Alpina

Faye Y.

When Gottlieb Hauser founded Alpina, he envisioned a watch that is robust enough to survive harsh conditions, precise, and suitable for demanding sports. They go beyond looking great, although that is already part of the package. He wanted a piece that will not go in the way of its wearer’s being active, whether they be involved in flying, diving, climbing or sailing. It should be reliable and accurate, too, especially if the situation should call for it.

Today, that vision is still being carried on by Alpina. Their professional sports watches continue to make people go in awe with their eye-catching and masculine design, high end manufacture and state of the art technology. If you live an active lifestyle, you’ve got a partner in in them; and they surely has a partner in you, too.

Alpina Watch Reviews

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The company that revolutionized the sports watch

Alpina Watches

Alpina had everything right from the beginning: strict adherence to quality, conducive working environment, and the will to go one step ahead. Even when the company produced  the very first watches in line with Hauser’s vision, the Alpina 4 in 1938, they wouldn’t stop there. Soon, Hauser himself set the standard on the characteristics a sports watch should be: anti-magnetic, anti-shock, water-resistant and stainless steel. This made the collection a suitable and the preferred choice for divers as well as the military.

In the 1970s, Alpina was succeeding even in the midst of the quartz crisis that took down many Swiss watchmakers. It did face some of its own problems along the way, particularly the manufacture of cheaper watches, but the company stuck by its way of doing things and survived to today.

Since its revival since the 21st century, Alpina has brought four complications developed in their workshop. These four are the AL-980 Tourbillon, which was a first for the company; the AL-718 World Timer, with the dial featuring 24 time zones; the AL-980 Tourbillon; and the AL-710 Small Date. In line with its goals, Alpina built a 3200-square meter manufacturing plant in Plan-les-Ouates, Geneva. This is the second Swiss space for Alpina’s many experts who work to bring together an intricate, awe-inspiring watch. All the production processes are done in the plant.

Alpina brought back the concept that established it as a sports watch in 2014 with the Alpiner 4 collection, still featuring the same properties that Hauser thought back then should make up a watch that had to endure harsh conditions brought by an active lifestyle. The following year, Alpina brought back to the world the Horological Smartwatch and a new caliber made in-house, the AL-760 Automatic Flyback Chronograph which improves on its very own Direct Flyback technology.

Driven by innovation, strictly first-rate

Alpina Startimer Pilot Manufacture
Alpina Startimer Pilot Manufacture. Worn and Wound

To Alpina, achieving the best there is at the moment is not enough. It must move forward. That it does through innovation, with the purpose of creating timepieces that serve the purpose for those who are exposed to challenging occupational situations. Alpina makes sure to achieve this by investing on topnotch machinery and Alpinists who have mastered the craft of horology.

Alpina does not leave the meticulous job of assembling a timepiece into the hands of a machine. It does so with its team of experts who have long studied the ins and outs of watchmaking, and have a true passion for it, and regardless of the sophistication. These aren’t done just in any place too, the laboratory must be clean, dust-free and climate-controlled, just so the watches could be made in perfect condition.

But before it hits the company’s boutiques, the watch has to go through a strict series of tests in order to ensure that every timepiece from Alpina ever bought will be representative of Alpina’s seriousness in getting everything right. These tests take place with every stage of the production, including one where the watch is subjected to harsh conditions that mimic and even surpass the severity of what its ideal customers would go through.

No shortcuts

Alpina Watches Alpiner 4 Manufacture Flyback Chronograph
Alpina Watches Alpiner 4 Manufacture Flyback Chronograph. Monochrome Watches

When Gottlieb Hauser envisioned the perfect sports watch, he didn’t undermine the process that one had to go through. He knew he couldn’t cut through corners, and Alpina would only be able to set itself apart from the others through its strict compliance to excellence.

The history of the company has proven this time and again, achieving the best at the time and still wanting to do more. Even the entire process of the production does this; although machines aid some of the steps, only human experts can assemble every tiny piece in the watch before it is released to the market. Every step is concluded with a test, and by the end of it all, another rigorous test. There are no shortcuts… you know each timepiece has been meticulously made and went through everything intact, so it sure can survive anything you and your activities will put it through.

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