Lot 40

Minerva

Alpina

An extremely rare, extra-large vintage pilot’s wristwatch with coaxial single pusher rattrapante chronograph, created by Minerva SA for the Alpina watch collective

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Alpina was a Swiss horological collective founded by Gottlieb Hauser in Biel/Bienne BE in 1883 under the name Alpina "Union Horlogère S.A." (German name: Schweizerische Uhrmacher-Genossenschaft (SUG)). This collective of retailers and manufacturers was established for the procurement and retail of high-quality wrist- and pocket watches, as well as the parts and movements of these.
The first Minerva wristwatch was produced in 1909, but the company had its greatest success in 1923 with the introduction of calibre 13-20. The movement perfectly reflects the classic and sophisticated architecture of wrist chronographs of that time featuring the iconic "V" bridge, the column wheel design, the Breguet balance and 17 jewels. This watch model founded Minerva’s reputation as makers of complicated movements of superior quality. This Minerva Chronograph Rattrapante fascinates with its charismatic beauty and rarity. It is a marvellous example of an early military chronograph and stands out particularly due to the typical black dial. Equally striking is the case which still retains its original contours and edges. The large 42 mm size of this watch is remarkable because most other models at the time were much smaller. The aforementioned shiny black dial with a large counter for the small second and 30-minute counter, painted Arabic radium luminous hands as well as inner minute ring and 1/5 seconds division is in excellent original condition. Early split-second wrist chronographs were only produced in extremely small numbers. Its rarity and the condition make this single button rattrapante model an absolute highlight of any collection.