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Alpina

Alpina Updates Heritage Dive & Pilot Models

Alpina’s Startimer pilot collection and its Seastrong diver series boast an impressive (and nicely priced) selection of contemporary and vintage-styled adventure watches. This week, the Geneva-based watchmaker adds one more watch to the vintage column of each collection, which Alpina dubs its Heritage series.

The new Alpina Seastrong Diver 300 Heritage Automatic.

First up, the new Seastrong Diver 300 Heritage Automatic is the fifth watch in this best-selling series combining 1960s-style dials with modern calibers and cases.

Appropriately water-resistant to 300 meters, the 42mm watch features a rotating inner flange (adjusted using the crown at 2 o’clock) to time dives and brightly luminescent hands to allow full visibility in the dark.

Unlike previous examples in this collection with two-color dials, this latest model offers a uniform black lacquered sunray-brushed dial. In addition, the new model offers no date display, which technically is not required for a successful dive.

Inside Alpina places a Sellita-based AL-520 movement, protected on top with a sapphire crystal. Both crowns are screwed-in to ensure water resistance, and the caseback is engraved with Alpina’s historical logo.

Already a strong value, the watch is even more interesting with Alpina’s package, which includes two attractive straps, one in brown calfskin leather and the other in beige topstitched rubber. Price: $1,695.

New Startimer Dial

Alpina’s second Heritage addition, the new Startimer Pilot Heritage Automatic, is inspired by Alpina designs from the 1920s and 1930s. This new variation adds a new dial color to the existing black model we showed you last year.

The Alpina Startimer Pilot Heritage Automatic, showing new blue dial.

The new watch maintains the Pilot Heritage Automatic specs: a 44 mm steel case framing a matte dial (now blue) that displays luminescent beige hour, minute and 24-hour markers that nicely replicate a typical shade used on early pilot watches.

As we noted on the 2020 model, Alpina adds to the watch’s vintage styling by placing the original triangular Alpina logo on the dial. This logo, which differs from the logo Alpina places on its contemporary pilot models, serves a practical purpose by separating the 11 o’clock and 1 o’clock markers.

And finally, Alpina underscores the watch’s vintage vibe by outfitting the Pilot Heritage Automatic with a hunter-style caseback that flips open with the flick of a finger. Through the clear caseback the wearer can view the watch’s Sellita-based AL-525 automatic movement.

Alpina is limiting the Startimer Pilot Heritage Automatic with blue calfskin leather strap to 288 pieces. The watchmaker will continue its support of the National Park Foundation by donating $100 for every watch purchased through its U.S. website.

Specifications: Alpina Startimer Pilot Heritage Automatic

(Limited edition of 288 pieces.)

Movement: Sellita-based automatic AL-525 with 38-hour power reserve.

Case: 44mm by 11.55mm brushed and polished 3-part case, sapphire crystal, hunter caseback (at left). 
Water-resistant to 30 meters.

Dial: Blue with beige minutes and seconds graduation outward, beige 24 hours graduation inward, applied silver color Arabic numbers with beige luminous treatment. Date window at 3 o’clock,
silver color hour and minute hands with beige luminous treatment, silver color second hand with red triangle.

Bracelet: Blue calf leather.

Price: $1,295.

 

Specifications: Alpina Seastrong Diver 300 Heritage Automatic

Movement: Sellita-based automatic AL-520 with 38-hour power reserve.

Case: 42mm by 12.3mm polished 2-part, sapphire crystal, engraved back, water-resistant to 300m, screw-in crown.

Dial: Black with sunray finishing, yellow gold color minutes and seconds graduation, applied yellow gold-plated indexes, black outer ring with yellow gold color, minutes and seconds graduation yellow gold-plated, hour, minute and second hands with white luminous treatment.

Bracelet: Brown calf leather, additional black rubber strap.

Price: $1,695

 

 

 

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The Watches

Accutron Recalls Gridiron Nicknames

As football season continues, Accutron reminds collectors that the inspiration watches for two of its new Legacy models drew catchy gridiron nicknames in the 1960s.

The two models, the Accutron 565 and 203, were both initially launched in 1966 and were notable for their distinctive asymmetrical case designs, which accounted in part for their football-related nicknames.

The new Accutron Legacy 565. The original model 565 was known as the ‘Football Cross Hatch’ watch.

One watch, model 565, was known as the ‘Football Cross Hatch’ watch thanks the spiral pattern on its bezel. Likewise, fans called the 203 model the ‘Football Gold Relief’ watch primarily because of its case shape, which somewhat echoes that of the pigskin.

The new Accutron Legacy 203.

Accutron’s Legacy collection, first seen in late 2020, includes newly re-imagined versions of those original watches plus many others from the 1960s and 1970s. For these models (and the full Legacy collection) Accutron wisely resists the modern tendency by watchmakers to upscale retro editions by housing them in larger cases.

New versions

Accutron today adds the distinctive bezel cross hatch pattern to the crown (at 4 o’clock) on the new Legacy 565 ($1,390). This model is 34mm in diameter and features a silver-tone stainless steel case with a three-hand silver white dial, large hour markers and an outer minutes ring.

The new Accutron Legacy 203 ($1,450) offers the same 34mm size case, but with two-tone finish, a three-hand champagne-colored dial, Arabic numerals and thin markers on the outer ring. It’s sold with a brown croco-embossed leather strap with a double-press clasp.

