Founded in 1883, Alpina turns 140 in 2023, and in honour of the occasion, the Swiss watchmakers are unveiling a timepiece that revives their illustrious heritage. This isn’t some re-edition or a piece inspired by a predecessor: it really is the original, made in 1938. Alpina has unearthed two 14-piece series of the authentic Calibre 490, released exactly 85 years ago; only a very few of these are still in existence. The fully-restored movements, dubbed Heritage Carrée Mechanical 140 Years, have been housed in a rectangular silver case in tribute to an outstanding wristwatch in Alpina’s history. One series features a black dial, the other a silvered dial. The feeling when you behold a perfectly-finished, rectangular-shaped movement with a sedate frequency (2,5 Hz), already fitted out with early levels of protection against water and dust, is indescribable. These are two highly limited editions, produced for History.
“If you don’t know where you’ve come from, you don’t know where you’re going” is a saying that applies to most art forms – and all the more so in watchmaking, where progress has involved a process of accretion over a period of 250 years that continues to inform the watches we wear today.
In its 140th anniversary year, Alpina has thus sought to provide a reminder of the contribution made by its Calibre 490 movement to contemporary watchmaking. It represents something of a crossroads: a shape and top-level finishing typical of the refined elegance befitting distinguished watches, intersecting with a number of innovations bearing witness to Alpina’s concomitant desire to launch into the world of sturdy and robust watches designed by the firm today. In sum, it’s a rare and valuable calibre, unveiled at a key moment in Alpina’s history.
A highly accomplished movement
Back in 1938, the Calibre 490 already embodied Alpina’s emerging vision. It features a patented crown incorporating protection against dust – an key milestone, already making the case airtight and a first step on the way to the watertight case that would later become standard.
The movement, protected by Swiss-registered patent no. 158882, is characterised by a simple, robust construction but no less perfectly finished for that: all of its components are bevelled, and the ratchet is sun-brushed. It’s also worth noting that this is a genuine in-house calibre, designed, assembled and finished by one of the firms in the Union Horlogère, Alpina’s original entity – a particularity seldom seen in the 1930s when generic ébauches (movement-blanks) were the market norm and manufacture movements the exception.
Only a few period examples of this historic calibre have survived; Alpina has found and restored a small number of them to mark its 140th-anniversary celebrations.
An avant-garde construction
This exceptionally rare witness to Alpina’s golden age is thus making a comeback in its original form in 2023. It’s a shaped movement in the finest watchmaking tradition, according to which the movement should reign supreme, dictating the shape of the case rather than the other way around.
Hand-wound like almost all calibres of its day, it comprises 17 jewels and oscillates at 18,000 vibrations per hour, the standard frequency for Thirties timepieces. Its 42-hour power reserve is notably capacious for its time; another distinctive feature is the slender anchor design required to fit within the rectangular layout of the Calibre 490.
A highly robust case
Back in the day, the case was made from steel or gold depending on the model. One steel case was itself protected by a patent (No. 207378) and described as being ‘stainless’, offering further evidence of Alpina’s obsession with making its timepieces resistant to wear and tear.
The few such cases that have survived are equipped with a number of components designed to maintain two seals under pressure to achieve some degree of watertightness. Several firms went on to draw inspiration from the patent in question in pursuit of the same goal.
Clad in silver
Today, Alpina has designed a new bespoke case to house its Calibre 490, naming the new model after it: Heritage Carrée Mechanical 140 Years. Made from mirror polished silver, it measures 29.5 x 35.7mm. With a thickness of just 9.71 millimetres, it features an anti-glare sapphire crystal on both front and rear, through which the venerable beauty of the period Calibre 490 can be admired. The timepiece comes on a light brown ostrich leather strap, with vintage white stitching and pin buckle.
Two variations of the piece are available, each in a limited edition of 14. Both feature Alpina’s period logo, two slim central hands and the small seconds hand display at 6 o’clock so typical of the 1930s. A ‘railtrack’ minute circle, also typical of the period, runs around the dial. On one version the dial is black with solid Arabic numerals, accompanied by beige hands and a circular small seconds hand display. The other version sports a silvered dial, black hands and the squarer outline Arabic numerals favoured in the Roaring Twenties, along with a square small seconds hand display.
Alpina, the inventor of the sports watch concept, is celebrating its 140th anniversary in 2023
It was in 1883 in Winterthur that an atypical watchmaking match was made, ultimately leading to the creation of the Alpina brand. Its unusual nature resided in the fact that from the outset, the firm’s mission was that of making the ideal watch for mountaineers setting off to conquer the Swiss summits and the most demanding environments.
That aim was indeed unprecedented: in those early days of watchmaking, manufacturers focused solely on the measurement of speed (for cycling, the first motor cars, and not long after that, the first aeroplanes) and the development of rare complications (chimes, calendars, and a little later the first chronographs). But in 1938, Gottlieb Hauser, the founder of Alpina, turned the challenge of watchmaking upside down with his conviction that it was important first and foremost for a watch to be reliable and robust before thinking about how precise or complicated it should be.
