Alpina

Alpina was founded in 1883 on the initiative of Gottlieb Hauser, not as a single manufacture but as the "Alpina Union Horlogère," a union of independent Swiss watchmakers (the "Alpinists") who shared the development of movements and components — an unusual cooperative structure for the time. The headquarters moved to Biel in 1890.

In 1908 the name "Alpina" was registered as an actual brand, together with its distinctive symbol, the red triangle. In 1912 the company began producing chronometers, and as early as 1913 the German navy purchased Alpina chronometers — early proof of the brand's reliability. By the 1920s Alpina watches were already sold at more than 2,000 points of sale worldwide.

The turning point came in 1938, with the "Alpina 4": a watch built around four non-negotiable requirements — antimagnetic, shock-resistant, waterproof and with a stainless-steel case — that effectively invented the modern sports-watch category, adopted by mountaineers, air force pilots, divers, the navy and the military. The quartz crisis of the 1970s brought the brand close to collapse; it was acquired and relaunched in 2002 by Peter Stas, founder of Frédérique Constant, and in 2016 both Alpina and Frédérique Constant were acquired by the Japanese group Citizen Holdings, which still owns them today.