Alpina Watches: Technology, Craftsmanship and Quality
It’s no secret to watch fans that when it comes to sheer size and selection, Feldmar Watch Company is in rare company. Part of being spoiled for choice is the joy of rediscovering watches that don’t always get the love they deserve. Over the coming weeks, we’ll be featuring brands that tend to fly under most collector’s radar. Deserving of this first edition, is Swiss brand, Alpina! Read on as we explore what makes these watches special.
Alpina was founded with the vision of combining horological innovation and timeless design. With that, Gottlieb Hauser, the founder, revolutionized the luxury sports watch industry and brought it to new levels.
Alpina through years of watchmaking
When the iconic Alpina 4 was launched in 1938, it set a new quality standard by focusing on four essential elements that have come to define that category of “sports watch”. These first Alpina 4 watches were anti-shock, water-resistant, antimagnetic, and crafted from stainless steel. Thanks to their robust nature, the Alpina 4 became the luxury watch of choice by military pilots, divers, and professional personnel.
Due to the emergence of cheaper and mass-produced watche during the Quartz crisis in the 1970s, Alpina’s popularity declined. Still, the legendary brand refused to compromise their watches’ quality, focusing on craftsmanship. In 2002, the brand was sold to the co-founders of Frederique Constant. The resurrected Alpina brand debuted all-new collections at Baselworld 2003 and has been on the rise ever since. In 2015, Alpina created the Horological Smartwatch, blending modern smart features with the high-quality production Hauser founded the company on more than 130 years before.
Alpina has retained a reputation for creating beautiful sports watches by hand in the modern world, a testament to its never-ending appeal and quality. The brand has successfully combined classic and contemporary designs to create luxury timepieces that are meant to last for generations.
Craftsmanship and modernization
Alpina has continued to innovate and produce new, incredible timepieces, successfully capturing the attention of engineers, sportsmen and adventurers while remaining consistent with in-house and handcrafted production. With a keen attention to detail and an unwavering commitment to luxury craftsmanship, the brand now offers collections representing land (Alpiner), air (Startimer), and sea (Seastrong), plus a ladies collection, the Comtesse. Alpina signaled it’s horological commitment in 2006 with the construction of a brand new purpose-built manufacturing site in Geneva, which allowed the brand to create and test watches in a high-tech environment. This state-of-the-art facility helped launch the new Alpiner 4 in 2014, an ultra-modern version of their signature watch from the 1930s. In 2015, Alpina reached another horological milestone, introducing an in-house caliber movement, the AL-760 Automatic Flyback.
Timeless style in every watch
While Alpina has explored modern design trends, the brand has continuously remained true to its roots. For it’s part, the Men’s Alpiner Automatic Chronograph watch is a watch with potential to spare. With a sunburst blue dial and steely sports bracelet, this watch taps into all the aspects that watch-geeks love right now: clean styling, blue dials, a pop of color, and sub-42mm casing. It features three sub-dials, a scratch-resistant sapphire crystal, and automatic movement with a 46-hour power reserve. It’s a classic piece that is unmistakably Alpina.
On the frontier of luxury smartwatches, Alpina has been a pioneer. The AlpinerX line of watches bridges the gap between Silicon Valley and the Swiss watch industry. These timepieces perfectly combine quality and beautiful craftsmanship with features like step tracking and sleep monitoring capabilities that can be viewed in analog form or via a smartphone app. With a more than two-year battery life and a linked app that unlocks additional features like adaptive coaching and Get-Active alerts, Alpina smartwatches are powerful tools. Additional features include a tough stainless-steel case, sapphire glass and a rubber strap to protect against extreme conditions.
An Alpina is the perfect watch for anyone looking to combine old-fashioned charm and craftsmanship with modernized luxury features. Shop this iconic brand at Feldmar Watch Company.
About The Author: Tom Roth
Born in Washington state, Tom developed an interest in photography during college at University of San Diego. There, he got started in music journalism, interviewing artists and taking photos at concerts. A life-long tinkerer and collector, it wasn’t long before Tom became fascinated with fountain pens and watches.
Those interests collided in November 2020 when Tom started at Feldmar Watch Company where he lives out every watch geek’s dream: photographing and writing about timepieces. When he’s not tinkering with his watch collection, Tom can be found traveling, biting his nails while watching PNW sports teams, and taking flying lessons.
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