That may seem obvious today, but it wasn’t at all 140 years ago. The terms ‘shock-resistant’, ‘anti-magnetic’ and ‘water-resistant’ were still quite far removed from the concerns of most watchmakers and their customers – ‘leak-tight’ cases were barely a thing back then – but Gottlieb Hauser saw further than most.
With the demands of mountainous terrain uppermost in his mind, he came up with a watch that was shock-absorbent, non-magnetic, waterproof, and rustproof – four requirements defining four characteristics of the timepiece that would come to be known as the Alpina 4. In doing so, Gottlieb Hauser laid the practical and theoretical foundations of the contemporary sports watch concept. Today, the brand has extended its expertise to three realms – Air, Land, and Sea – in addition to a sustainable dimension that informs the design of many, more environmentally-friendly models.
Early days – the first designs
Alpina’s roots lay in a system known as établissage, a fashionable business model at that time which went on to become the cornerstone of subsequent manufactories. The idea involved enlisting a large group of specialist subcontractors in the vicinity of Bienne, each making their own specific components, and bringing them together to do the assembly; this took place in the workshops of what was then known as Alpina Union Horlogère S.A.
The concept of établissage closely resembles one common in mountaineering, Alpina’s native environment: all the climbers are joined together by a single rope, all moving in the same direction towards the mountain-tops. This wasn’t just a metaphor, either: all the founders of Alpina were actually mountaineers themselves. In similar vein, internal correspondence to employees referred to them as ‘alpinists’. This context resulted in the alpine ethos, the desire to excel, and the brand’s logo: a summit symbolised by a triangle depicting the Matterhorn, Switzerland’s most iconic mountain.
By 1890, the Union Horlogère was in a position to produce its first designs. Ten years later, in 1900 it took part in its first Universal Exposition in Paris, showcasing its in-house movements. Amid growing success, the Union changed its name, registering itself under the Alpina trademark in the following
year, 1901. It was also around then that the triangle became established as Alpina’s logo, depicting an alpine summit. Not long after that, in 1909, Alpina opened a production facility in Glashütte to make prestige chronometry instruments under the name Präcisions-Uhrenfabrik Alpina. This resulted in an Alpina calibre, built according to the best Saxon traditions and released in 1912; this first chronometer was later released in a marine version.
Made for aviation professionals
Alpina watches’ reputation for robustness and reliability naturally won over a particular category of user for whom such requirements are fundamental: the armed forces. In 1913 the German Navy procured the Alpina chronometer that had been released the previous year. In 1921, several air forces followed suit. By the end of the Great War, Alpina had some 2,000 resellers across Europe; its watches could be bought from Lisbon to Amsterdam, Copenhagen, London and Stockholm – even as far afield as Santiago de Chile. In response to this rapid international rollout of its products, in 1926 Alpina became one of the first watchmaking firms in the world to create an international warranty.
After 20 years with a strong armed forces focus – an endorsement of Alpina’s sound technical choices – the brand set about conquering the general public. Its first in-house chronograph, Ref. 482, was released in 1930. The brand’s very first sports watch, the Block Uhr, came out in 1933. The timepiece’s innovative nature resided in the crown being very close to the winding stem in order to prevent dust from getting into the watch.
It was followed in 1938 by the Alpina 4, an iconic contemporary sports watch bringing together the four fundamental principles of the genre that still hold sway today, being shock-absorbent, non-magnetic, waterproof and rustproof. The chronograph version followed 11 years later. That same year, 1938, Alpina also unveiled its legendary Calibre 490. This was a fully-fledged shaped movement: a rectangular calibre with top-of-the-range finishings, fitting snugly within a case that already hinted at the watchmaker’s later emphasis on the world of sport. The calibre was initially hand-wound, but 1945 saw the firm’s first automatic movement: the Calibre 582, featuring a wealth of decorations visible through the caseback. In an interesting turn of fate, three years later, in 1948, the Bienne watchmaking school chose an Alpina calibre (the 592) for its students to practise on.
The first ladies’ and dive watches
Most of these timepieces were designed for men, but despite its sportsman’s watch positioning, in 1963 Alpina created its first women’s sports watch. To be sure of making an impact, the firm pulled out all the stops: the women’s sports watch it developed, the Calibre 362, featured a bidirectional rotor. It was a bold move, resulting in a collection that is still produced today, the Comtesse.
The 1960s saw the advent of recreational diving; Alpina rode that particular wave with its Tropic Proof, unveiled in 1968. Here too, the timepiece was based on the firm’s four characteristics, being shock-absorbent, non-magnetic, waterproof and rustproof. Ten further features were added the following year, resulting in the Alpina Diver 10 Seastrong, the first watch in what was to become Alpina’s Seastrong dive watch collection. Taken together, these features proved to be perfect for saltwater diving. Gottlieb Hauser could not of course have foreseen this development 80 years after the firm was founded, but it does indeed demonstrate what a clear vision he had of the modern sports watch.
