Enicar "Seapearl 600" 17 Jewels Incabloc. Made in 1950's. Fine, large, center-seconds, water-resistant diver's wristwatch.
Case: Two-body, polished, screw-down reverse, with massive long curved lugs.
Dial: Black with luminous triangular dart indexes and quarter Arabic numerals, inner white minute ring with large rectangular luminous quarters. Luminous index hands.
Movement: Caliber AR1120, manual wind, rhodium-plated, 17 jewels, straight-line lever escapement, monometallic balance, incabloc shock absorber, self-compensating flat balance spring.
Diameter: 34mm Thickness: 12mm
Circa: 1950
More about Enicar:
In the late 1950s Enicar began supplying watches to mountain climbers and other sportsmen and adventurers as a marketing exercise. Enicar Seapearl watches accompanied the Swiss expedition to the top of Lhotse and Everest in the Himalayas in May 1956. The Swiss expedition reached the summit of the Himalayan Lhotse Mountains and a week later the bordering summit of Mount Everest. This was only the second time the summit of Everest was reached. A few members of the expedition members were wearing Enicar Seapearl watches. It is this while promoting this expedition that Enicar launched new model called the Sherpa.
However, the Seapearl 600 became one of the most tested watch by US military divers.
In 1958, Bulova was developing a s diver’s watch for the US Navy’s Experimental Diving Unit. While the Bulova was under development, the Navy was performing official testing on the Rolex Submariner 6538 and Blancpain Fifty Fathoms Milspec 1 divers. The Enicar Seapearl 600 was popular with Navy divers at the time and many were casually use by divers, and the Navy included the Seapearl 600 in the tests as well.
According to the 1959 Navy EDU “Evaluation Report 1-59,” the Enicar performed quite satisfactorily compared to the Rolex and the Blancpain. In fact, the Rolex crystal fogged from water intrusion, and was actually deemed to be insufficiently watertight! The Enicar (along with the Blancpain), however, did pass, and the divers themselves preferred its lighter weight, The Enicar along with the Rolex were rejected by the US Navy because of the bright finish of their case which could attract sharks and barracudas in Tropical water.
