It’s very hard to find a (real) Swiss-made world-timer watch that doesn’t cost a 5-figure sum but Alpina has done it with the Alpina Worldtimer Manufacture watch. The Geneva-based watch manufacturer has priced the Worldtimer Manufacture at $3,450 and uses a movement that’s produced in-house.
The watch dial is fairly clean looking, for a world-timer, with a second, minute, and hour hands. There is however a quite large sub-dial at the 6 o’clock position for the date which blocks part of the world-timer feature. The outer-dial has a rotating ring with 24 city names for time zones and there is another disc with 24 hour markers (that’s partially obstructed by the date sub-dial).
The way the world time works is, the user sets the local city at the 12 o’clock position using the crown. In the pictures, Geneva is set as the local city, the time is read by using the 12 hour markers, and the time is 10:08. Now using the city names on the outer dial and the 24 hour markers, the user can tell what time it is in one of those cities. For example, if Chicago is chosen, the number next to the city is 3, so the time in Chicago is 3:08 A.M, 4:08 A.M. in New York etc.
The Alpina Worldtimer Manufacture watch is powered by an automatic caliber AL-718 movement that can be hand-wound. The watch face and case-back is covered with sapphire crystal and the case is made out of polished stainless steel and measures 44 mm. The watch comes with a black crocodile leather strap with a stainless steel buckle. The Alpina Worldtimer Manufacture watch (Ref AL-718B4S6) is limited to 8,888 pieces.
Alpina Worldtimer Manufacture
[Source: Alpina]
