This week, I am absolutely stoked to be introducing the Alf Watch Company a newcomer to the increasingly crowded microbrand scene. They will be launching their debut model, the Norrsken, on Kickstarter at the end of the month (tentative date is 30 April).

Early bird pricing will be $299 USD, or ~ S$395.

From time to time, I keep tabs with upcoming Kickstarter watch campaigns and sift through the noise to introduce microbrands whom I personally feel bring something new to the table at a great price. Previously, I’ve introduced Schaffen, Horae, Arcturus, and Humism – joining these Singaporean Kickstarter projects to be featured here will be Alf Watch Company, all the way from Sweden!

At Wahsoshiok, I usually focus on local watch efforts but when I saw Samuel Pettersson (founder of Alf Watch Company) share photos of his prototypes on watch groups, I got a horological erection. In my personal opinion, the Norrsken is sexy as hell. When I heard about the $299 USD pricing, I was stunned. For S$395, I think that this is one of the best dress watches in the price range.

Alf Watch Company – the Kickstarter

The Norrsken comes in 3 colorways (White, Blue, Black), of which the white is my personal favourite.

The white is my pick out of the bunch. This version doesn’t have lume on the indices, only the hands – though it is billed as a dress watch, so it is an non-issue to me.

Alf Watch Company’s mission is to “…bring new original designs to the watch industry at an affordable price point.” I certainly think that the design of the Norrsken (swedish for the Northern Lights) stands out from the rest of its Kickstarter watch brethren. While square watches are becoming increasingly common, square dress watches still aren’t. On the luxury end, there’s the Santos – but in the microbrand world, to my knowledge there really isn’t an affordable square dress watch available.

The Norrsken in blue, with matte steel finished case and cut out indices with Super-Luminova BG-W9 lume.

i find the dial absolutely alluring. If you have read my previous review articles, you would know that I like my watches to have depth and texture contrast in spades – and visually, the Norrsken seem to have it. The minute pad is on a raised track around the dial and the sandwich dial provides further depth. The bottom layer of the dial has a striped texture to it, while I love the off-centre sub-seconds dial with the vintage railway pad markers. It’s a dial that looks clean, and yet still chock-full of details and contrasts – just the way I love my watches to be!

The depth and texture contrast extends to the case as well!

One thing I must highlight are the case-sides. Few microbrands do much, if anything at all, to “zhng” the case – by having cutouts on the case-side, it gives the case a raw metal feel – almost reminiscent of the Vikings, which I love! The embossed crown looks very nicely signed as well, with a mixture of depth, texture and shapes. Visually, it’s one of the most striking and unique crowns I’ve seen. The Alf logo looks strikingly Nordic as well – it evokes deer horns to me! This is not something that I comment on often (or at all actually), but I also think that the logo is very interestingly stylized.

The Norrsken in Black, finished in a Semi-matte DLC plating. Similar to the blue variant, there’s lume on the cut out indices and hands.

Even though it’s affordably priced, the Norrsken packs both style AND substance. For $299 USD, you get 316L stainless steel, sapphire crystal with AR coating, an automatic Miyota 8245 movement, and a higher than average (for dress watches) 5ATM WR rating. The diameter of the watch is 40mm, which in my opinion is the perfect size for dress watches. If I had a knock though, it would be the thickness – at 11.6mm, I personally think it’s a little too thick to slide comfortably under a shirt cuff.

Conclusion – An absolute steal.

I think the Norrsken is absolutely gorgeous. The design is different, but in a classic, minimalist manner – not in garnish colorways or overcomplicated designs which seems to be the direction most Kickstarter watch projects are gearing towards today. I can tell that Samuel has put great thought into the design of the watch, and I applaud him for creating a simple, but interesting, watch.

The full range of the Norrsken. I have a feeling that the early bird pricing of $299 USD will be grabbed up fast – may the quickest fingers win!

As aforementioned, Alf Watch Company are planning to launch their debut collection on Kickstarter at the end of the month (30 April). For the early bird asking price of $299 USD (~S$395), I believe that the Norrsken is a steal. You are getting a watch with a quintessentially Scandinavian design, but with strong specifications to back up the style. I truly believe that the Norrsken offers great bang-for-buck, and should set a concrete foundation for Samuel and Alf Watch Company to develop further designs. Hopefully Samuel will send me a Norrsken to review soon – can’t wait to get my hands on this gorgeous beauty!

Specifications:

Case: 40 x 40 mm 316L Surgical Steel Case

Dial: Sandwich Dial

Movement: Automatic Miyota Cal.8245

Crystal: AR Coated Sapphire Crystal

Lume: Superluminova BGW9

Crown: Logo Engraved Crown

Strap: Tapered Genuine Leather Strap

Box: Leather Box

P.S Do check out the new “Discounts!” page for exclusive discounts for Wahsoshiok readers! More brands will be added very soon – stay tuned!

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Photo Credits:

Alf Watch Company

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