Enicar

 By Bruce Shawkey

Enicar was founded in 1913 by Ariste Racine and his wife Emma. The Racine brand name was already registered and couldn't be used, so the story goes that Emma suggested they simply reverse the letters of their last name to ENICAR. Originally, the factory was located in the Racine's house in La Chaux-de-Fonds. But they soon moved to the city of Lengnau in 1916 to Emma's mother's house.  In 1919, the Racines built a factory in Lengnau, and that’s when they started using the  “Enicar” brand on all their watches.

The company promoted wristwatches almost from the start. One  model looked sort of like a "pocket/wrist" model that incorporated a compass (users could also insert a small photo of a loved one) into the bezel (left). But it did have wire lugs on the case, and so was intended to be worn on the wrist.

Here is an ad from the 1930s for Enicar warches: 

Ariste's son, Ariste Jr., joined the firm in 1934 and by this time was developing some of its own inhouse calibers but also using movements from Valjoux and A. Schild.

Ultrasonic cleaning of watch movements had been around since the 1930s. This development led to the incorporation of the word “Ultrasconic” into some Enicar models, and also the birth of their logo which many watch collectors recognize: the elliptical rings encircling a globe (above).

Here are two Enicar watches from 1940s issues of Europa Star, a trade magazine for jewelers:

The 1960s ushered in what is arguably Enicar's most famous model, the Sherpa:

The Sherpa came in all sorts of variation, time-only, and chronographs, for mountain climbers and divers. It has been said that there are more than 100 distinct Sherpa models. Here are a few:

 

Here's an ad for Enicar in the Nov./Dec. 1957 issue of Swiss Horological Journal. The Sherpa model picture in the advertisement survived a trans-Atlantic voyage across the Atlantic Ocean tied to the rudder of the Mayflower II, re-creating the historic voyage of the Mayflower 337 years ago.

Enicar (Racine spelled backward) is a historic Swiss watch brand, founded by Jules Racine in 1914.

Their most famous watch is arguably the Sherpa, introduced in the mid 1960s. The Enicar brand is currently owned by by Wah Ming Hong Ltd. of Hong Kong. Their movements, however, are still made in Switzerland.

At this point, we’ll take a  look at some Enicar ads and watches through the decades:

By Bruce Shawkey

Found this ad in the March/April 1958 issue of Swiss Horological Journal for Enicar watches. The watch shown is the automatic Enicar Sherpa, a watch normally associated with Mt. Everest expeditions. But the ad claims the watch is equally suited for race-car driving, and has gained the endorsement of Sterling Moss.

Moss was a British Formula One race car driver. In the 1950s, he won 212 of the 529 races he entered across several different motorsports competitions. In a seven-year span between 1955 and 1961 Moss finished in second place four times and in third place three times. He has been described as "the greatest driver never to win the Formula One World Championship." 

Here is an obit for Mr. Racine who passed away in 1958:

Here are some additional pictures of Enicar watches: