On the summit ridge of Annapurna in the Nepalese Himalayas, on June 3, 1950, at two in the afternoon, Maurice Herzog raised his wrist to plant the French flag at the highest point of the first eight-thousander ever climbed by man. His watch, however, had stopped. Louis Lachenal, his climbing partner, would later recall that Herzog had "undoubtedly forgotten to wind it." Lachenal would even admit, years later, that he no longer remembered if his partner was still wearing his gloves when his hands froze.

This scene would be the first in a long series. For ten years, from 1950 to 1960, each conquest of a summit over 8,000 meters would be accompanied by a different watch, from a different manufacturer, and most often, a doubt that would never be fully dispelled about what truly happened at the summit. LIP, Rolex, Smiths, Hercules, Enicar, Certina: each would have its climber, its advertising feat, and its share of shadow.

Annapurna 1950: the LIP on Maurice Herzog's wrist

The timepiece Herzog wore that day was no mere accessory. It was a prototype designed by the LIP manufacture around the R25 caliber, developed two years earlier by watchmaker Jean-Georges Laviolette, housed in a waterproof Keystone case purchased from the Americans, the same one the United States Navy used for its own instruments. An Elgiloy spring, a stainless and non-magnetic alloy freshly out of the laboratories, was supposed to withstand the extreme cold and magnetism of the scientific equipment carried by the expedition. Checked up to six thousand meters, the precision of the piece remained impeccable; beyond that, it would fall a few seconds behind, before condensation, even higher up, would eventually freeze the winding mechanism under a film of ice. It would take until 1954, four years after Herzog's feat, for LIP to finally christen this model Himalaya, named, as the brand tells it, after a conversation between Fred Lip, the founder's grandson, and Lionel Terray, the expedition guide and a friend of the company.

Everest 1953: Rolex vs. Smiths, the battle of the two watches

Three years later, another summit, another enigma, the most famous of all. On May 29, 1953, Edmund Hillary and Tenzing Norgay reached Everest at the head of the ninth British expedition led by John Hunt. Rolex had equipped part of the climbing team, including porters, with Oyster Perpetuals still without the Explorer name, continuing a Himalayan patronage that began in 1933. But at the precise moment Hillary set foot on the world's highest point, it was most likely a Smiths De Luxe, a British steel watch with a Dennison-signed case, that was on his wrist rather than the Genevan prototype. James Dowling, biographer of the crown brand, is unequivocal: neither Norgay, nor Hillary, nor anyone on the 1953 expedition wore a Rolex at the summit. Yet, a few days after the ascent, an advertisement appeared in the Times: "Rolex, seven times on Everest. Finally at the summit." Smiths retaliated the very next day with its own ad, "On Top of the World!" Two manufacturers, the same mountain, the same feat to contend for; and it was Rolex that year that launched the first reference to bear the Explorer name and the 3-6-9 dial that has since become a classic of the genre.

Nanga Parbat and K2, Hercules and Vulcain watches

At the same time, on another side of the Himalayas, Hermann Buhl wrote a unique page in mountain history. On July 3, 1953, the Austrian reached the summit of Nanga Parbat alone, without oxygen, a mountain nicknamed "the killer mountain" after claiming the lives of thirty-one mountaineers before him. On his wrist was a Hercules watch, from the Swiss workshops of Henzi & Pfaff. The feat was resounding; the brand long made it the central argument of its communication, before disappearing in turn in the quartz crisis of the 1970s, only to be reborn recently. A year later, on July 31, 1954, Italians Lino Lacedelli and Achille Compagnoni were the first to reach the summit of K2, under the direction of geologist Ardito Desio and alongside a young Walter Bonatti. Their wrists bore Vulcain Cricket watches, mechanical alarm watches already proven two years earlier on the Peruvian slopes of Salcantay.
You can find our article dedicated to the Vulcain Cricket.

1956: the Enicar Sherpa conquers Lhotse and Everest

May 1956 closed the first half of the decade beautifully for Switzerland. The expedition led by Albert Eggler reached Lhotse on May 18 by Ernst Reiss and Fritz Luchsinger, then Everest twice: on May 23 by Ernst Schmied and Jürg Marmet, and the next day by Dölf Reist and Hansruedi von Gunten. On these four wrists were Enicar Ultrasonic Sherpa watches, whose period advertising boasted precision maintained between minus forty-five and plus forty-five degrees. The success was such that the brand made it its signature model from that year on; more than a hundred variations would appear over its thirty-year career.

Dhaulagiri 1960: the Certina DS closes the decade

The last unclimbed eight-thousander, Dhaulagiri, would not fall until May 13, 1960, under the leadership of Max Eiselin. Six climbers, including the Austrian Kurt Diemberger, reached the summit equipped with Certina DS watches, just launched the previous year with a floating movement designed to absorb shocks. On the case of Eiselin's watch, an engraving sealed the decade: "Schweizer Himalaya Expedition 1960".

The true conquest of these watches

Dhaulagiri closed the list of the last virgin giants, but not the quarrel that still surrounds their watches. In the vintage market, these pieces are now sought after with more fervor than any summit has ever been disputed, without ever deciding who wore what, on that day, at that altitude where no one else could testify. Perhaps that is, more than seventy years later, the true conquest of these watches: to remain an enigma that no climbing team will ever fully close.