ALPINA - GRUEN - GILDE SA

A European watch tradition that was significant in 1920/30, but is hardly known today

ALPINA UNION HORLOGERY SUISSE to ALPINA GRUEN GILDE SA., An AG under Swiss law.

Before 1930, ALPINA-GRUEN-GILDE SA had more than 1,500 watch dealers under contract, including a larger number in Germany through its German general agency DUGENA. ALPINA-GRUEN-GILDE SA was successful throughout Europe until 1939 and was then dissolved in the year the war began, due to known political reasons

A sales subsidiary for the ALPINA-GRUEN-GILDE was founded in Eisenach in 1917 and later Berlin. After the second World War, the German watchmaker's cooperative Alpina (DUGENA) was based in Darmstadt. It initially acted as the German general agent for the Swiss brand ALPINA, in association with the Swiss watchmaking association ALPINA UNION HORLOGERIE SUISSE. Even today, DUGENA still has an ALPINA triangle stylized from the original form in its modified logo,

http://www.ranfft.de/cgi-bin/bidfun-db.cgi?00&ranfft&&2uswk&Alpina_000
In 1909, the Alpina Union Horlogerie Suisse established itself in Glashuette i. Sa. as "Precision watch factory Alpina", with its own production of mainly Swiss watch parts, which caused displeasure among the established Glashuetter watch companies – resulting in several lawsuits.
http://watch-wiki.org/index.php?title=Pr%C3%A4cisions-Uhrenfabrik_Alpina_Glash%C3%BCtte_i/S

From Glashuette, ALPINA also supplied the German Navy in World War I - and after the insolvency of the Glashütte factory in 1922, it continued to do business successfully in Germany until 1939 within the ALPINA-GRUEN-GILDE SA association. Because of their close ties to the Swiss watch industry, the appreciation of watches in Glashütte and in Glashütte friends' circles was rather limited at the time. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alpina_Watches

In the post-war years, the DUGENA cooperative, with its new headquarters in Darmstadt, was able to successfully supply the West German watch market again - mainly from Pforzheim and Swiss production and later also with quartz movements.
http://www.watch-wiki.net/index.php?title=Dugena

GRUEN-UHREN were the higher quality products in the GRUEN-ALPINA-GILDE SA program. Timelessly famous and coveted by collectors are still all GRUEN-ALPINA - or GRUEN "Doctor's Watch" models, with the so-called "Duo Dial", i. e. with the separate large seconds display on the dial, for better readability of the seconds, e.g. for pulse measurement for "doctors".

The "Doctor's Watch" model series at GRUEN are called: "Gruen Techni-Quadron", at ALPINA-GRUEN: "Alpina-Gruen-Tecno" and at the same time largely identical at ROLEX: "Rolex-Prince". https://watch-wiki.org/index.php?title=Alpina-Gruen_Tecno

There are also variants with a jumping digital hour as ROLEX-PRINCE - and GRUEN - / ALPINA - GRUEN - Tecno - "jump hour".

Both ROLEX, as well as GRUEN and ALPINA-GRUEN purchased high quality clocks, e. g. for the Doctor's Watch ALPINA-GRUEN Tecno and the structurally identical models GRUEN-Techni Quadron and ROLEX-Prince, each from the watch factory AEGLER in Biel / Switzerland as GRUEN / ALPINA-GRUEN - movement Caliber 877. With the quality of Cal. In 877, ROLEX and GRUEN receiving many official chronometer certificates.

see: https://watch-wiki.org/index.php?title=Alpina-Gruen_Tecno and http://immigrantentrepreneurship.org/entry.php?rec=219

A comprehensive presentation of the international GRUEN Watchmakers Guild activities up to 1931, mainly related to the USA, is provided by the electronic book by Mike Barnett, reissued in 2014, as a replica of the historical original, with the title "THE GRUEN GUILD BOOK":

http://www.gruenwristwatches.com/gruen-books.php#!/eBook-of-the-Gruen-Guild-Book-1929-Rare-Item-to-Find/p/19448585/category=10896337

Herrmann Aegler the owner of "AEGLER SA, ROLEX Watch Company" later called "AEGLER SA, Fabrique des Montres ROLEX & GRUEN GUILD A." In the international interest group, he not only acted as the most important supplier of high-quality watch movements for ROLEX, GRUEN and the GRUEN-ALPINA-Guild, but was also vice-president of ALPINA-GRUEN-GILDE SA.Biel for many years.

http://watch-wiki.org/index.php?title=Aegler_%28Uhrenfabrik%29 and http://watch-wiki.org/index.php?title=Alpina_Gruen_Gilde_SA

Also see the GRUEN-DOCTOR's WATCH / PROTOTYPE at the very bottom of the page:
http://watch-wiki.org/index.php?title=Alpina_Gruen_Gilde_SA

BELOW: Advertisement from the ALPINA-GRUEN-GILDE from Berlin, with the watch factory AEGLER, Biel / Switzerland, in the ALPINA-GRUEN-GILDE

Below: Further sales advertisements by the GRUEN-ALPINA-GILDE, also with the names of important people from contemporary history as references

in alphabetical order: ALPINA, ASSMANN, DUGENA, GRUEN, MORITZ-GROSSMANN, PATEK PHILIPPE, ROLEX, are registered trademarks / trade marks and are thus protected by law for commercial use through property rights (also see the below imprint).