Alpina
Alpina
Alpina Watches is a Swiss watch brand. Alpina was founded in 1883 and since 2002 is owned by the watch company Frederique Constant. Alpina started its “4” sports watches collection in 1938, with (at that time) innovative features such as anti-magnetism, anti-shock, water resistance.
History
Gottleib Hauser was an independent watch maker in Switzerland who was finding it very hard to source parts and materials for his watches. After a few years of hard work he had an idea, to create a union of members all being fellow watchmakers in Switzerland who could then share parts, materials and ideas collectively. This was when he founded the “Alpina Swiss Watchmakers Corporation”. This united the foremost independent Swiss watchmakers who then became know as the “Alpinists”.
They were initially developed to optimise and develop the manufacturing of timepiece movements and the timepieces themselves through cooperation between the manufacturers and suppliers, but Alpina soon started developing calibres and chronometers and producing them completely in-house.
Jacob Straub decided that there was some extremely innovative technology within Alpina which was being used by many watch manufacturers. Rumours say that they even made watch movements for Rolex at one point in the rectangular baguette watches but asked for them to be stamped as Rolex and not Alpina. After he registered the 12 and 19 line calibers almost all of the high end watches then carried the Alpina triangle mark on their movements. It was used to distinguish exceptional quality and precision.
In 1901, The Alpina union celebrated its 25th Anniversary and the trademark “Alpina” was registered and appeared for the first time on high-end calibres and watches produced by Gottlieb Hauser. When the Alpina brand and trademark was born they also needed a distinctive symbol that could encompass the brand and this is when the Alpina red triangle emblem was created.
In 1913 Alpina watches became the supplier for Chronometers for the German Navy which was an incredible force with over 810,000 personnel at its peak in 1944.
In 1921 the Alpina watches brand became a renowned manufacturer and supplier for time instruments for military pilots and started manufacturer of the legendary pilots legs watch which was used throughout the Air Force and still in many films today. It was worn on a pilots legs and had a huge strap so it could be worn over the top of the Air Force uniform so they could take precise time measurements accurately and with ease.
1926 - Alpina watches became the first watch brand to introduce the international watch guarantee which was a statement to the high grade and reliability of Alpina watches. It was a massive success with sales of Alpina growing and other watch manufacturers around the world also adopting this type of guarantee
In 1933 Alpina watches released another innovation, the Alpina Watches ‘Block Uhr’ was the First Sports watch of its kind. It featured a rigid and reliable steel case and a patented new type of crown never before seen the (Brevet 1464) which screwed down to reduce the amount of dust that would get through the gap and damage the movement and inner workings.
1938 - The Alpina 4 was released. It was the introduction of the legendary sports watch. It was called the Alpina 4 as it had four key features, these were:
- Anti magnetic which helped the movement keep time and not magnetise to any electrical objects
- Waterproof which had a seal allowing it to be worn whilst doing snow sports
- Anti-shock which allowed it to be knocked in day to day life or when doing sports
- Stainless Steel which is a steel alloy with a minimum of 10.5% chromium content by mass and quite hard wearing
Links
Credits - https://www.firstclasswatches.co.uk/blog/2017/02/alpina-watches/
