Alpina Seastrong Diver 300 Heritage Dive Watch

For those who’ve obtained a historical past of instrument watches, flaunt them. This actually appears to be the mandate within the watchmaking enviornment for the previous decade or so, and types with reliable instrument watches from the previous have discovered an avid crowd of watch consumers who need the interesting look of a classic watch with up to date mechanics. Though Alpina has been offering rugged instrument watches for nearly 140 years now, it was a late-Sixties dive watch that was chosen as a candidate for a remake in 2016. The most recent version of the Seastrong Diver 300 Heritage is a traditionally devoted re-edition of the Sixties diver with its tremendous compressor-style case and double crowns. Though the watch shares the identical specs because the 2016 version, and there has already been a Seastrong Heritage Diver with a black dial, the newest mannequin livens issues up with golden parts that underscore the classic vibe even additional. One other novelty that may make lots of our readers blissful is that the date window has been eradicated.

Alpina 10 Seastrong

Based in 1883, watchmaker Gottlieb Hauser determined to pool collectively assets and created a union of fellow watchmakers often known as Alpinists. Alpina was the identify chosen by the union members to indicate the best high quality calibres of their manufacturing. In 1938, Alpina launched the legendary Alpina 4. The quantity 4 alluded to the 4 important qualities of a sports activities watch: anti-magnetic, waterproof, anti-shock and chrome steel (case). The watch was geared up with the hand-wound Alpina 592 calibre. Seven years later, the corporate manufactured its first automated. This brings us as much as 1967 when it launched its landmark diver watch, the Alpina 10 (additionally known as the Alpina 10 Seastrong in 1969), an expert diving watch with 200m water-resistance and an automated calibre.

Like many dive watches of the interval, the Seastrong had a brilliant compressor case with two crowns – one to regulate the inner bezel to find out decompression instances by way of the 1-60 minutes on the rotating bezel, and the second crown to set and wind the motion. To be sure that divers may seek the advice of the time simply, the watch’s designers used luminous materials on the dial and palms. The case, constructed by Ervin Piquerez SA (EPSA), was waterproof to 200 metres due to its patented spring mechanism constructed into the screw-down caseback that made the watch extra watertight the deeper it went. Rising diving depth and the growing water strain exerted on the case pressed the 2 components of the case and the O-ring gasket extra firmly, guaranteeing ever-higher ranges of resistance.

The Revival, the brand new Seastrong Diver 300 Heritage

Launched in 2016 at Baselworld, the first Seastrong Heritage Diver picked up on the design cues of the unique with double crowns and the attribute grid sample embossing the crown related to tremendous compressor circumstances made by Ervin Piquerez (Ps. The case of this contemporary watch appears like a brilliant compressor however isn’t a correct tremendous compressor when it comes to structure and building)

Beginning with the exterior points of the watch, the case of the Seastrong Diver 300 Heritage measures 42mm with a thickness of 12.30mm; certainly not an enormous case measurement for immediately’s requirements, however actually bigger than the unique. The bezel and prime a part of the lugs are polished whereas the case bands are brushed. The crown at 4 o’clock to set the time and wind the motion is engraved with the Alpina triangle, whereas the crown at 2 o’clock to regulate the rotating bezel reveals the grid sample of early EPSA tremendous compressor circumstances.

The caseback is sealed, and the watch is waterproof to 300m. The hallmark inside rotating bezel of the unique now slopes in the direction of the dial and offers the dial a pie-pan impact including additional depth. Like the unique rotating dive bezel, the elongated markers are interspersed with dots and Arabic numerals at 15, 30 and 45. In contrast to the unique, these at the moment are a golden color to match the yellow gold-plated indices which are utilized to the black dial. Once more, the indices are elongated to match the markers on the flange. The golden triangle at midday represents Alpina’s emblem and has a spherical cut-out space within the centre and is aligned with the inverted triangle on the rotating bezel when the latter shouldn’t be in use.

The longer minutes hand with its giant arrow tip is one other signature design function of the unique, and, just like the brief hour hand and central seconds hand, is handled with white luminescent materials. All three palms are yellow gold-plated, and all of the inscriptions on the dial are golden. The distinction between the black dial with sunray ending and the matte golden touches works very effectively certainly. The unique hesalite glass has been changed with a scratch-proof domed sapphire glass.

Nonetheless, the place designers have strayed from the unique – and the 2016 variations of the Seastrong Heritage – regards the elimination of the date window, little question a optimistic determination for a lot of. Powered by the automated calibre AL-525, based mostly on a sturdy and correct Sellita SW 200, the motion delivers a 38-hour energy reserve.

The Alpina Seastrong Diver 300 Heritage comes on an off-the-cuff brown calfskin leather-based strap with a pin buckle with a complimentary black rubber strap.

Availability & Worth

The retail value of the Seastrong Diver 300 Heritage is EUR 1,495 and may be ordered immediately from Alpina’s web site as of now. For extra info, please go to alpinawatches.com.