Model # 241527
Brand/Model: Victorinox ‘Swiss Army’ Alpnach Automatic Chronograph
Movement: Swiss automatic chronograph
Material: PVD coated stainless steel case, nylon fabric/leather lined strap
Complications: day/date display, chronograph timing up to 12 hours in one-second increments
Price: MSRP $2,295 USD
Brand/Model: Victorinox ‘Swiss Army’ Alpnach Automatic Chronograph
Movement: Swiss automatic chronograph
Material: PVD coated stainless steel case, nylon fabric/leather lined strap
Complications: day/date display, chronograph timing up to 12 hours in one-second increments
Price: MSRP $2,295 USD
Plenty of photos follow the review. Click on the pictures to enlarge.
Big. Bold. Black. Heavy. Unique. These are just some of the adjectives that can be used to describe the Victorinox Swiss Army (‘VSA’ as an abbreviation) Alpnach automatic chronograph. This is the newest design in the Alpnach series, which has been around for a few years now. The watch takes its name from a Swiss village that is set alongside Lake Lucerne, located at the foot of Mount Pilatus.
There
are several variations of this newest Alpnach, with differences in the dial,
case and/or accent colors. I’ve always liked a bit of green accenting on
a watch, so that’s why I chose this variation. The grey dialed versions
look good, too (and come with orange accents). VSA says this Alpnach
is the ‘best timepiece for showing its passion to aviation.’
Okay, whatever you say. Personally, I
really don’t get too much of an aviation feel with this watch.
A word to the wise (and to the smaller-wristed amongst us, like myself); this Alpnach is a big boy, rather top-heavy when on the wrist and a watch that not everyone can successfully pull off. The fabric strap is a curiosity on this piece; if it sported a stainless steel bracelet, the top-heaviness of the watch would be somewhat lessened and perhaps a bit more comfortable to wear, albeit more heavy. But it’s only offered on the fabric strap, so unless an aftermarket bracelet is added, the watch will continue to be somewhat lopsided. I’m sure on a larger wrist, it won’t be so top heavy, but you’ve been warned.
Victorinox has really stepped up their game in the past couple of years, producing some really great, high quality watches that can be found at decent discounts if you look hard enough. This Alpnach starts with a large 44mm diameter case (not counting the crown or pushers) that is constructed of solid stainless steel then coated with black PVD. The consistency of the PVD coating is first rate, smooth, evenly applied and perfectly black. The case measurement with crown is 49.3mm.
A word to the wise (and to the smaller-wristed amongst us, like myself); this Alpnach is a big boy, rather top-heavy when on the wrist and a watch that not everyone can successfully pull off. The fabric strap is a curiosity on this piece; if it sported a stainless steel bracelet, the top-heaviness of the watch would be somewhat lessened and perhaps a bit more comfortable to wear, albeit more heavy. But it’s only offered on the fabric strap, so unless an aftermarket bracelet is added, the watch will continue to be somewhat lopsided. I’m sure on a larger wrist, it won’t be so top heavy, but you’ve been warned.
Victorinox has really stepped up their game in the past couple of years, producing some really great, high quality watches that can be found at decent discounts if you look hard enough. This Alpnach starts with a large 44mm diameter case (not counting the crown or pushers) that is constructed of solid stainless steel then coated with black PVD. The consistency of the PVD coating is first rate, smooth, evenly applied and perfectly black. The case measurement with crown is 49.3mm.
The
crown does not screw down and is grooved on the sides instead of being fluted
and has a rubber insert on the end with the VSA logo. For some reason (at
least on my watch) the crown is very hard to pull out, despite its rather large
size. I don’t know if all Alpnachs have a crown that is hard to pull out,
but it is a bear to do and can lead to bent fingernails and a lot of swearing.
The pushers are rather unique on this watch. The upper pusher (starts and stops the chrono) is a conventional round pusher. The lower pusher (chrono reset) is rectangular and is curved to better fit your finger. This pusher is also clearly labelled in white with the word ‘reset’ on it. No confusion over what this pusher does!
