out of business? I read that they went out of business around 1990/1991 and that their remaining assets were sold to Chronoswiss... I am not certain if Chronoswiss was given archived information after the sale or whether they just purchased unused cases & tooling. Does anyone know?

I believe EPSA manufactured compressor cases for multiple manufacturers (Patek, Longines, Universal Geneve, etc) but that the Enicar compressor cases had a “branded” look and had custom lugs, the unique “Seapearl” logo on the back, and in the case of the Ultradive and Ops a custom crown guard.

Has anyone attempted contacting Chronoswiss for EPSA related information?
 
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JimJupiter

Moderator
Staff member
Enicaristi
Sherpa
EPSA build a lot of cases, not just compressor ones. The Enicar ones are specific due to their case back locking mechanism (bajonet instead of screw down).

@martink is the expert on EPSA, maybe he has some more information on this topic.
 

martink

New member
Sherpa
Well, I never heard of an EPSA - Chronoswiss connection.
This was actually an Enicar - Chronoswiss connection. Chronoswiss bought the remaining stock of Enicar raw movements and converted them to use in their first watch.
Rüdinger Lange apparently still has old movements (raw movements) from Enicar lying around.
I have a contact who knows him, and he told me this. But Mr. Lange is very old and hard to get in contact with, so I never followed up on this.

Regarding EPSA and numbers, this is very difficult.
Basically it is the same as with Enicar: Most documentation is lost.
There is a book about EPSA, but it does not detail the Enicar case volume numbers enough to deduct numbers that we would like to have.
So, maybe one can find a yearly volume here and there, but of course this is for ALL Enicar cases, not just for the Sherpa series.

I have to say that I cannot contribute.
Also, all my tries to find family members of the Piquerez family were futile.

And yes, EPSA produced for many Swiss watch brands, and usually did custom lugs to differentiate.
For Enicar, though, they reserved the bayonet compressor, which they only produced for them.
The others only got compressors and super compressors.

Cheers,

Martin
 

martink

New member
Sherpa
bien sur, voila: "le patronat de la boite de montre dans la vallée de Delemont", Jean-Daniel Kleisl.
I haven't understood all of it, but the most important parts I think I did. ;-)
The book covers Ruedin and EPSA from the perspective of a historian.
It is not a general book for the public, but seems to come out of academic background / motivation.
Some kind of final workpiece while finishing studies.

Not easy to find that it exists.
 
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