A post for Google

A few words for Google:
large oversize big supersize
watch watches vintage old 1960s 1970s sixties seventies
GMT World Time diver pilot

Yema Yachtingraf Régate Jumbo 44 mm!

Yema - a french watch brand. See great overview and history here. Even more info here.
And Yemania Vintage - the site of Yema vintage collectors worldwide.

In 1970 Yema introduced the Yachtingraf Régate type 6. The normal case was 39 mm and too small for this blog BUT also a Jumbo version measuring 44 mm was made. The Jumbo should be recognizable on the small ship on the dial above 6 which is in a blue circle.

A super delicious and recognizable watch!

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I seriously want one. Only problem: I have never seen one for sale.

Enicar Sherpa Guide GMT

Enicar is a brand with a great history and some fab watches. Enicar was based in La Chaux-de-Fonds, Geneve, the epicentre of the Swiss watch making industry. Enicar made watches from 1913 to 1987, when the company went bankrupt. See the thorough history lesson here and even more here.

I'm particularly in love with the Enicar Sherpa Guide from the late 60s / early 70s. It has both an inner and outer bezel. It has nice red design elements to lighten up the black.

Update: The model seem to have developed over time. Dial design comes in several varieties, hands has become more solid and the case has changed to a more bulky version. Excellent overview here.

Vintage ad. (source)

Enicar Sherpa Guide. (source)

The Enicar Sherpa Guide uses a Super Compressor case from EPSA and has the trademark characteristics: cross-marks on the crowns and helmet-logo inside the case-back.

A rather unique look for a Super Compressor due to the extra external bezel. (source)

Typically the Enicar Sherpa Guide is described as having a width of 42 mm, heigth of 51 mm, 13 mm thick and 22 mm lugs. However this shows the model to have a width of 43 mm:

Enicar Sherpa Guide - 42 mm or 43 mm? (source)

Larger than the Zodiac Seawolf. Seems only a little larger than the
Omega Seamaster 120M which is a mediocre 39 mm...? Hmmmm. (source)

The Enicar Sherpa Guide was made with varying dial designs.

Wristshots galore:

Unfortunately the outer bezel was made out of soft aluminium and it seems all specimens for sale have very scratched and worn bezels.

Super compressors

Super compressor is the name of a case design made by Ervin Piquerez S.A. located in Suisse. EPSA produced the cases and they were used by more than 100 different watch brands from the late 50s to the early 70s.

Excellent articles and introductions to super compressors at worn&wound and scubawatch.

Watches with super compressor cases are some of the most cool looking vintage watches. Most often they had internal bezels and thick domed crystals.

They are affordable but not cheap. Typically the price is from 1.000 Euro and up.

Wittnauer, Bulova and Hamilton super compressor divers.

But how big are they?!

Supposedly the super compressor cases were made in two sizes: small 36 mm and large 41 mm -according to Worn & Wound. Scubawatch lists the large case at 42 mm. And some models at eBay or Chrono24 are described as being 43 mm. Now we are talking!

Not all watches described as "super compressors" in sales ads are in fact the real deal. Super compressors have easily recognizable features like cross-hatching marks on the crowns and/or the Super Compressor helmet-logo on the inside and/or on the outside of the case-back:

Source and source.

Connaisseur

A really impressive collection of vintage divers. They are all supposed to be +42 mm.
From Taswell. Click picture to enlarge.

I have to investigate them more in depth someday.

Measuring a watch

In an ideal world a watch would always be presented with these measurements:

Case width without crown is essential to know and should always be in a description of a watch. But often you have to google and google and read and read just to find this simple information.

Width with crown, length, depth, size of crystal and lug strap width are nice to know, but not equally essential. If you know the width and have a picture you'll have a very good feeling for the proportions in real life.

Often the term "lug to lug" distance is specified. NB: In theory it's not the same as length.

Size matters

Often you find a nice watch and start digging for info about size. And very often you will be find that it's just too damn small. I suspect some sellers deliberately hide this information...

Waltham Bathyscaphe Diver 1965
36 mm
TOO SMALL!
Source

Rolex GMT-Master 1963
40 mm
TOO SMALL!
Source

Breitling Chrono-Matic 1970
39 mm
TOO SMALL!
Source

Omega Seamaster Chronostop Yachting Bezel 1968
Jumbo (!) Case 41 mm
TOO SMALL!
Source

Panerai - the starting point

The inspiration to search for large vintage watches came from Panerai watches. Already in the 1930s Panerai made their first really large watches for the Royal Italian Army. They were used by divers and should be easy to read under water - thus the first watches had a diameter of 47 mm. Even by today's standards that's too large for most of us. Later came more reasonably sized watches with a perfect diameter of 44 mm. (If just they were a little bit more elegant.)

That made me think: Maybe other manufacturers in past times had made "oversized" watches that would be really wearable and feel contemporary today. A few days with Google and a whole new world had opened up.

Welcome

Ok, the plan here is to track down and blog about watches from the 60s and 70s with a watch case larger than 42 mm (not including the crown).

In the 60s a typical gentlemans watch was thirtysomething millimeter. This includes even tool watches like divers, pilot watches etc. But some manufacturers were ahead of time and made a few watch models that at the time were considered gigantic. But nowadays are just perfect. Let's start the quest.

A great article from aBlogtoWatch about watch sizes and trends here.