What’s Wrong with Alpina?

[@kaanmeister]

Triangles in their watches make me love the brand. I love it's design. Also it's reasonable price comparing to other basic luxury watches.

[@donwalker6038]

I can't even count the number of Alpina watches I've owned. Suffice to say, TONS. I currently own the Alpiner 4 44mm a quartz GMT with a grey dial that looks spectacular and quartz horological smart watch. Every single watch I've owned has been fantastic and I'll continue to buy their watches.

[@1minutewatchguy]

Good to know

[@porscheoscar]

How is the reflective coating on the crystal ? I am real stickler for zero glare no matter if it's quartz or mechanical. Nothing ruins a watch dial like a cheapo mineral glass crystal. From across the room I can tell if it's a cheap watch or a Swiss or high end Seiko just from the glare on the crystal.

[@Hamzak786]

A great dream watch that fits my preferences is the **Omega Seamaster Aqua Terra in Titanium**. It’s automatic, durable, and has a lightweight titanium case, making it ideal for me.

[@alwoo5645]

love alpina got a startimer heritage I will buy another

[@patrickcannady2066]

What’s wrong with Alpina? Honestly, nothing except I wish they made more watches in the 39-42mm range. Their 44mm Chronographs are incredibly handsome watches but too large for an average sized 7inch wrist, and I don’t like saying that about them because I genuinely like Alpina’s style, and there is far, far too much whining about watch sizes in general.

[@1minutewatchguy]

Abso bloody exactly, well put. 44mm is just too damn big

[@QuidoVesely]

I love my Alpina Alpiner 4. Awesome tool watch actually. Magnetic and shockresistance, nice water-resistance... My EDC

[@markoochyoutcheff6493]

Love my AlpinerX af anxiously awaiting the arrival of my Startimer!

[@space.cowboyyyyy]

Alpina is a great brand I love it!!!

[@1minutewatchguy]

Yes they are!

[@stevetrotter6584]

I have 2 Alpina watches and I'm very satisfied with them. They don't seem to have the same popularity to the other Swiss made lower luxury market. All I see are videos of Hamilton and Tissot PRX models. Maybe they need a targeted marketing strategy ?

[@vomi_de_porc]

I just got the AL 372, love it so far. I’m happy that isn’t too famous, otherwise, I’d have paid double

[@tonyzeno2715]

I lusted after the Rev Panda Variant of this watch (Big Date @ 6 oclock) version. At 44mm I beleive for most people its a tad too big. The Dial is amazingly Legible but I think that the size and the fact it is a Quartz (although in house mvmt) also would be a factor why its not as popular. I think MSRP was like $1100?? I could be wrong and I would never pay that for this Watch but to pick a slightly Pre-owned one for $300 would be a steal for what it is. The new Startimers I believe are now 42/43mm if Im not mistaken. They remind me a bit of the Bulova Lunar Pilot which are 45mm and the newer BLP's are now 43mm, they also have the cool 1/10 sec sub-dial which I am a fan of. Still a very nice well made Timepiece.

[@smashexentertainment676]

My problem is they use the cheapest Sellita 38h power reserve movement that should be discontinued by now, same as a lot of brands in this price segment and much cheaper and it's just an insult to your face. Sellita offers other movements with 60+ hours, but they probably cost a little more. Or Sellita could've simply upgraded all their movements by now. Like when ETA introduced Powermatic 80. Even Seiko Prospex at the same price offers 70h. Even Chinese Liaoning Peacock and Hangzhou now offer 70+ hour power reserve for like 100 bucks. Same problem I had with Oris Artix, 38h for a day date, no thanks.

[@1minutewatchguy]

Agree on all these points 😃 never knew of those Chinese brands, will need to check them out

[@ManuelParamoG]

Que opinas de este reloj por $450, vale la pena? A pesar de ser cuarzo?

[@1minutewatchguy]

por solo $450 es bien!

[@southsupersouthsuper9188]

Great brand

[@ROrneli]

I honestly dont know what it is wrong with Alpina. I have owned several brands of watches and sold them most . I own two alpinas. a Alpina startimer automatic and my Alpina Limited edition regulator automatic . no watch makes me feel more elegant and rich than the regulator one that watch gets stares at the bars and i even had a couple of gold diggers hit at me because of that watch . it looks like pure class. Alas , watch people don't react to alpina in any way. positive or negatively . any time i post a picture of it on a watch collectors forum I barely get 5 to 10 likes when people posting some generic round of mill Omegas (that retail to about the same ) get 100 likes . My conclussion is that Alpina has never been marketed as agressively as other brands. No one can remember any famous person wearing one and people pay a lot of money for a name. overall stamp any big name on anything an it immediately gets likes and sales . case in point is the Omega swatch collaboration where the swatch is at most a disposable "fun" watch and people were making long lines to buy a watch from a brand that has been largerly ignored for decades . I love Alpina and their new alpiner avalanche extreme series is amazing and unique . but people will still get put on long lists to buy yet another submariner or pay hundreds for a homage.,

[@1minutewatchguy]

Thanks for the detailed response, yes I agree 100% about the marketing. Also being owned by Citizen may have held them back recently. What do you think?

[@ROrneli]

@@1minutewatchguy I think Citizen has put them on the spot. before Citizen bought them no one knew about so I think it is a positive change. Only puritan watch collectors will be upset about the brand being owned by Citizen. but in reality so many other watch brands fall into some kind of umbrella , like Swatch,. Seiko.... All Alpina needs is a few famous people to start wearing them and they will take off.

[@julianread1996]

I think they make great watches, but somehow got lost along the way in being too diverse. They need to focus on their roots with mechanical watchmaking and smaller case sizes if they want to appeal to a niche/enthusiast market. I don’t think their marketing is that bad perhaps they just need to pin point to their specific markets more. The best form of marketing is word of mouth and they can be underrated that’s fine. There is a lot more to a watchmaker than its marketing.

[@Pulsonar]

Alpina make beautiful watches their watches at Vienna airport duty free shopping always caught my eye. I never understood myself why i barely heard of them elsewhere. To be fair the marketing is crap, Citizen could be sitting on a huge goldmine and they don’t know it yet. Citizen-Alpine partnership haven’t got a clue how to target and appeal to young male customers in a huge global market. There is little back story of pioneering successes and innovation in their archive or they would’ve made a huge ad campaign about it, and they haven’t. But what about brand association? (BMW motorsport comes to mind for some reason -famous 1980s Alpina tuning house) cross country Skiing, wtf don’t they pull in a big sports or movie star and milk that shit? 😂

[@1minutewatchguy]

I completely agree, wasted opportunity by the Citizen Group

[@Pulsonar]

@@1minutewatchguy In contrast Bulova look like they’re doing much better than Alpina under Citizen, even eking out a NASA marketing opportunity from a 1971 Apollo mission event to splash over their Lunar pilot models. Bulova could even go further with their famous Accutron models - CIA blackbird spy plane pilots were rumoured to have used them as standard issue in the early 60s. This was after the US spruced up they’re spy plane program following the humiliating Gary Powers incident where his old US Spy plane was shot down over Russia.

[@shipmate3577]

One word: "MARKETING"

[@1minutewatchguy]

I think you’re right 😊 Maybe Citizen group are prioritising Frederique Constant as their Swiss Luxury brand?

[@shipmate3577]

@@1minutewatchguy I like that Citizen Group is growing. I hope they challenge Seiko and Swatch Group; especially Hamilton, Tissot, and Certina