What’s more, coming in at well over 40mm, it was a real walloper for the time. Later versions added on more color the Mark III and IV, specifically, featured a checkerboard-like 24-hour hand, a bright lance-shaped seconds hand and combined bright colors like red, yellow and blue.

There were several references of the Sherpa Guide, but most featured two-toned 24-hour rings, black bezels and red accents. This, subsequently, lined up all the other time zones with their respective hour, giving you a quick reference to other world city times at a glance.Īdding to the watch’s allure was its striking look. You would set the 24-hour hand to the local time then rotate the bezel, so your time zone lined up with the hand. The bezel, when manually rotated to correspond with the 24-hour hand, allowed the wearer to see all world time zones at once. The Sherpa Guide had an adjustable 24-hour hand like the GMT but also had another ace up its sleeve: a rotating city bezel. Still, despite not becoming an issued watch, it was still a common fixture on divers’ wrists thanks to its water-tightness and lightweight build, according to Worn & Wound. Also, they called the dial “gaudy and strange looking.” Ouch.

A report indicated the radioactivity from the lume was well over acceptable levels and the lack of a rotating bezel hindered its functionality. However, the watch didn’t become standard issue. In fact, the Seapearl was tested by the US Navy at the time and its performance underwater compared favorably to the Submariner and Fifty-Fathoms. The Seapearl, notably, didn’t feature a rotating timing bezel like the Submariner or Blancpain Fifty-Fathoms of the same era, but it was water-resistant to 600 feet and featured a dial smothered in lume. Arguably one of the most significant introductions during this time was the Seapearl 600 in the early 1950s, a time when the dive watch was entering the fray. However, unless you’re deep in the watch nerd world, you probably never heard of the brand at all.Įnicar’s roots go back to the early 1900s, but as a brand, it wouldn’t hit its stride until the post-WWI years, when it started manufacturing its own movements - which it boasted as being “ultrasonically cleaned” - and venturing into tool watches. If you were to look at Enicar’s offerings, for example, you’d find another illustrious history of adventuring in timekeeping. But then again, these are the icons, and as most watch enthusiasts know the watch world was much bigger than what just Rolex and Omega were doing. Look at prices for old Submariners and Explorers and Speedmaster and tell me otherwise. The adventure watches of the ’50s and ’60s are the thing right now. Welcome to Watches You Should Know, a biweekly column highlighting little-known watches with interesting backstories and unexpected influence.

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