You must know how much we love watches at New Labels Only! Last time we blogged about the latest watch brand was the AVI-8 Lafayette Flyboy and since then we have received another two AVI-8 watches to review and we have done an unboxing video if you missed it!

But now are off to Canada! We have never had the chance blog about the latest brands from that part of the world but now we can, with Alberta Watches! This watch is unisex, so ladies, this time you will not be left out.

Alberta Watch, the beginning?

I know this is a watch brand which many of you may not have heard before but this is what we do at New Labels Only, making new labels known, that’s our slogan!

As mentioned before, they are a Canadian watch brand and was founded in 2015 by Leo. Leo wanted a watch where it can be worn for rugged and outdoor activities yet still stylish to impress with smart outfits. Watches like these are plenty but the price range for these are crazy to say the least.

Being a professional designer, he went on a year-long journey to design and create the perfect everyday watch which is rugged enough to wear outside, and stylish enough to impress however with als an affordable price. This is where Alberta Watches was born!

Leo launched Alberta Watches first on Kickstarter with the aim of raising $16,000 CA to help him launch the watch, but he smashed his funding target and raised $53,616 CA. The demand for the watch was ridiculous and you can see why!

With many watch brands upmarking their prices by 8 to 10 times their value, Leo made sure that the prices of Alberta Watches is affordable to everyone and 521 people backed the campaign.

Why call it Alberta Watches?

We have never been to Alberta, Canada but we are pretty sure it is absolutely gorgeous, google images can confirm that!

The reason for the name is because the inspiration behind the watch comes from the Alberta. With its astonishing mountains, tranquil lakes and breathtaking rivers, each aspect of Alberta Watches from its choice of colour to the choice of strap and to its construction, Alberta Watches takes its cues from that rugged nature.

The Three Design Goals

When designing the watch, Leo wanted it to be stylish, affordable and rugged. We are going to go one by one and see if Leo has been able to meet these goals.

Stylish

For sure we can say that this goal has definitely been met. From the pictures you can see that these watches are definitely stylish for any special occasion. The watch dial do come in three colours, with Slate grey, Racing green and Midnight blue, so you have a range of colours to choose from.

Affordable

When the Kickstarter campaign launched the early bird offers were going for $59 CAD or $49 which is pretty affordable. However now the cheapest watch from the collection cost $135 CAD which is approximately $100 or £95. This does look very affordable because the amount of features in this watch is truly something, we’ll show you in a second!

Rugged

Along with being affordable, they are definitely rugged. Each watch has a 2 year warranty and has been built to stand up to anything you throw at it.

What do you get from an Alberta Watch?

Going back on the affordability, all of Alberta Watches come with these features below and that is why we said that this watch is definitely affordable and worth the money!

The Strap

Along with these features above, all the straps are genuine leather. However there is also another special strap. It is called the Saddlemaker strap. This strap has been made in collaboration with master Saddlemaker in Alberta with over 30 years of leather crafting experience, Robert Nurse.

Using the best hides available from Horween Tannery, producing a leather of almost legendary quality since 1905, the leather is tanned twice. Once to achieve suppleness, and once for durability. On top of that the strap is handstitched by Robert Nurse. The Saddlemaker strap comes in two colours, dark brown and chestnut.

What do we think?

We were lucky to be given an Alberta Watch, the Midnight Blue with Chestnut Saddlemaker to be precise.

We tested it for one week and we love it!

The strap was very, very comfortable and very soft around the wrist. We took the watch for some outdoor activities and did pretty well. The large 41mm dial was perfect and we did not have any problem seeing the time when running.

The Japanese Quartz movement did not lag and was on point while the 50M water-resistant held up. We only went up to 7M under water though.

Overall, the watch did pretty well and went well with both outdoor activities and for business purposes.

One issue which we had with the watch was we did not know how to change the strap. Even with the necessary tool, it was difficult, but that is only a minor problem.

We would definitely recommend the Alberta Watch and do visit www.albertawatches.com to see their full watch collection.

We have also done an unboxing video, do watch it below:

We have come at the end of our post and we hope you’ve enjoyed reading our post. Before we leave, we would love to know your thoughts on the Alberta Watches, do let us know in the comment below!

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