Today, Alpina announced a new retro timepiece, similar to the throwback diver’s watch they launched this year at Baselworld, which is also based very closely on a historic model. As you can see from the image above (the vintage timepiece on the left and the new version on the right), they made a larger, modern version with a dial that closely resembles the military service watches they produced for Germany in the 1930s and 1940s.
The Alpina Alpiner Heritage Manufacture KM-710 comes in virtually the same 41.5 mm stainless steel case as the Alpiner AL-710, that we covered here, and the Alpina Alpiner we reviewed here. However, the case on the Heritage model is slightly thicker, at 13 mm versus 10.8 mm.
A silver colored dial with black printed Arabic hour numerals and beige colored luminous coated indexes pays homage to the vintage models. Black baton-shaped hour, minute and seconds hands, as well as a black date hand (at 6 o’clock) match the Arabic numerals, and the hours and minute hands also feature a luminous treatment.
The dial is protected by a box-type sapphire crystal, and the caseback is screwed down with a sapphire window to view the nicely decorated movement. Water-resistance is 50 meters.
Powering the watch is automatic caliber AL-710 (which is also powers the aforementioned Alpiner models), a manufacture movement with a black coated oscillating weight with Geneva strips, mounted on ceramic ball bearings. The main bridge is bevelled, rhodium plated, and finished with Geneva stripes. The main plate is decorated with a perlage motif. Beating at 4Hz (28,800 kph), there are 134 components in total, including 26 jewels. A maximum power reserve of 42-hours is available.
This timepiece continues on the industry-wide trend to re-introduce previous models in a modern form. It allows buyers to enjoy the look of the past with the convenience of a new movement and modern size case and is something we think more companies should do, assuming they have cool vintage models in their archives, that is. (Ref. AL-710KMV4E6) $2695
