Some archery photos

As promised here are some photos of my shooting/competing days…

This first photo is in Havana, Cuba where my team mates and I won the silver medal in the men’s Olympic competition.  We lost a close one to Argentina in the gold medal match, after defeating some other teams in the early rounds (including the #1 ranked US team).  I am on the right of our group as noted with the blue arrow.

This is me shooting in that team event…

Next an event in Venezuela in 2001….our team in the opening ceremonies.

I’m at the back in this one….

Me shooting…with a team mate to my left.

And the three of us shooting in the team round at this event – we won the bronze here in a strong field of countries.

I am on the right waiting my turn to shoot, while another team member is shooting, and the other is spotting the arrows – we shoot at 70 metres in this event so it’s hard to see where your arrows are hitting the target. 

This next one is me shooting at the Canadian Championships in the gold medla match.  It was the end of July, but only 7 degrees C out and it was COLD!  I think I had 7 layers on my upper body, from tee shirts to sweaters to thermal shirts….and a biking shirt on top (one layer was a garbage bag to keep the rain out).  I won this event so despite the weather it was a good day.  🙂

And here I am at the athlete entrance to the US Olympic Training Center in Chula Vista, CA when I was there for a week of training.

And this is me shooting there.

It was a great week of training, but unfortunately it was shortly after this that my shoulder started giving me a lot of problems, and this lead to shoulder surgery in 2004.  The surgery helped but in the end it wasn’t enough to allow me to continue competing at this level.

Anyway, I hope you enjoyed the photos!

http://www.archerwatches.ca/

Cheers, Al

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Some of my watches

Today I wanted to show a couple of the watches that I have been making.  The first is called the Archer Aero.  This is a watch styled after the WW2 German pilot watches, and is my most popular model to date. 

It is housed in a 42mm stainless steel case, with sapphire crystals front and back.  The front crystal has anti-reflective coatings on the inside and outside of the crystal.  The watch houses an ETA 6497 movement.  The watch is wound using the large flieger crown.  Here is a photo of one on a black Jurgens pilot strap.

Here is a shot of the lume on this watch – it glows very brightly in the dark!

All watches are tested for water resistance to 7.5 ATM…

The second watch is called the Archer Executive – this is the “Silver Edition” with silver spade hands set on an enamel lacquer dial complete with Roman numerals.  This watch uses the ETA 6498 movement.  Again the case is 42 mm so this is an ideal dress watch for those who prefer larger watches.

For more information on this or any model, please email me at:

archer.watches(at)sympatico.ca

http://www.archerwatches.ca/

Cheers, Al

Some History

The name “Archer Watches” comes from the sport that I have loved for over 30 years – archery.  I’ve had 2 archery “careers” in my life, the first starting at the age of 12 when I stumbled upon a demonstration by the local archery club.  It was love at first sight, and that lead to 8 years of shooting and competing, mainly in the junior ranks.  I was successful locally and provincially, and in 1981 won my first national championship.  I won 2 (indoor and outdoor) in 1982.

I gave the sport up as I moved on from high school and continued my education, but the second archery career was to come.  It all started as I watched the 1996 Olympic Games in Atlanta, and although I didn’t see any archery on TV (not exactly a TV friendly sport) I began to wonder…”was I good enough?”  I was presented with a choice – don’t take up the sport again and always wonder, or give it a shot and work at it even though there was a risk of not making it.  I decided I needed to try – not knowing was just not an option.

I started in earnest in 1997 when the coach of the Canada’s Olympic team at the Atlanta Games agreed to be my personal coach.  She worked with me a lot and I had some struggles early on, but then things started to take off.  By 1999 I was able to win the men’s Canadian Target Archery Championship.  Over the next few years I did a lot of travelling and shooting, and had some wonderful experiences competing internationally.  I never did make the Olympic team, but I would not trade the experiences I had for anything.

I had to give the Olympic style shooting up recently since I have a type of arthritis that makes the training schedule required to shoot an the level I once did quite impossible to keep.  My focus has shifted to watches and this is another all-consuming passion in my life.

I will post some photos of my archery days in the next while, so stay tuned!

http://www.archerwatches.ca/

Cheers, Al

Welcome!

Welcome to the Archer Watches blog.  Here you will find information on me (Al) and the watches I make.

Hope you enjoy the site!

http://www.archerwatches.ca/

Cheers, Al