Advertisement 1

What's old is new again in fashion and furniture

Article content

More than a century ago, tonnes of coal rode their way out of the southern Alberta Galt mines on thin ribbons of steel. Long since abandoned, the British-built Canadian Pacific Railway tracks have found a new, and timeless, life in nearby Lethbridge.

The historic steel is being repurposed into one-of-a-kind timepieces. 

“This steel was a piece of history, used to build an entire economy for a city,” says Steve Christensen, owner of Novo Watch, a high-end watch company in Lethbridge. “We thought, ‘wouldn’t it be cool if we could turn it into something else?’”

Advertisement 2
Story continues below
Article content
Article content

This fall, he launched The Coalbanks – Dowlais 1884, a limited-edition series of 15 watches. They retail for $3,250 apiece and are made locally from reclaimed steel sourced from the Galt No. 8 mine in southern Alberta.

While Christensen, has been in the watch business for six years, these are his first handmade ones and the first to celebrate an iconic part of early Canadian life — the railway and mining.

Many of his watches are made in China, where he can control the costs yet still bring his designs to life. (Those watches retail for about $200, depending on the chosen model.) But this past year, Christensen, 34, decided to make his newest watches here, in Canada.

“I was thinking, ‘Wouldn’t it be cool if we handmade these things in Canada?” he says.

And, he thought, it would be even better if he could assemble the watches by hand and make each one from repurposed materials, materials with historical significance for Canadians.

With that in mind, he gained access to the railroad track from the Galt mine. It had been manufactured by Dowlais Ironworks in Great Britain in 1884 and shipped to Canada. But after the mine closed in 1957, the track sat abandoned until Christensen found a way to give it a new life. 

It takes Christensen’s team — a blacksmith, machinist and leather worker — about four to six weeks to build each Coalbanks – Dowlais watch. It’s a six-step process, from sourcing and forging a section of 133-year-old steel, to machining, leatherworking and careful assembly. Each watch must be manually wound and comes with a two-year guarantee. The final step for each Dowlais 1884 is creating its unique packaging. Christensen’s crew hunts down old prairie buildings and repurposes the aging barnwood into custom boxes. 

Article content
Advertisement 3
Story continues below
Article content
We apologize, but this video has failed to load.
Try refreshing your browser, or
tap here to see other videos from our team.

“Usually there’s a story behind a watch: People tell you, ‘I got this for graduation or when I retired, or whatever,’” Christensen says. The Coalbanks – Dowlais watches, he notes, add another level to the storytelling behind a timepiece.

And, down the road, Christensen plans to add more, all made from repurposed, historically significant steel. “This has been one of the most fun jobs ever,” he says. “We have so many ideas.”

The initial idea to create a watch company began ticking for Christensen in 2011, when he won some money at a summer job. He was already known for his vast watch collection, and his co-workers assumed he would spend the extra cash on a new timepiece for his collection.

“I wanted something new and different, but nothing really spoke to me,” he says. “And I thought, well, maybe I could make one.”

He started by sketching some designs. Then he took a course from a watchmaker in Switzerland, who taught him a few essentials. “By the end, I knew the basics of how to design and assemble one,” Christensen says.

Novo Watch was born. “Novo means new in Russian,” he says, a nod to two years that he spent working in Siberia a few years ago.

Advertisement 4
Story continues below
Article content

“We wanted to approach time in a new way.”

Find out more at novowatch.com.

SIDEBAR:

Watches aren’t the only artisan goods being created out of repurposed items in Alberta. Here are four more interesting Albertans creating cool stuff:

Adrian Martinus Custom Woodworking creates furniture and household goods out of recycled wood like old skateboards and barn boards.
Adrian Martinus Custom Woodworking creates furniture and household goods out of recycled wood like old skateboards and barn boards. Photo by JAMEEL AZIZ /Calgary Herald

1. Adrian Martinus Custom Woodworking is a Calgary company that turns old skateboards into furniture, bowls, crib boards, knife blocks, rolling pins and more. The Pool brothers, who grew up on an acreage outside Red Deer, turn rescued and reclaimed wood — such as old gym floors or barn boards — into unique, useful and visually creative objects. adrianmartinus.com

2. At Piece on Peace: A Sustainable Boutique (#5 Spruce Centre S.W.), you’ll find beautiful one-of-a-kind dresses, coats and blouses made locally from vintage fabric sourced around the world. (Piece on Piece also carries select Adrian Martinus pieces.) pieceonpeace.com

Micron lamp created in the “steampunk” style. Courtesy Cory Barkman
Micron lamp created in the “steampunk” style. Courtesy Cory Barkman Photo by Courtesy Cory Barkman /Calgary Herald

3. Love steampunk? Then check out award-winning industrial artist Cory Barkman’s work. He fabricates his own parts as well as using re-purposed components and reclaimed wood and turns it into award-winning, functional art. His furniture and light fixtures defy ordinary descriptions with some looking like they’d be at home on the set of a sci-fi film. corybarkman.com 

4. Inherited your mom’s circa-1970s bracelet or diamond ring, but it’s not your style? Troy Shoppe Jewellers can repurpose your vintage gold and gems, turning them into something fresh and modern. troyshoppejewellers.com

Article content
Comments
You must be logged in to join the discussion or read more comments.
Join the Conversation

Postmedia is committed to maintaining a lively but civil forum for discussion. Please keep comments relevant and respectful. Comments may take up to an hour to appear on the site. You will receive an email if there is a reply to your comment, an update to a thread you follow or if a user you follow comments. Visit our Community Guidelines for more information.

Latest National Stories
    This Week in Flyers