It’s hard for me to be objective about Canister as a brand and their first offering – the Fieldmaster. But I’ll do my best nonetheless and explain why is that along the way. Canister is the first brand I’ve supported on Kickstarter and the only watch project I rooted for to succeed and see the light of day. The whole process from start to finish felt like a very personal experience.

But let’s start from the beginning – the Canister brand was started by Chris Lewington, an active duty member of the Canadian artillery corps and a keen watch enthusiast, whom I’ve known from the IG watch community. When I learned that he decided to pursue his dream and make a watch to his own liking, I was really thrilled. I was even more thrilled when I saw the first renders of the case design. It looked like the epitome of the phrase “tool watch”, with some familiar design cues, but very original nonetheless. Add that to the great specs, the very honest and down-to-earth brand backstory and the almost too-good-to-be-true price and I was immediately sold. I backed the project and the waiting begun.

Fast forward a year and change ahead and the Canister Fieldmaster canister was delivered to me. No, that wasn’t a typo – the watch was neatly packaged in a nice canvas watch roll (with a couple of extra straps) and safely secured in a cardboard tube – a packaging that would put many much more expensive and bigger brands to shame. The watch also came with a hand-written, personalized thank-you note, which is another thing you won’t be getting with any of the big brands.

So, what’s so great about the Canister Fieldmaster? Well, my favorite has to be the overall attention to detail involved in the design of this watch. I just love how well everything is integrated together – the finely knurled bezel sits completely flush with the case, the crown (with matching knurling) is completely protected by the angled crown guards and the ceramic bezel sits completely flush with the flat sapphire crystal.

I also love how Chris has included subtle nods to his military background in the Canister Fieldmaster – the brand logo is actually the symbol for an artillery vantage point and the caseback is designed to look like the back of an artillery shell casing. The secondary 24-hour scale typically seen on field watches is also replaced with a secondary 60-minute scale which, in combination with the 60-minute bezel, makes timing intervals much easier – something that’s apparently useful in artillery bombardment, but also quite handy for more mundane things, like boiling an egg.

The Fieldmaster departs from the classic field watch aesthetics with quite a few features – the rotating bezel with a lumed pip, the skin-diver case shape, the screw-down crown and the 200m WR – venturing into what’s firmly established as diver territory. But it’s a quite refreshing union of features, joining the best of both worlds into a great all-rounder.

It’s powered by the Miyota 9015 which, even though is not groundbreaking by any means, is certainly a step up from most of the run-of-the-mill microbrands and helps with maintaining a thinner case profile. With a diameter of 41mm and a lug-to-lug of 50, the Fieldmaster is on the larger side – the male links of the bracelet definitely don’t help either. Luckily, the skin-diver case shape makes it wear well on just about any strap and the 20mm lug width is just an added bonus.

From the moment you handle the watch, it’s very clear that it was designed by a true watch aficionado. And when you see the price and what you get for it, immediately becomes apparent that this is a passion project, not a money grab operation. If you’re in need of a go-anywhere-do-anything type of watch – look no further. You’ll be one of the select few owning one, but more importantly – you’ll be supporting the dream of a fellow watch enthusiast.