The full Accutron Legacy collection is available online and in select stores with each design limited to 600 watches. All models feature sapphire crystals, a Sellita-based automatic movement and are water resistant to 30 meters.

All Accutron Legacy watches are priced at less than $1,500. Most retain what are now called unisex sizes, from 34mm to 38.5mm in diameter, and almost all are sold in both silver-tone steel and gold-tone steel cases. While several offer steel or gold-tone bracelets, most echo the era and come with croco-embossed or retro-style leather straps.

 

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The Watches

Junghans Revisits its Max Bill Automatic

By Gary Girdvainis

Max is back and minimal is original. Sixty years after the launch of the Max Bill Automatic, Junghans has revisited not only that minimalistic design, but has dared to offer it in the authentic 34mm original size.

An original Max Bill watch from 1961 (left) and a new model, with date. Both are 34mm in diameter.

Tiny by today’s standards (for a men’s watch), the 34mm watch is powered by an automatic movement under a dial bereft of excess – or anything distracting, except, for some, a date display. Two dial options offer a choice between an numeral-free edition or a model with Arabic numerals in a fine font.

Whether with simple stick markers or Arabic numerals, the austere dial keeps the smaller size from feeling too crowded, while the almost-nonexistent bezel adds volume and expanse to the scant case.

Water resistance is nominal at 30 meters and good for splashes and rain, while a double-coated sapphire crystal reaches to the very perimeter of the case. A truly unisex watch, the modern rendition ranges in price from $1,095 to $1,195 depending on the case finish and strap or bracelet choice.

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The Watches

Bulova Celebrates Apollo 15 With New Chronograph

Bulova celebrates Apollo 15 with the 50th Anniversary Lunar Pilot Limited Edition, a new quartz chronograph from the storied brand.

Bulova will make 5,000 50th Anniversary Lunar Pilot watches.

Bulova has a long history with NASA and has been involved in multiple space missions. The watchmaker specifically celebrates Apollo 15 because on August 2, 1971, Apollo 15’s mission commander David Scott made lunar history while wearing a Bulova chronograph. You may recall that the original watch sold for nearly $1.6 million at auction in 2015.

The Bulova Chronograph Worn by David Scott on the moon sold for nearly $1.6 million at auction in 2015.

Bulova notes that its partnership with the U.S. space mission ran from the mid-1950s until the 1970s. To learn more about Bulova’s links to U.S. space exploration, visit the digital Bulova Museum.

New case

Bulova’s celebratory release replicates the style and dial layout of Scott’s watch from Apollo 15, with technical updates. The new model is cased in a new and larger 45mm titanium case, and includes new gold-tone accents and pushers.

Inside, Bulova places proprietary high frequency, high precision quartz movement, which boasts a frequency of 262 kHz, eight times the frequency of traditional quartz watches. This is the movement, with its apparently ‘sweeping’ seconds hand, that Bulova inserts into its Precisionist collection, which Bulova debuted in 2010.

The watch’s retro-styled dial includes the original Bulova logo and dial layout with a sapphire crystal. A sharp-looking grey leather NATO strap holds it to the wearer’s wrist, and the watch is water resistant to fifty meters. On the screw-down case back you’ll find an engraved image depicting a moon walk and the watch’s limited edition number. Bulova will make 5,000 50th Anniversary Lunar Pilot watches and will package each with a storybook and commemorative NASA coin. Price: $995.

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The Watches

Updating Classic Designs

In recent months my inbox has been a repository of reminders about classic American watch design. And while plenty of digital missives arrive from the encouragingly high number of youthful watch designers active across the United States these days, I’ve been especially impressed by the retro-design regimen currently underway at Accutron.

Accutron’s Legacy collection transports us back decades with its studied re-introduction of dials and cases that truly met, and in many ways help define, the Swinging Sixties and the Space Age. The collection’s aerodynamic curves, electrical references and rampant asymmetry are a treat to both the eyes and the wrist. And by retaining vintage sizes Accutron enhances the nostalgia, setting the imaginative dials within their proper proportions.

The newest version of the Accutron Date and Day Q.

A stylish reminder of Accutron style from this era can be found in the Accutron Legacy Date and Day Q, a Legacy release that echoes the original 1971 streamlined ‘flying saucer’ 34.5mm oval case design and 4 o’clock crown.

Updated Bulova Classics

Bulova also understands the value its design archives. The Bulova Oceanographer ‘Devil Diver’, its Computron and Bulova’s array of military watches are prime examples.

Just recently Bulova notes that it is expanding its array of Bulova Classic designs with new versions of the 1948 Sutton and the 1960s Aerojet.

The newest Bulova Sutton reprises a 1940s design but with a contemporary dial aperture and case size.

Both these re-releases are automatic models powered by Miyota movements. The new Sutton automatic ($395) recalls Bulova’s President watch, circa 1948, though the new model offers an updated 33mm by 49mm case size and a contemporary dial aperture to expose the movement. Bulova is offering the watch with a white dial on a brown alligator grain leather strap or with a black dial on a black alligator grain leather strap.

My favorite among the recent debuts is the new Aerojet, reprising a Bulova design from the 1960s. Bulova unveils two new 41mm steel-cased versions featuring the Aerojet’s signature cross hair dial with a bi-color Day/Night indicator and vintage Aerojet logo.

The new Bulova Classic Aerojet reprises a 1960s design.

These come with colorful sunray blue or brown dials with a degrade effect. The blue model is available on a black distressed leather strap for $450 and the brown on a multilink bracelet for $495.

   

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