Alpina

 By Bruce Shawkey

Found this ad in the Nov./Dec. 1957 issue of Swiss Horological Journal for an Alpina "President" watch. You may wonder how Alpina got away with this without infringing on Rolex's patent. But Rolex's model is actually the Presidential. The Alpina is a manual-wind model with date, cased in stainless steel.

Alpina's history goes back to 1883, when Gottlieb Hauser founded the company  in Biel. The name “Alpina” was initially used to designate internally-developed calibers. The brand name “Alpina” was officially registered in 1901.

From about 1909 a branch of Alpina appeared in Glashütte, Germany, named “Präcisions-Uhrenfabrik Alpina”. The products manufactured there were watches equipped with Swiss movements.

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. 

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 to try and keep up with Alpina's growth.

Affiliation with Gruen

In the 1920s and '30s, the Gruen watch company was ubiquitous in the United States. They teamed with Alpina to come up with Gruen's Quadron physicians' watch series, also used in the Rolex Prince.

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, which screwed down to reduce the amount of dust that would get through the gap and damage the movement and inner workings.

The Alpina 4 was announced and released in 1938 which was the introduction to 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 non-magnetic to any electrical objects, Waterproof, which had a seal allowing it to be worn while doing snow sports which was a massive sport and hobby among many in Switzerland, Anti-shock which allowed it to be knocked in day to day life or when doing sports and finally Stainless Steel.

Revival of Alpina in Switzerland

Interest in the famous brand remained in Switzerland, and in 2002, the Alpina name was acquired by the founders of Frederique Constant of Geneva. Their owners, the couple Aletta and Peter Stas, had created a sensation with the rapid rise of their own brand and wanted to rebuild Alpina as well.

In 2003 Alpina was reintroduced at the Basel Fair with a complete model lineup. The image of the brand is oriented again to the “spirit of alpinism”. Accordingly, the new models have a sporty and robust appearance. 

They became known as the watch that accompanied explorers on Arctic explorations in the 1960s. They were owned by husband and wife Peter and Aletta Stas up until the 1980s at which time they were bought out by Alpina Watches International SA, with offices in Plan-les-Ouates, a suburb of Geneva.

Here are some Alpina ads through the years: