NAWCC 135 Chapter Meeting (In Person)

Chapter 135 Meeting

WHEN: SUNDAY, March 9th, 2025

WHERE:

Norwest School of Horology

Shoreline Center

18560 1st Ave NE

Shoreline, WA 98155

View Shoreline Center Map for room location (pdf)

TIME:

11:30 for socializing and Mart buy/sell/trade

12:30 business meeting followed by the program

PLEASE NOTE: This is an in-person meeting only. No zoom.

PROGRAM:

In 1914, Ariste Racine, a member of a prominent family of Swiss watchmakers started his own brand: Enicar.

After expanding in the 1930s and then opening a new plant to make in-house movements, Enicar went from the spare room of Racine’s house to a large and modern facility in Lengnau, Switzerland.

By the heyday of the company in the 1950s through the 1970s, Enicar was a respected brand, selling millions of watches. They were one of the most popular brands in Asia, somehow finding a way to ship watches to the USSR and Communist China, despite their closed borders.

Enicar was worn on the wrists of famous mountain climbers as well as Formula One champions Stirling Moss and Jim Clark. Even tennis great, Ken Rosewall, wore an Enicar.

When the quartz crisis interrupted the dominance of the Swiss watch industry, Enicar was not caught unawares. They released the Enicar Super Quartz, one of the first Swiss quartz watches, to great reviews. It even won an accuracy award from a major observatory.

But by 1987 it was over. The factories, closed. The inventory, sold. The Racine family, in financial ruin.

What happened? How did it all go so bad, so fast?

The story will be told in the presentation: Enicar Watch Company: Lost and Forgotten Watch Brands Part 2.