WWI German Military Union Horlogere Alpina Silver Pilot’s Ace Award Pocket Watch

I am pleased to offer from my private collection this extremely rare German WWI  Union Horlogere Alpina Glashutte silver Pilot’s Ace award chronometer pocket watch c1916.

The watch has been awarded for bravery.

Fine porcelain dial depicting the portrait of the legendary pilot ace Manfred von Richthofen-the Red Baron.

High grade lever chronometer movement-special swan neck precision micrometric regulator,Breguet spiral,compensating balance wheel with gold weights,gold train.

The watch is 52mm in diameter.

A must for every serious collector.

The watch comes with CERTIFICATE OF AUTHENTICITY!  

If you are not satisfied in 100%,your money back guarantee.

Free shipping to worldwide,fully insured (possible by DHL overnight courier)

History of Union Horlogere

1883: The Union Horlogère (UH) or Vereinigte Uhrmacher Alpina (VUA) was founded by Gottlieb Hauser as association of leading manufacturers, wholesalers and retailers to unify the purchase and distribution of watch and clock parts. Soon genuine calibres were designed, and manufactured by the Alpina Ebauche Factory of Duret & Colonnaz in Geneva. 1896: Registration of the image of a Straub calibre as trade mark. The movement is signed Alpina, Association Horlogére Suisse. Samples for German speeking regions got the SUG trademark shown on the upper left, according to the translation Schweizerische Uhrmacher-Genossenschaft.

1905: The U.S. companies Gruen and Hamilton joined the association. 1909: Alpina Union Horlogère founded the Präcisions-Uhrenfabrik Alpina in Glashütte. 1917: Due to political reasons near the end of WWI separation into the Union Horlogère SA in Biel/Switzerland and the Alpina Deutsche Uhrmacher-Genossenschaft GmbH (ADUG) in Berlin/Germany. 1929-1937: Alpina Gruen Gilde SA, a joint venture of both companies to coordinate production and distribution. Also Rolex was involved in this oganization, but it is unknown to which extent. A famous child of this cooperation was the Doctors Watch, made by the Rolex factory Aegler, and sold under the brands Alpina, Gruen, Alpina-Gruenand Rolex-Prince. 1946: The German branch was reorganized and restarted in Darmstadt as DUGENA, Deutsche Uhrmacher-Genossenschaft Alpina. 1949: Registration of Alpina as brand of the manufacturer Straub & Co, Bienne. The company Alpina Union Horlogère continued, and distributed the Straub watches. The kind of the cooperation of Straub with Alpina, and the beginning of Straub are fuzzy: Straub is known as member of UH, and definitely most movements of newer Alpina watches were made by Straub. But already the calibre shown in the trade mark from 1896 (cf. above) was made by Straub.