Takeover by the Frederique Constant Group
Between 1970 and 2000, Alpina sought to remain faithful to mechanical fine watchmaking. It was a brave decision, but one that was to cost it dear at a time when most customers – and therefore most brands – were choosing quartz, which was to come to dominate the scene for the next 30 years.
It was not until the turn of the millennium that the firm returned to high-quality Swiss Made watchmaking. Alpina was founded in 1883 by an entrepreneur, and in a pleasingly natural turn of events, it was bought out in 2002 by an entrepreneurial couple. Aletta and Peter Stas, who also owned Frederique Constant at the time, revived and embodied the watchmaking vision promoted 140 years earlier by Gottlieb Hauser.
Jump-starting
Like the illustrious founder, Aletta and Peter Stas set to work wholeheartedly. After buying the firm in 2002, the first collection under their leadership was released the following year and presented at the Baselworld watch and jewellery exhibition in Basel, Switzerland. Two years later, it was high time to step up the pace with a first dive watch, the Extreme, water-resistant to 1000 metres and most importantly, featuring a distinctive case design that borrowed in equal measure from cushion-shaped, square, and round styles. Alpina refined the Extreme for ten years, constantly adding new versions through until 2012.
The timepiece was relaunched in 2022 and has been hugely successful, becoming the firm’s standard-bearer. Both an automatic version featuring three central hands and a regulator version are available. The latter is a rare, special timepiece; a reissue that pays tribute to the original 2005 creation and its AL-650 movement, developed in-house in 2006. In 2023, the Extreme will be at the heart of Alpina’s new focus on traditional, mechanical, Swiss Made watches.
From Manufacture to connected watches
Alpina has gone from strength to strength, acquiring its own manufacturing capacity in 2006 as part of a partnership with the Frederique Constant Group. To date, Alpina has 6 movements designed, developed, and assembled in-house, including the AL-760 Flyback Chronograph and the AL-709 Bumper. Its watches are hand-assembled in its production facility at Plan-les-Ouates, Geneva.
The Startimer collection followed in 2011, embodying Alpina’s heritage in pilots’ watches in a functional, contemporary collection. A complete overhaul bringing the collection closer to its roots was completed in 2022, with a new design drawing inspiration from the brand’s aviator watches of the early twentieth century. Featuring a new case, a new bezel, new hands and a brand-new 41-millimetre diameter, the format offers the perfect compromise between the largest 44mm version and the 40mm version (still in the collection).
At the same time, Alpina has continued to innovate, unveiling the first Swiss Made connected watch, fitted with an analogue dial, in 2015: the Horological Smartwatch. Synchronised with smartphones by iOS or Android, it allows wearers to consult their activity and sleep data logged on a daily, weekly, or monthly basis using a simple, user-friendly graphic interface. The data helps users be more self-aware and get fitter as they set themselves appropriate goals and act as their own smart coach.
Promoting sustainable watchmaking
Since 2020, Alpina has been committed to protecting nature and the environment, a source of inspiration for the firm right from the outset that it now seeks to honour in return. On the product side, Alpina has developed the Seastrong Diver Gyre Automatic, whose case, strap and presentation box are all made using recycled products. The Seastrong Diver 300 Automatic Calanda, Alpina’s first watch with a case made from recycled steel, followed in 2022.
Alpina is exploring a variety of ways to avoid waste, too, in particular by developing ‘Community Watches’ featuring designs chosen from existing components by the Alpina collectors community.
All of these initiatives embody the firm’s motto of We Shape the Change, an eco-friendly equivalent of its renowned Reach Your Summit tagline that aims to bring together all of the firm’s initiatives seeking to mitigate destructive ecological impacts on the planet under a single unifying principle.
A return to mechanical roots to celebrate the 140th anniversary
In 2023, the watchmaking firm marks its 140th anniversary, kicking off a series of celebrations with a first appearance at the Watches and Wonders watchmaking show in Geneva. To commemorate this anniversary event, Alpina is adding four new models for thrill-seekers to its Alpiner Extreme range.
There are two new versions of the atypical Automatic Regulator, each in a limited edition of 888 watches. Alpina is probably one of the last firms to still be making the rare complication showcased in this piece. For a more traditional reading of the time, there are also two new versions of the Automatic with three central hands.
As well as honouring the Alpiner Extreme line, 2023 will be putting the firm’s heritage in the spotlight with a new dedicated collection alongside additional mechanical movements, true to Alpina’s origins.
The Alpina ecosystem: heading for the mountain-tops
There’s nothing like putting yourself to the test – and that’s true not only of athletes but also their watches. Alpina partners with some of the most committed top-level sportsmen and women taking on the seas and the slopes in freeriding, skiing, snowboarding, skating and other disciplines.
Read more: https://alpinawatches.com/pages/ambassadors
These athletes come to the fore at top-level events and venues where Alpina is also a partner alongside the Freeride World Tour, the French Ski Federation, the Grand-Bornand ski school, the Chamonix-Mont-Blanc valley and the Val Thorens ski resort in Les Trois Vallées, the largest ski region in Europe.
Read more: https://alpinawatches.com/pages/partnerships
