During this pandemic, I found myself with ample time to shop for watches. Who am I kidding I find the time even when I’m working at the office. I had always been interested in vintage watches and had explored brands like Heuer, Universal Geneve, and Zenith in the past, but the prices for these legends highly discouraged me and I couldn’t reconcile paying so much for a sixty some year-old watch. So, I set out to find a more affordable and available vintage time piece to begin my collection. This path would eventually bring me to the Enicar Super Dive MKIII.

My searching led me to the planet Saturn, or the logo for the brand name Enicar (Racine spelled backwards). I won’t go into the history of this watch brand here, but if you’re interested check out the Enicar Bible by Martjin Van Der Ven to learn more about it. I soon realized Enicar was the vintage watch brand I was looking for. They’re unique, great quality, and best of all still somewhat affordable and obtainable. The Super Dive MK III is an automatic watch and comes in a modern size (43mm) but because of its cushion case and short lugs (lug width 22mm) it wears more like a 40 mm on me; my wrist size is 7.25 cm. The face has orange accents on a black dial that oozes a 1970’s vibe and helps with the legibility. Its day/date function shows the day on a white background that really stands out when looking at it while the date background blends in with the black dial. Sunday’s day font is red instead of black, just like those retro alarm clocks. Does a dive watch even need a day/date function? Probably not but I have found it useful. All of this is housed in an EPSA Super Compressor case with two crowns: the 2 o’clock one rotates the inner bezel and the 4 o’clock one sets the time, day and date. This watch was originally rated for a depth of 600 ft but I don’t plan to dive with it. The 22 mm lug width has been challenging as most of my straps are 20 mm so I had to buy a few and try them out to find the perfect fit.

To me this Enicar Super Dive MKIII is a unique timepiece. The colorful, retro design is hypnotic, and I can’t seem to stop looking at it every time I wear it. It’s a vintage watch with a modern size, great legibility and was made by a brand that has yet to be fully discovered in the watch community.