Alpina
- Founded
- 1883
- Based in
- Geneva, Switzerland
- In our catalog
- 2 watches from $995 to $1,950
Alpina is one of the older names in Swiss watchmaking and one of the more modestly priced. Its watches are built around outdoor themes: mountains, flying, diving. The house line is that Alpina invented the sports watch, and while that's a stretch of marketing, there is real history behind it.
History
The story starts in 1883, when watchmaker Gottlieb Hauser set up a cooperative of Swiss watchmakers in Winterthur. The group grew into the Alpina Union Horlogère, and the Alpina name was registered at the start of the twentieth century. For a while it also ran a factory in Glashütte, Germany, which was later separated from the Swiss company.
In 1938 Alpina introduced the Alpina 4, which combined four things that are now standard but were then a selling point: an antimagnetic movement, shock protection, water resistance and a stainless steel case. Alpina also made military and pilot watches for several armed forces.
The brand faded in the quartz era and was revived in 2002 by Peter and Aletta Stas, the couple who founded Frederique Constant. They positioned it as the sporty sister brand and gave it in-house movements. In 2016 both brands were sold to the Japanese Citizen group, which still owns them. Alpina is based in Plan-les-Ouates near Geneva.
Signature models
- Alpiner Extreme Automatic: An integrated-bracelet sports watch launched in 2020, with a 41 mm steel case, a textured dial and 200 m water resistance. It is Alpina's take on the luxury steel sports watch at a fraction of the price.
- Startimer Pilot Automatic: Big Arabic numerals, a large crown and a clear pilot's dial, drawn from the brand's history of aviation watches.
- Seastrong Diver Heritage: A vintage-styled diver based on Alpina's 1960s Seastrong models.
- Alpiner 4: The modern descendant of the 1938 Alpina 4 sports watch.
What it's known for
Good value for a Swiss watch with an in-house option. Alpina makes some of its own calibers, shared with Frederique Constant, and offers them at prices where most rivals use off-the-shelf movements. The red triangle logo, taken from the brand's mountain identity, is easy to spot. The designs lean bold and sporty rather than dressy.
Price and positioning
Alpina sits in the affordable Swiss segment, roughly $1,000 to $3,000 for most models, close to Hamilton, Tissot's upper range and Oris's entry models. It's a sensible pick if you want a Swiss automatic with some history behind it and don't care about a big-name dial.
Alpina watches in our library
- Alpina Startimer Pilot Automatic ($995 to $1,150)
- Alpina Alpiner Extreme Automatic ($1,750 to $1,950)