Watches Blog: Alpina Watches

Alpina Watches International SA is a manufacturer of wrist watches based in Plan-les-Ouates, Geneva, Switzerland. The company was founded in 1883 by Gottlieb Hauser, watchmaker in Winterthur, who founded the Swiss Watchmakers Corporation ("Union Horlogère Suisse"). A number of watchmakers joined to purchase watch components and organized their manufacturing. All representatives of Union Horlogère depended on the Association, which aimed to sell high quality watches under the Alpina brand. Quickly, the new concept gained acceptance. Together with qualified manufactures, the Association started to develop its own calibres and to enlarge its distribution network.

Everything ran well until the seventies, when the quartz crises violently crushed the Swiss watch-industry. Alpina was powerless to counter the overwhelming emergence of electronic watches. Other major brands got together to form groups (predecessor of the Swatch Group), but Alpina tried to fight it alone without really succeeding. In 1972, Alpina Watch International SA was incorporated with new German investors, which purchased all shares in Alpina Union Horlogère SA. In 2002, Alpina Watch International SA was acquired by Frederique Constant SA and Alpina watches were relaunched worldwide.

Named "Régulateur 1883" in reference to the year Alpina was founded, Alpina introduced a new model in 2005 as a fitting tribute to the long and rich tradition of the Geneva-based brand. The "regulator" dial is distinguished by the off-centred hour display at 10 o'clock, an exclusive Alpina feature.

In 2008, Alpina Genève celebrated its 125th anniversary with the inauguration of the first movement to be made entirely in its own workshops.