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Old 19 April 2019, 04:52 AM   #1
fwhawk
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Enicar Watches

Does anyone have any thoughts or experience with Enicar watches? They are a Swiss brand as I understand.
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Old 19 April 2019, 06:04 AM   #2
EDL7
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I have one..my dads old watch..runs fine..
There are a group of folks that swear by the Enicar..
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Old 23 April 2019, 04:52 AM   #3
chrissimons
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Old brand, I think they answered the first US Navy diving tender for a watch, but they did not won at that time. (I may be wrong, I'm not sure)
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Old 23 April 2019, 03:52 PM   #4
capote
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Enicar has produced pretty generic stuff, vintage by now. Just found what looks like their web page, it hasn’t been updated since 2015. Probably somebody tried to reboot the brand.
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Old 24 April 2019, 04:02 PM   #5
MILGAUSS88
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Have some pretty collectible chronograph, and I think a few divers
There generic dress watches do not sell well.
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Old 25 April 2019, 01:38 AM   #6
cardiel
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Jim Clark, one of the greatest racing drivers of all time, wore an Enicar Sherpa Graph - discussed below:

https://petrolicious.com/articles/le...ste-in-watches
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Old 3 August 2019, 04:48 PM   #7
HilaryTenzing
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I recently bought a vintage 1970 Enicar GMT (Sherpa Jet). I'm impressed with the specifications- Automatic 17/23 jewels (depending on market) in-house movement, applied markers, rotating 24-hour bezel, GMT hand, date window with roulette numbers, 600 ft water resistant compressor case (Rolex Submariner-level) in a GMT (!). Functional styling. First documented(!) Swiss brand to summit Everest. I understand now the loyal Enicar following. The current Enicar brand is under Chinese ownership and is popular Asia, with a line that harkens back to the original Enicar brand.
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Old 4 August 2019, 07:16 AM   #8
Chrislec
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Enicar advertises everywhere in China with quite positive responses. Indeed they have been distributed in China through a HongKongnese distributor since the 1930s.

The history claimed by the official website looks mostly true but sometimes a bit fabricated, like the passage on Russian rocket scientist and father of the Soviet space program Mr. Sergey Korolev, who supposedly had an Enicar (which was surprisingly true as Sotherby sold the watch as it is in the 90s) however the image on the website shows Werner Von Braun when describing Korolev. Von Braun was the rocket scientist who fathered the American space program, and father of the Saturn V moon rocket, and was a Rolex owner.
It's rather stupid for a brand to make such a mistake in their marketing, and shows the poor level of work they put in following watchmaking heritage.
See here: http://www.enicar.com/history/

I stopped by the boutique and honestly they look like cheap 50usd-style watches, mostly of bad taste - such as use of diamonds and writing "diamond and 18k gold" right on the dial, like they needed to justify this is real stuff besides the shitter look.

Technically they have nothing else to do with the past Enicar company in terms of manufacturing as Enicar went bankrupt in the 80s. The brand name was purchased by the previous HK distributor who relaunched it mostly for the China market, mostly with crappy-looking models with Sellita mouvements. Their design clearly targets the middle-age Chinese nouveau-riche but not rich enough to buy big brands.

However they recently tried to rejuvenate their image in China with premium locations at upper-middle class shopping malls and a young-aristocratic looking image, using celebrities normally known as fashion victims, but this time pictured dressed like British aristocrats driving old cars etc.
Surprising, but well done.

I regret they don't re-release the Sherpa Jet GMT that HilaryTenzing mentioned above, which is truly a nice piece, and one of the only watch I know to display the full 24 hour numbered markers of the gmt bezel instead of one marker per two hours.

Currently I'll stay away of the whole modern portfolio as long as they don't reconnect with the brand heritage like Panerai did.
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