In 2014, Alpina launched its Alpiner 4 collection, based on a classic model from 1938 and incorporating the “four essential features” that define a sports watch: anti-magnetism, shock resistance, water-resistance, and stain-resistance. This year, the brand adds two new members to the Alpina 4 family, the Alpiner 4 Automatic and the Alpiner 4 GMT “Business Timer.”
The Alpiner 4 Automatic, the first simple, three-hand date model in the collection, has a 44-mm stainless steel case and a bidirectional rotating bezel that can be used for timing events. The watch has a convex, scratch-resistant sapphire crystal, a threaded crown, and a solid, engraved caseback.Its sunray-finished dial has applied luminous indices, luminous hands, and a 3 o’clock date window. The movement is Alpina’s automatic Caliber AL-525, with 26 jewels, a 28,800-vph frequency and 38-hour power reserve. Three dial colors are available — silvered, black, and Alpina’s hallmark “glacier blue,” which has been reintroduced for this model. All of the Automatics come on stitched leather straps, brown or black, with red lining.
Like the first Alpiner 4 GMT from 2014, the new GMT Alpiner 4 GMT “Business Timer” is powered by the Sellita-based Alpina Caliber AL-550, which features automatic winding and the same number of jewels, frequency, and power reserve as the movement in the automatic. This movement controls a GMT (second-time-zone) function that allows the user to set the local time by independently moving the hour hand in one-hour increments while the red, arrow-tipped 24-hour hand always displays the home time. The watch gets its nickname from its red-and-blue “Pepsi” GMT scale around the dial, whose color scheme represents business-opening hours around the world, allowing a traveler to check at a glance if his home time zone is open for business. The steel case is 44 mm in diameter and has a bidirectional turning bezel; the dials — available here in black or silver — are sunray-finished with applied luminous indices and luminous-coated nickel hands. Both “Business Timer” models have genuine leather straps (brown for the white-dial version, black for the black-dial) with white contrast stitching and red lining.
As were previous Alpiner 4 watches, each of these new models is equipped with modern versions of the four “sports watch basics”. For antimagnetism, the watches are certified to the ISO 764 norm, which specifies that a watch must resist exposure to a direct current magnetic field of 4,800 A/m without impact on its accuracy. They are certified to the anti-shock standard of ISO 1413. The cases are in stainless steel and water-resistant to 100 meters. The Alpiner 4 Automatic models retail for $1,395, while the GMT “Business Timer” is priced at $1,995.
i would like to know about more into features
I had one of these…the plastic bezel is a huge turn-off and the only reason I sold what is otherwise an excellent timepiece.