With a proud heritage of 130 years to look back on, Alpina, the Swiss watch company famous for its distinct red triangle, has patented several innovations and calibres over the length of its rich heritage. In 1883 watchmaker Gottlieb Hauser founded the Swiss Watchmakers Corporation, where some of the world’s most highly skilled watchmakers joined forces to purchase and develop their own watch components. The Alpina Ebauche Factory in Geneva created Ebauches which formed the base of the manufacturer’s calibres, subsequently playing an integral role in the development of the first Alpina movements to come.
Branching out to Eastern and Northern European countries, the Alpina name soon became official when it appeared visually on the surface of high end watch dials. The first Alpina manufactured chronometer Ebauche with a Glashütte escapement was developed in 1912. Around the year of 1921, Alpina began supplying timekeeping instruments to military personnel. Pilot's watches developed with straps that would attach easily over the top of Air Force uniform were an indispensable feature for this line of work. Underpinning Alpina’s confidence in producing high quality and reliable watches, the international watch guarantee was created. Just 7 years after this the watchmaker patented its own crown which was showcased on the band’s first sports watch. Screwed down to reduce the amount of dust through its gaps, the development was a ground-breaking innovation for its time.
The Alpine 4 launched in 1938 and boasted 4 key features; Anti shock and anti magnetic technology, a stainless steel alloy and waterproofness. By the time Alpina celebrated its 70th anniversary in 1953, the company had combined these features with robust movements like the 592 and 598 calibres, setting benchmarks in precision and quality. The Alpine 4 Chronograph was released in 1959 and featured a telemeter that could measure the distance of a run or ski using the speed of sound. Alpine watches like the Diver 10 Seastrong promised a self winding calibre with 17 jewels, a rotating bezel for measuring elapsed decompression time, and a waterproof seal in 1969.
The Swiss brand managed to retain independent manufacturer throughout the quartz crisis, surviving by reducing its size down to Switzerland and Germany just in time for Frederique Constantin to purchase the company and enable manufacturer to continue. As well as recent innovations like the Alpina Smartwatch, the company also created the Alpiner X, a hybrid smartwatch, equipped with features that include an Altimeter, Barometer, Connected GPS, Compass, UV Indicator and a Thermometer.
Today Alpina continues to equip the wrists of engineers, sportsmen and adventurers with consistently high performance watches housed in rugged, weather-resistant, corrosion-resistant designs. Thanks to a brand new purpose-built manufacturing site in Geneva, Alpina can continue to build and test their timepieces in a high-tech environment. Models from the Seastrong Diver, Alpiner, Smartwatch and Startimer collections continue to be some of the most popular to date. Designed to face the most demanding of external conditions, Alpina watches for men and women possess the qualities needed for wearing up to high altitudes in the skies, and great depths down underwater.
