Pulling From Its Past, Alpina Dives Deep with the Seastrong Diver 300

The production of purpose-built sport watches has been central to Alpina’s identity for nearly 80 years now. Introduced way back in 1938, the “Alpina 4” standard guides the brand in its pursuit of creating robust sport watches. To be considered a true “sport watch,” an Alpina must have the following characteristics: it must be anti-magnetic, shock-resistant, water-resistant, and housed in a stainless steel case.

These are traits of modern sports watches that we now often take for granted, but in 1938 the type of innovation that allowed watches to consistently meet these specifications was far less common. The quality timepieces that were produced under these guidelines made Alpina a favorite among sportsmen of all stripes. From divers, to mountaineers, to pilots, if you needed a watch that would reliably stand up to whatever was thrown at it, Alpina had you covered.

Among the many impressive purpose built watches in the Alpina lineup, the Seastrong was  absolutely key in Alpina’s history. Introduced in 1969 as the “10 Seastrong,” the watch left an immediate impression with recreational and professional divers alike. Typical of Alpina’s designs, there’s a comforting and pleasing over-engineered quality to these early Seastrong watches, with cases rated to 200 meters of water resistance and a dual crown layout with an inner rotating timing bezel. This was confidence-inspiring design that allowed divers to concentrate on the task at hand, knowing their watch wouldn’t cause a fuss.

While the modern Seastrong is very different aesthetically from the heritage version, there’s a spiritual connection between the two that binds them together. The traditional lines of the 10 Seastrong are replaced here by a muscular and angular case shape that’s decidedly modern.  And the new version is spec’d with all the modern attributes you’d want in a diver that can actually do the job of diving. The new Seastrong 300 is different in appearance compared to its predecessors, but it’s built with the same single-minded focus that Alpina has always brought to sport watch design.

The Seastrong Diver 300 (REF. AL-525LNN4TV6) has, as you’d expect, a full 300 meters of water resistance. The stainless steel case is coated with titanium PVD, giving it a stealthy and modern look that’s different from your typical black PVD. The crystal, naturally, is scratch resistant sapphire, and the dial and hands are loaded with non degrading luminous material that will help you tell the time in any lighting situation. At 44mm, this isn’t a small watch by any means, but the cushion-like case wears comfortably on a variety of wrist sizes.
The Seastrong Diver 300 represents a natural evolution of an iconic Alpina tool watch. Alpina has always focused on designing watches with a form-over-function mentality, and many of the Seastrong’s features exhibit that ethos in highly tangible ways. The stepped case is rugged and well proportioned, the cross-hatch dial is easy to read, and the crown and bezel have knurling that makes them easy to grip, even with gloves, or wet hands. The legacy of the Alpina 4 principles, which have been baked in to the Alpina design language over the decades, is still very much at play here.

The Seastrong Diver 300 is available now on the Alpina website with a retail price of $1,395.