The regulator style watch has always struck me as the kind of thing in the watch community that is constantly bubbling up under the surface, with a good deal of support and admiration from a dedicated niche of collectors and enthusiasts, but never truly becoming a full on trend. There has been no spike in regulators the likes of which we?ve seen for mechanical GMTs, for instance. But every so often, a new regulator comes to market that people get genuinely excited about, and a lot of us wonder why these watches aren?t more durably popular beyond their most devoted fans. There?s a lot to like in a regulator – once you get used to the idea of three hands that don?t overlap, there?s a legibility and ease to time telling that is hard to argue with, and the simple fact that it?s a bit unusual and under-the-radar has its own appeal. Today we have news of a new regulator from Alpina, the Alpiner Regulator Automatic, a modern take on a very traditional dial layout. Let?s take a closer look. 
First, a quick refresher on what, exactly, a regulator is. While the vast majority of watches on the market today tell the time using hands mounted from a central position on the dial (with the notable exception of watches which use a small, running seconds subsidiary dial, usually at 6:00), a regulator watch has hours, minutes, and seconds hands mounted separately, often using hands of different lengths. Often the minute hand is mounted at the center of the dial, with the hour...