"The tools we use, shape our experience of the world."
The ALPA 12 System. Engineered to inspire.
The alpa DNA
Long before ALPA
became a name known
to photographers, its
origins lay in the precise,
silent world of Swiss
watchmaking
Founded in 1918 in Ballaigues, Pignons SA built its reputation as a master supplier of micromechanical parts for Swiss watchmaking. As the parent company of ALPA, Pignons carried its expertise in precision mechanics into a new realm when the Great Depression forced diversification. Cameras, with their finely tuned shutters, were a natural step: watches measure time, cameras preserve it.
Pignons commissioned engineer Jacques Bolsey, creator of the legendary Bolex film camera, to design a still camera. The foundation of the ALPA Reflex. In 1946, ALPA was registered as a trademark, marking the beginning of a new chapter.
From the outset, ALPA cameras stood apart: assembled like timepieces, built for durability and clarity. Devoted to refinement and excellence, ALPA continues to embody the same watchmaker’s mindset today: precision not as a claim, but as a standard.
To frame with ALPA is to define what matters. It is to slow down, to choose with clarity, and to give form to meaning rather than noise. This act of framing is both mechanical and creative, a union of precision and perception.
What moves us at ALPA is the belief that true tools shape not only images but also awareness. With every frame you make, ALPA invites you to see the world differently and to leave behind something that lasts.
AlMgSi AW-6082
It may look like a code, but for ALPA it is the beginning of every camera body: an aerospace-grade aluminum alloy, chosen for its strength, corrosion resistance and anodizing properties. From a solid block, our frames are milled with watchmaker’s precision, then finished by hand.
Around this core, we add only what meets our uncompromising standards. Woods selected for their warmth and character, leathers treated to reveal their natural grain, metals that age with dignity. Every material is authentic, every detail deliberate.
To hold an ALPA is to feel the sum of these choices. Nothing superficial, nothing simulated. Only the honesty of pure materials shaped by skilled specialists into instruments that endure.
Überlandstrasse 241
8600 Dübendorf
Switzerland
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PRECISION MEASURED IN MICRONS. PASSION MEASURED IN DECADES