COMPANY

The story of Alpina starts at the end of the 19th Century when Gottlieb Hauser founded the Swiss Watchmakers Corporation with other independent watchmakers of the region. Initially it was to purchase watch components and to organise the manufacturing but Alpina soon started developing and making our own calibres. In 1901, the name ‘Alpina’ was registered and appeared for the first time, but only on high end watches.

Very soon Alpina was being sold internationally and at our height had nearly 2000 outlets all over the world selling our watches, an exceptional figure for those days. It is no exaggeration to say that Alpina was one of Europe’s leading watchmakers.

Part of the reason for this success, other than the rigorous dedication to design and quality, (values that still hold true today), was the introduction in 1938 of the Alpina 4. The number ‘4’ stood for the 4 core principles that each watch in the series had to have: anti-magnetism, water-resistance, anti-shock and in a stainless steel case.

These principles gave a theme to the watches and can be said to have pointed the way to the development of what was to be the continued success of the company up until the 1970s. It was the so-called ‘Quartz Crisis’ that either sounded the death knell for many companies or meant the creation of major groups.

The emergence of cheap, mass-produced and, above-all, impersonal, watches also nearly meant the end for Alpina. However, despite everything, Alpina hang tough and was revitalized in 2002 and the comeback was on. Working round the clock, a new collection was made ready for the BaselWorld show in 2003, where the models, whilst remaining true to the heritage of Alpina, were, never-the-less, resolutely modern. In 2006, Alpina made one more move in its journey towards the future when we moved to our new, purpose built manufacturing site in Geneva, Switzerland, one of the spiritual homes of watch making.