The caseback is secured by six small screws and features a partial or ‘peek-a-boo’ mineral crystal display window that is designed to show the signed rotor as it rotates around to wind the watch. The caseback is signed with the Swiss Airforce logo. Overall, the case and caseback present a solid, well-made look and feel to this watch. Case thickness is 15.5mm and lug width is 24mm. One nice thing, due to the overall large size of the case, the equally large 24mm lugs do not stand out as such. You will look at this watch and think the lugs are smaller.
The watch is factory rated for 100 meters of water resistance.
The dial is one place where this watch excels. The dial is a matte black with subtle green accents for the chrono functions and on the chapter ring. The hands are black with inset white lume. The chronograph hands are solid white with no lume and the chrono seconds hand is a split (skeleton) white design with a green tip. Lume quality is good, but really nothing better. Minimal dial printing is another nice touch, with just the VSA logo, ‘Victorinox’, ‘Swiss Army’ and the words ‘Chronograph’ and ‘Automatic’ printed in a rather small point size on the dial.
A quickset day and date is at the three position. The day and date wheels are white on black and harmonize perfectly with the matte black of the dial. Wheel alignment within the day/date windows is good and the quickset mechanism works fine, although a bit lacking in tactile feel, ie: as you spin through the day or date, there’s not much resistance to let you know you’ve changed the setting. Not a big deal, but something to be aware of nonetheless. A small divider separates the day and date windows respectively.
The subdial at the nine position is the watch’s seconds hand and is a ‘propeller’ design, with four hands equally spaced, with three of the hands painted black and one hand painted white. This is really nothing more than a design element, but it does look pretty cool. A simple chapter ring encircles the dial with green accents at each quarter hour.
The subdial at 12 is the 30-minute totalizer for the chrono, while the subdial at 6 is the chrono’s 12-hour totalizer. This is the standard and familiar Valjoux 7750 configuration. Both chronograph subdials are clearly marked in a combination of white hash marks and white arabics and have raised rings at their outer edges with white triangle markers that draw your eye towards the green circles immediately surrounding the subdials. It sounds busy, but it’s not and it works quite well.
The pushers are rather unique on this watch. The upper pusher (starts and stops the chrono) is a conventional round pusher. The lower pusher (chrono reset) is rectangular and is curved to better fit your finger. This pusher is also clearly labelled in white with the word ‘reset’ on it. No confusion over what this pusher does!
The caseback is secured by six small screws and features a partial or ‘peek-a-boo’ mineral crystal display window that is designed to show the signed rotor as it rotates around to wind the watch. The caseback is signed with the Swiss Airforce logo. Overall, the case and caseback present a solid, well-made look and feel to this watch. Case thickness is 15.5mm and lug width is 24mm. One nice thing, due to the overall large size of the case, the equally large 24mm lugs do not stand out as such. You will look at this watch and think the lugs are smaller.
The watch is factory rated for 100 meters of water resistance.
The dial is one place where this watch excels. The dial is a matte black with subtle green accents for the chrono functions and on the chapter ring. The hands are black with inset white lume. The chronograph hands are solid white with no lume and the chrono seconds hand is a split (skeleton) white design with a green tip. Lume quality is good, but really nothing better. Minimal dial printing is another nice touch, with just the VSA logo, ‘Victorinox’, ‘Swiss Army’ and the words ‘Chronograph’ and ‘Automatic’ printed in a rather small point size on the dial.
A quickset day and date is at the three position. The day and date wheels are white on black and harmonize perfectly with the matte black of the dial. Wheel alignment within the day/date windows is good and the quickset mechanism works fine, although a bit lacking in tactile feel, ie: as you spin through the day or date, there’s not much resistance to let you know you’ve changed the setting. Not a big deal, but something to be aware of nonetheless. A small divider separates the day and date windows respectively.
The subdial at the nine position is the watch’s seconds hand and is a ‘propeller’ design, with four hands equally spaced, with three of the hands painted black and one hand painted white. This is really nothing more than a design element, but it does look pretty cool. A simple chapter ring encircles the dial with green accents at each quarter hour.
The subdial at 12 is the 30-minute totalizer for the chrono, while the subdial at 6 is the chrono’s 12-hour totalizer. This is the standard and familiar Valjoux 7750 configuration. Both chronograph subdials are clearly marked in a combination of white hash marks and white arabics and have raised rings at their outer edges with white triangle markers that draw your eye towards the green circles immediately surrounding the subdials. It sounds busy, but it’s not and it works quite well.
