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 The Swiss watch brand ALPINA issues the watches “sport de-luxe”, which took the leading positions in the sector of “sport luxury”. This brand is especially interesting for those who go in for extreme kinds of sport, for alpinists and rock climbers. Recently ALPINA started producing watches for diving.
The story of Alpina starts in 1883 when the watchmaker Gottlieb Hauser from Winterthur founded the Swiss Watchmakers Corporation ("Corporation d'Horlogers Suisse"). Initially its business was on the rise and soon it started developing and making new calibers.
The movement drafts were created in Alpina Ebauche manufacture, owned by Duret & Colonnaz. The final stage in the movement manufacture was realized in Bienne. The original, quality, endurable and reliable watches of Àlpina were a success in the upper classes. In 1901, the name ‘Alpina’ was registered as a trade mark.
Very soon Alpina becomes a sign of success and shows off on the expensive and unique watch dials. Initially they were supposed to be issued for real watch experts. Those watches were made of high quality components: the pendulums with golden screws and heavy golden cases, the spirals Brequet. The brand was very popular and constantly expanding its sales range. The brand’s official representative offices were opened in Geneva, Bienne, Besancon and Glashutte.
In 1912, the watches Àlpina Chronometer Glashutte were issued. Instead of traditional lever release mechanism, the chronometer with Glashutte release mechanism was provided in those watches. And in 1913 the German Navy Forces started using the naval watches of Alpina.
The World War I influenced the development of the Alpina watch brand. During that time the association legally broke up and its members formed their separate association Alpina Association des Hologers Suisses. Soon after the war, the business of Alpina changed cardinally, and its watches were sold with great success around the  Europe. In 1929 the watch brand Alpina and the American brand Gruen, Cincinnati, merged, and as a result a new company “Alpina Gruen Gilde SA” appeared. But their collaboration was not to last long; it broke up in 1937, leaving severe material losses. Then Alpina focused its attention to the sport watches. In 1933 Alpina launched the first sport watch "Blockuhr" in steel case. Soon they became an honor of the watch brand. In 1938 those sport watches were upgraded and named “Alpina 4”. The number “4” was chosen not by chance - it stood for the combination of four core principles of Alpina: anti-magnetic, water-resistant, equipped with anti-shock system Incabloc and a perfect steel case. “Alpina 4” was provided with the movement of its own manufacture, which had a great success till “Quartz Crisis” that sounded the death knell for the company by slowing the manufacture significantly. The Quartz Boom in 70s had a negative effect on the manufacture of classic movements. In 1972 all shares of the Swiss company were purchased by the German investors, who renamed the brand as Alpina Watch International SA. The company headquarters moved to Cologne.
 The watch brand Alpina collaborates with various kinds of sport competitions: downhill skiing, diving, personal watercrafts and automobile races. In 2009 the brand became the Official Timekeeper of the American race “12 hours of Sebring” and won the right to produce exclusive collection of watches. In 2010 this collaboration was continued. Alpina issued once again several limited collections: Alpina 12 Hours of Sebring Automatic Chrono GMT, 12 Hours of Sebring Automatic, and 12 Hours of Sebring Chrono. These models support closer relationships between Alpina and the world of sport. The watches of these collections are provided with the black dial with red and silver elements, the case diameter of 47 mm, the movement with automatic winding, the sapphire glass, the luminescent hands, thanks to which you can see clearly the dial indicators at the night time. This is a chronograph with the 12-hours indicator at the bottom of dial, date indicator and GMT function. They are issued in a limited number of 158 pieces.
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