The rise of the machines – Alpina Seastrong Horological Smartwatch

Smartwatches have now a few years of history – from the first connected watches, the Seiko RC Series in 1984 till the well-known Apple watch, the smart watches are considered by some the future of watchmaking, but this remains to be seen…

Personally, I prefer to have a classic watch at my wrist, it doesn’t matter if it’s quartz or pure mechanical. I am tight to the telling time hands, I like to see them move and even if I have a smartwatch, I end up by wearing a watch at one wrist and a fitness band at the other’s wrist. I was very happy to hear, in 2015, about the appearance of the first series of Swiss Horological Smartwatches: Frederique Constant, Mondaine and Alpina using the new Horological Smartwatch Platform developed by the MMT – Manufacture Modules Technologies as being the first “smart” traditional watches that cover a missing gap between the classical watches and the digital power.

This year, at Baselworld, Alpina broke a new barrier by releasing the first diving horological smartwatch – Alpina Seastrong Horological Smartwatch. I was pleased to find out that I can finally go to the beach and play in the water having a traditional looking watch packed with the goodies of a fitness band or smartwatch.

Based on the historical Alpina diving watches, the Seastrong remains faithful to the Swiss watchmaking traditions, keeping the aspect and the functionality of a horological diving watch. The Alpina Seastrong Collection is presented in four models with black, green, orange and navy blue bezel color.

The Seastrong watch has a 44mm fiber glass and stainless steel case with a diving unidirectional bezel with ratcheting system (required by the safety standards – don’t forget that this is a dive watch) that can withstand 100m/330ft water-resistance. This is excellent for a serious swimmer and for snorkeling. The watch comes accompanied by an all-purpose rubber strap that fits well an occasional outdoor fan or even an adventure seeker. No need to say that the top is covered by a sapphire crystal.

This beautiful timepiece has a blue or black simple dial with luminous indexes and markers that allow a good visibility. The iconic Alpina logo is proudly placed at 12 o’clock and the only sign that this is not a usual diver watch are the unusual icons at 2, 4, 8 and 10 o’clock – the smart functions indicators and the HSW (Horological Smart Watch) colored inscription at 6 o’clock.

Powering this small machine is the caliber MMT-282-1 – a cyborg with horological body and digital brain. This movement based on the MMT AL-282 is a collaboration between Alpina and MMT, completely designed and produced in Switzerland. The needed app, the MMT-365 is also developed there. The smartwatches function are the same as most of the smartwatches out there: call & email notifications, activity tracking, sleep monitoring, sleep-cycle alarms for a nice, energized wake up, Get-Active alerts for a more active lifestyle, Dynamic Coaching, a World timer function plus an automatic time and date update.
All the functions can be used via Cloud & restore, good in case you lose/change your phone or watch, but managed by MMT Swiss so you can feel safe and secure.

In the end, two of the most important aspects of this watch: the unbeatable price of 595 Euro and 4+ years of battery life. I think this is the best offer on the market and can be a first horological watch for the tech lovers, a first smartwatch for a classic watch lovers and a nice watch for every collection – a great vacation watch and not only.