Was Blancpain the first?

[50kopek]

I mentioned Enicar earlier, and so I thought I'd back up the mention. The watch I had in mind was the Seapearl, and if we are looking for firm documentary evidence, then there's a trademark filed in 1953:



As opposed to Submariner which was 1954:




By 1956, the Seapearl was, as you would expect in a thread started by Rajen, on the summit of Everest as the watch of choice of the Eggler expedition. That's not the first Seapearl, but a later one, the Seapearl 600

Then of course, in 1958 the US Navy famously tested the Blancpain, Sub and Seapearl and concluded that the Sub was not sufficiently waterproof (5.1.1) which is rather a critical feature in a dive watch.



So, looking for explicit dive watches (after the thirties Omega Marine) you get - at least -the Seawolf, Seapearl and Fifty Fathoms. None of which leak. Of course, there's also the later Taubert Borgels using the 'Aquadura' system which were tested down to 120m in the 1930s.



While Mido made a big deal of the Taubert tech,

https://www.midowatches.com/uk/mido-...datometer.html

it was found in a range of watches, including Patek and, more affordably, West End as well as the earlier Borgels like the one above in the axolotl tank. So if you really want the first traditionally shaped divers watch, as used by Hillary 1951:



then there's loads on ebay for the price of a pizza.

Very interesting. Thanks for taking the time to look that up. And welcome information for an Enicar fanboy like me. To be fair to the author of the perezcope article though, I believe the intention of the article was to look at the first ‘modern’ dive watch by his definition, that is a watch in the style of the Fifty Fathoms and Submariner with an external rotatable bezel. The early Enicar Seapearls didnt’t have that I believe until around 57/58.

[M4tt]

Very interesting. Thanks for taking the time to look that up. And welcome information for an Enicar fanboy like me. To be fair to the author of the perezcope article though, I believe the intention of the article was to look at the first ‘modern’ dive watch by his definition, that is a watch in the style of the Fifty Fathoms and Submariner with an external rotatable bezel. The early Enicar Seapearls didnt’t have that I believe until around 57/58.

Yes, I think you are right. I'm just going off on one as I tend to do. Face it, it's not often that threads like this turn up and there's a lot of waterproof stuff that doesn't often get mentioned. I haven't even got around to the Fortis stuff that went off in a completely different direction.

[Broussard]

Yes, I think you are right. I'm just going off on one as I tend to do. Face it, it's not often that threads like this turn up and there's a lot of waterproof stuff that doesn't often get mentioned. I haven't even got around to the Fortis stuff that went off in a completely different direction.

I saw one of the early Aquatic watches recently; one of the best cases I’ve seen from that era (c1918, I think). Absolutely beautiful thing.

Early (Fortis?) Aquatic water-right wristwatch

[M4tt]

I saw one of the early Aquatic watches recently; one of the best cases I’ve seen from that era (c1918, I think). Absolutely beautiful thing.

Early (Fortis?) Aquatic water-right wristwatch

That’s rather lovely. It looks a bit like some of the very first waterproof IWC that just had two discrete little slots on the caseback.

[50kopek]

Yes, I think you are right. I'm just going off on one as I tend to do. Face it, it's not often that threads like this turn up and there's a lot of waterproof stuff that doesn't often get mentioned. I haven't even got around to the Fortis stuff that went off in a completely different direction.

Please continue going off. It usually makes for some of the more interesting threads here!