The Enicar Sherpa Guide Represents the Peak of a Forgotten Watchmaker

These are the icons, and as most watch enthusiasts know the watch world was much bigger than what just Rolex and Omega were doing More important to watch lore was the use of Enicar Seapearl watches on a Swiss expedition to scale both Mounts Everest and Lhotse in the Himalayas in 1956, just a couple years after Sir Edmond Hillary's pioneering ascent Enicar quickly capitalized on the success, touting the Seapearl's success on Everest, adding the "Sherpa" moniker - a reference to Himalayan mountaineering guides - creating and subsequently an entire line of Sherpa tool watches.

This spawned many desirable watches today, like the Sherpa Dive - which did feature a diving bezel - or the Sherpa Graph chronograph Of these watches, arguably the most collectible today is the Sherpa Guide Enicar was part of the Swiss consortium that developed the Beta 21 quartz watch movement but didn't fare well during the Quartz Crisis that ensued during the '70s and '80s.

By the latter part of the '80s, the brand went into insolvency and was sold to a Hong Kong-based company that still distributes its watches in Asia, a market where the brand had always been popular since it began distributing watches there in the early 20th century As for the Sherpa Guide, it's become an increasingly valuable watch to those in the know. . Source