Alpina becomes the timekeeping partner of the French ski resort of Val Thorens

 Located in Savoie, in the Vallée des Belleville in France, Val Thorens is not only the highest ski resort in Europe (2,300 metres) and the culminating point of the 3 Vallées ski region, it also forms part of the largest ski area in the world with 600 km of slopes. 7 times elected best resort in the world and 9 times the best resort in France by the World Ski Awards, Val Thorens not only offers an amazing panorama to nature lovers, but also a huge playground to be enjoyed without reserve by sports enthusiasts seeking thrills and extreme challenges.

A young, sporting, welcoming and international destination, Val Thorens will celebrate the 50 years of happiness it has given to its visitors and inhabitants next season (2022-23). Having already maintained close links with Val Thorens for several years, Alpina is celebrating this anniversary a little in advance by becoming the timekeeping partner of the resort in 2022.

Look, it’s time to go!

This year, all the white gold and winter sports enthusiasts will be notified in real time every time it snows thanks to a “Powder Alarm”, redirecting towards a snowcam displaying the time on an Alpina clock - representing the dial of its iconic Alpiner4 Automatic watch - and a Salomon ski measuring how much snow has fallen. Just what’s needed to spur you to get your kit on and get out onto the slopes.

Alpina, Val Thorens and skicross

The story linking Alpina to Val Thorens goes back several years. The French capital of skicross, this discipline whereby four athletes compete against each other on a technical course comprising banked turns, bumps and jumps makes it a spectacular one. Val Thorens traditionally each year hosts two stages of the Skicross World Cup, of which Alpina has been the Official Timekeeper for the past three seasons. And this connection between the Val Thorens Sports Club was created in particular through the Olympic skicross champion (2014) from the resort, Jean-Frédéric Chapuis, who has been a member of the Alpina team of athletes since 2017.

Drawing its inspiration from the mountains since its creation in 1883, Alpina attaches great important to supporting sportspeople as well as the environments in which they express themselves. Since Alpina had already forged a solid relationship with the French skier, its rapprochement to the resort came naturally, resulting in it now becoming the timekeeping partner of Val Thorens for 2022.

Alpiner4 Automatic, the sports watch par excellence

Alpina’s emblem, the Alpiner4 Automatic is the direct descendant of the Alpina 4, the most senior among sports watches. When its designer Gottlieb Hauser - Alpina’s founder - laid down the foundations in 1938, no one suspected that his vision would lead to almost a century of Swiss watchmaking devoted to sport.

Simply put, he identified a must-have that still remains unsurpassable today; a sports watch that had to be anti-magnetic, shock-resistant, water-resistant and rust-resistant.