In the week that Alain Delon died, his French-American actor son Anthony Delon describes his family ties to Sherpa watches
When legendary French actor Alain Delon sold his watch collection in 2012, a special piece did not cross the auction block. An Enicar Sherpa Ultradive, worn in the 1967 film Les Aventuriers, was not included in the Bonhams sale because it had already been given to his son, Anthony Delon, who is also now also in the movie business.
Vintage Enicar watches are still popular (Ed Sheeran is known to be a fan), but the brand name has fallen into disuse — a victim of the Swiss watch industry’s quartz crisis.
However, the Sherpa Ultradive has been revived, and the Sherpa name has been turned into its own company brand name after Martin Klocke founded a Germany-based watch business in 2019.
By choosing to use the Sherpa name, Mr Klocke also maintains his watches‘ association with the Tibetan mountaineers who have helped climbers conquer the highest peaks of he Himalayas, and bring some of their spiritualism to the Sherpa watches by microscopically laser-engraving a Tibetan Buddhist mantra into each Mantramatic MM01 movement (based on the Sellita SW200-1).
“I have the grace to use the brand name ‘Sherpa’, which connects the watches with the Sherpa people. The Sherpas have done a lot over the past decades to ensure that this name has a very positive connotation. Since I benefit greatly from this, I support two projects in Sherpaland. All of this taken together has developed a strong charisma that fuses the past and present as well as the brand name into a whole,“ Mr Klocke explains.
At a recent presentation of the new Sherpa watches, WatchPro Germany’s editor, Antje Heepman, had the opportunity to speak with Anthony Delon, who is now a brand ambassador for Sherpa, and discovered how his family history and the story of Enicar and Sherpa have intertwined.
WATCHPRO: Your father wore the “Enicar Sherpa Ultradive” in the 1967 film “Les Aventuriers” and also after filming. Around 100 of your father’s watches were sold at the auction in Paris in 2012. But the Enicar wasn’t one of them. Did it have a special meaning for your father?
ANTHONY DELON: No, I don’t think it had any special meaning for him. He wore the Enicar watch sometimes, but it wasn’t sold because he had already given it to me before.
There is another little story about my father and watches. For Father’s Day 1968, I bought him a beautiful extra-thin Cartier, using my mother’s money of course. On the back it said “Happy Father’s Day, Anthony 1968.”
Then when he was selling his watches, I asked him where the Cartier was? And he said, “Oh, I don’t know, I think they went on sale.”
So I told him to call them immediately so that this watch wouldn’t be sold. And so I got this watch back. So I now have two watches from my father: the Enicar and the one I gave him for Father’s Day in 1968.
WATCHPRO: And does the Enicar that you still wear today have a special meaning for you because it comes from your father? Or do you just like it?
ANTHONY DELON: I love the vintage look and I think the bracelet also contributes a lot to this look, it’s something very special. I love the watch, I love the way it looks. She is beautiful and iconic.
And of course Les Aventuriers was a great movie, but this watch has an added story because it appears in the commercial for Christian Dior’s Eau Savage.
They used images and scenes from the film, and also a photo of my father and mother.
So this watch can be seen everywhere: in the film, in the Dior commercial and also in the photos with my father and mother. She has a very special story.
ANTHONY DELON: First of all, Martin’s Sherpa watch looks really good, it’s very close to this (points to his Enicar).
The connection to Buddhism and the fact that there is a mantra in the watch also makes this watch very interesting. It’s probably the only watch in the world that has mantras written on it, so it’s special.
Some people, including me, like to carry something in their pocket as a good luck charm. It’s about energy.
What I like about the Sherpa from Martin is that it is more than a watch and stimulates our minds.
WATCHPRO: In addition to the “Ultradive” there is also the “OPS”. Both are compressor watches and have a Tibetan Buddhist mantra. Will you stick to this concept, Mr Klocke?
MARTIN KLOCKE: For me, these two features, both the compressor construction with the EPSA-STOP bayonet base and the MONOFLEX compressor crowns, as well as the Buddhist mantras on the two wheels in the movement, are core components of the brand identity.
I currently see no reason to change this. In addition to the design, they are our unique selling points that cannot be found anywhere else.