Overall,
the dial is very legible and easy to read, although the hour and minute hands
are a bit thin, they could be a millimeter or so wider.
The bezel is a unidirectional 120-click variety with an inset lume triangle at the 12 position and is set up as a countdown bezel, with the numbers running the opposite of a standard timing bezel, that is, clockwise on the bezel starts counting down from 60 instead of counting up. Again, there’s no real reason for this, just another design element.
The bezel is a unidirectional 120-click variety with an inset lume triangle at the 12 position and is set up as a countdown bezel, with the numbers running the opposite of a standard timing bezel, that is, clockwise on the bezel starts counting down from 60 instead of counting up. Again, there’s no real reason for this, just another design element.
The
bezel itself is black PVD with inset white paint for the markers and arabics
and also sports heavily knurled grip bars at each five minute mark, which makes
is very easy to turn this bezel. There’s also a fix tachymeter ring just
inside the bezel, between the crystal and bezel. The inset markings and
arabics on the tachymeter are all black.
The Alpnach has a triple coated anti-reflective flat sapphire crystal that effectively banishes reflections. This certainly made taking pictures of this watch much easier. The crystal has a slight anti-reflective (bluish) tint to it.
Inside the Alpnach beats the well regarded and reliable Valjoux 7750 automatic chronograph movement. The movement sets well, hacks and manually winds and apart from the sensitive day/date setting and hard to pull out crown previously mentioned, is a workhorse of an engine. The chronograph functions start, stop and reset crisply. In testing, my Alpnach ran at +7 seconds/24 hours with a very fine 55 hour power reserve. You really can’t complain about a 7750-based chronograph.
The strap on the Alpnach is somewhat of a letdown to me. VSA refers to this strap as ‘hi tech’ but I don’t see it. It is black nylon, relatively thick, with black leather accents on the top and a smooth tan leather lining. The pushbutton clasp is black PVD with the VSA logo, while the deployant is machined and is standard stainless steel color. There are two keepers, one fixed and one floating.
The Alpnach has a triple coated anti-reflective flat sapphire crystal that effectively banishes reflections. This certainly made taking pictures of this watch much easier. The crystal has a slight anti-reflective (bluish) tint to it.
Inside the Alpnach beats the well regarded and reliable Valjoux 7750 automatic chronograph movement. The movement sets well, hacks and manually winds and apart from the sensitive day/date setting and hard to pull out crown previously mentioned, is a workhorse of an engine. The chronograph functions start, stop and reset crisply. In testing, my Alpnach ran at +7 seconds/24 hours with a very fine 55 hour power reserve. You really can’t complain about a 7750-based chronograph.
The strap on the Alpnach is somewhat of a letdown to me. VSA refers to this strap as ‘hi tech’ but I don’t see it. It is black nylon, relatively thick, with black leather accents on the top and a smooth tan leather lining. The pushbutton clasp is black PVD with the VSA logo, while the deployant is machined and is standard stainless steel color. There are two keepers, one fixed and one floating.
Presentation is standard VSA, a rather simple inner and outer box of average to slightly larger size. Nothing fancy, nothing cheap, pretty much middle of the road. I have said this before, for their price point, I feel Victorinox should improve their boxes. Now I know that many people say ‘you don’t wear the box, you wear the watch’ which is true, but if you charge $2K+ for a watch, the quality of the box should match the price point.
Overall, the Victorinox Alpnach chrono is a large, heavy, cool watch that has great functionality and unique looks without being over the top in any way (well, maybe just a little). Put a high quality leather strap on this puppy and you’ll really steal the show.
Pros: quality construction, well-regarded Swiss engine, subtle and bold looks at the same time, unique reset pusher design
Cons: lume could be better, a bit top heavy on smaller wrists, fabric strap has to go, crown hard to pull out
Verdict: large and in charge, the VSA Alpnach represents a good value when purchased at the right price (think half of MSRP) and will do the job while going the distance.
Thanks for reading and enjoy the pictures.
Excelsior!
-Marc
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