Alpina made quite a splash with its well-designed and extraordinarily-priced pilot’s collection introduced last year. A unique mixture of a vintage feel in a contemporary watch, the collection has been very successful for the brand, which is beginning to come out of the shadow of its bigger brother, Frederique Constant.

This year at BaselWorld, Alpina is continuing the pilot watch direction, introducing the Heritage Pilot. Alpina comes to pilot’s watches honestly, having been a specialised manufacturer and official supplier of military and pilot watches in the past. The Heritage Pilot is inspired by original Alpina Pilot watch designs from the 1920s and 30s and design details of the modern watch closely match the original timepieces from the Alpina archives—the hand wound pocket watch calibre, the hinged case, as well as the Alpina applied brand logo and indexes on the dial. Certainly, many things have been updated to bring the watch into the realm of the modern day, including a stainless-steel case, water resistance and improved accuracy.

Though Alpina was only recently relaunched by Peter Stas, it was an important watch brand, having been registered in 1901. At one point, Alpina was sold at nearly 2000 outlets all over the world and was considered one of Europe’s leading watchmakers.

The new Heritage Pilot from Alpina looks to recapture the glorious past and also celebrate the bright future the brand has. The Heritage Pilot is limited to 1883, the year that Union Horlogère, the company that registered the Alpina brand name, was founded.

Source: Europa Star April - May 2012 Magazine Issue