As shorter days and longer nights become the norm throughout the fall and winter months, Alpina is embracing the dark, releasing a range of six new timepieces with smoked dials in two of its product families, the Alpiner 4 and Startimer Pilot, collectively called the Shadow Line.
The Alpina Alpiner 4 Shadow Line is an all-black, stealth-look extension of the mountaineering-inspired collection introduced in 2014. Its 44-mm black PVD-coated stainless steel case is outfitted with a bidirectional compass bezel, an extra-thick, scratch-resistant convex crystal, and a solid caseback engraved with the “Alpina 1883” logo. The sunray-finished, dark fumé dial has luminous-treated, pearl-black indices and hands, a date window at 3 o’clock, and a prominent red seconds hand with Alpina’s traditional triangle counterweight. Inside the case — which, like all Alpiner 4 cases, is engineered to be not only water-resistant (to 100 meters) but also highly antimagnetic and impervious to shocks — is Alpina’s automatic mechanical AL-525 movement, offering a 38-hour power reserve. The other notable feature, which is found on all the Shadow Line models, is Alpina’s specially developed “connected” strap, made of black leather and housing a hidden chip in its buckle that can track steps, calories, sleep cycles, and other data and display it on a companion app called the MTT-365, which can be downloaded to iOS and Android devices. The Alpiner 4 Shadow Line will retail for $1,495.
The Shadow Line versions of the Startimer Pilot include a three-hand Automatic, containing the mechanical, self-winding AL-525 caliber; and a quartz-powered Pilot Chronograph Big Date. The cases of the Automatic models are a sizeable 44 mm in diameter and 10.74 mm thick, and made of stainless steel with either a rose-gold PVD or black PVD coating. The rose-gold-PVD watch features a dark gray sunray-finished dial, with large luminous, hand-applied hour markers and hands with a rose-gold PVD coating and black luminous treatment. The black-PVD version offers dials in either matte-finish dark gray or sunray-finish dark blue, both with applied, pearl-black, luminous-treated hands and indices. The date display appears in a window at 3 o’clock. Behind an engraved caseback, the AL-525 movement beats at 28,800 vph and stores a power reserve of 38 hours. The Startimer Pilot Automatic Shadow Line will be priced from $1,050 in black PVD to $1,285 in rose-gold PVD.
Also weighing in at 44 mm in diameter in their black PVD-coated stainless steel cases, the Startimer Pilot Chronograph Big Date models contain the high-precision Swiss quartz Caliber AL-372, with a 48-month battery life. The matte-black dials are highlighted with either brown or gray luminous indices and black polished hands with matching luminous treatment. The watch’s chronograph function measures elapsed times to 1/10 second, with minutes and hours tallied at 9 and 3 o’clock, respectively, and small seconds displayed at 6 o’clock; also at 6 o’clock is the watch’s eponymous big date display in a double window. The e-strap is in dark brown or black leather, depending on the model. Both Startimer Pilot Chronograph Big Date Shadow Line watches are priced at $995.
