Forty-four millimeters is a lot of watch for a thousand bucks
By Dave Kowalski, Chicago ยท
Let me get the size thing out of the way first, because it's the whole story here. 44 mm across, 12 mm thick, 22 mm lugs. That's about an inch and three quarters of black dial sitting on your arm. On a big guy with forearms like a bag of rock salt, sure. On a normal wrist it's going to hang off the edges and catch every doorframe in the house.
Now the good part. The dial is clean and properly pilot-y, big numerals, nothing cute. Sapphire on top, 100 m of water resistance, which is more than most flieger-style watches bother with. You could hose it off after a day pulling wire and not think twice.
The AL-525 inside is a Sellita-based workhorse with Alpina's name on the rotor. Fine. Reliable. But 38 hours of reserve means if you take it off Friday night and grab it Monday morning, it's dead and you're resetting the date. At $995 to $1,150 I want more than that, especially when Hamilton will sell you a Khaki Pilot with 80 hours for less.
Who's it for? The guy who wants a German-looking pilot watch with a Swiss name and a big footprint, and doesn't mind paying a little for the logo. If you're under 7 inches of wrist, keep walking.