THAT ’70S SHOW
The Geneva-based watch brand is taking a trip down memory lane to design its 6th caliber, an automatic movement with an atypical oscillating weight that equips two new references with a very Seventies look.
With age, experience accumulates and is enriched, so when you are 138 years old like Alpina, you have a sufficiently important heritage to be able to draw new ideas from time to time. Indeed, the watch brand born in 1883 and based in Geneva has delved into its archives to bring out the “bumper movement” in vogue at the beginning of the 20th century. This is a type of movement with an oscillating weight that rotates 120° instead of 360° and is driven back and forth by two springs in the manner of a swing. Alpina used this movement to create its sixth caliber, the AL-709, which has a similar architecture, with a 330° rotation punctuated by a blade. This brand-new engine, which beats at a frequency of 4hz and provides 38 hours of power reserve, equips the Startimer Pilot Heritage Manufacture, a limited edition of 188 pieces per reference.
Two versions have been added to the catalog, one in steel and the other in yellow gold plating. The cushion-shaped case, 42mm in diameter and 13.25mm thick, punctuated by a crown at 4 o’clock, takes up the typical silhouette of watches from the 1970s with its horns integrated into the caseband. Water-resistant to a depth of 100m, it is sealed by a sapphire caseback that allows you to admire the unprecedented oscillating weight.
Dressed in silver and enhanced by a vertical brushing, the dial features an hour-circle composed of silvery or golden applied hour markers, highlighted by lines of red luminescent material. The same goes for the central baton-style hour, minute and second hands, curved by a thin black scale.
Price: 3’250 CHF (steel) – 3’350 CHF (yellow gold-plated steel)
By Sharmila Bertin