Christopher Ward - why the hype?

Value for money, good build quality, attractive designs.

Quality,price. British 🇬🇧

The current line of CW is excellent IMO. Great looking watches at an honest price. Build seems as good as any at their price point. I have a C63 and it's running at 1 second a day slow. Can't beat that for under £700.

And I’d say designs that both nod at mainstream design values while also doing their own thing. Notably, they aren’t afraid of innovation at the movement level and have managed to produce some pieces at an attainable price point that are practically unheard of below tens of thousands of dollars such as the Bel Canto and large aventurine Moonphases. This unsurprisingly seems to be a micro that even collectors with heavy hitters pay attention to as an industry changer . . . Their awards and accolades def seem deserved.

I don’t even own one btw so have no skin in the game here, but I respect what they are doing.

Very good quality for price. In my opinion all of CW new divers are getting better with each release (nice design & specs). 🍻

Swiss movements. Largely British everything else. Quality. Value for money. Innovation more recently. Endless reviewers singing their praises.

But forgetting all that when you examine one in the metal you get a hell of a lot for the money.

My only issue is the factc I don't yet own one and keep changing my mind on the one I'm going to buy!

They seem to have good specs, design, and finishing for the money; however, in the long run I don’t seem them holding up and I think on resale a lot of people are going to be hurting. Hope I am wrong as I like to see people sucseed but a lot of these micro brands are going to be here today and gone tomorrow.

If CW's designs don't appeal to you, no amount of "They're great because..." arguments will ever sway you.

And that's fine.

im with you, i always find their dial proportion is too big for my taste. im not hating them but the proportion isnt just for me, im sure their built quality is great

A few things I think make CW popular. One, they have their own design language so they don't look like an homage brand. Two, they're large enough to be considered an independent brand vice a microbrand. Three, they offer excellent build quality for the money. Four, the customer service is good. And finally, they are making interesting watches (The Twelve, the Bel Canto, the Moonphase).

I've owned two CW's. The first, the C63 Sealander GMT, white dial. Beautiful watch. Alas, the GMT hand was misaligned (when the hour hand was on the hour, the GMT hand was not in synch, reading either 30 minutes behind or ahead). I returned it for a refund with no questions asked.

A short while later I purchased the black dial C63 Sealander 36mm on eBay, aka the C36. A perfect GADA watch.

What's interesting is to look at how their styling and watches have changed. There is a progression (improvement) with CW that I don't know if any other smaller brand can match. I have gone from "no" to "maybe" in the last five years.

CW Twelve line created the hype just like prx created hype for tissot as they are"easy" to like watches but that doesn't mean those brands don't deserve praise for bang for buck.

I bought a C65 Dartmouth on sale but I wasnt sure I'd like it. Now it's my favorite watch, partly because the quality is miles ahead of my seiko alpinist ginza. They sell really good and well designed products at really competitive prices

Sealand is such a nice model. I want the GMT. Value for the dollar with CW is big with CW.

I'm debating purchasing it again, but this time in the Hunter Green dial.

I have been following CW for over 10 years now and even have a C10 from 2014 which I still wear often. The price point is very good and the designs have evolved very well over the years too. Not a fan of the new logo but that’s a minor point

No you're not, you're selling them all off according to YouTube.

I'm definitely not a fan.

But I can see the appeal - They are homage watches of established designs from Rolex, Tudor, Blancpain, Tag, even Doxa, generally for a considerable price undercut.

Being based in Britain, and using Fossil's old "Swiss" Manufacturer, they've pushed hard in their marketing to be accepted as a more legitimate option than other homage / budget micro-brands out there. It has worked, it seems.

The direct to consumer approach certainly will give them a little more room to keep budgets down, but copying others' hard work is likely also an easy way to save some cash and tap into popular designs without the risk of creating something fresh themselves.

This approach has enabled them to grow and mature and create designs of their own (Belcanto) - which, to me, is more interesting than an Explorer or Blackbay knock-off. But their blatant copies taint the water, and they'll always be a brand who used other's designs for their own benefit, in my book.

Besides my 3 Rolex and my Panerai, but I might keep my omega as well

I presently own four, and have owned many others in the past. The overall quality and specification surpasses anything else at the price.

That's complete rubbish. They are NOT a homage brand at all.

My mistake. People like them because they are entirely unique British Designed watches..

#coincidence..

Most of those watches look nothing like each other, and a few have a very vague resemblance. Perhaps if a watch has three hands and twelve indices they must be a homage.

Yay! Sounds terrific, beautiful and great quality. I'm glad she liked it! 👍

And their all round…..

I just purchased a C63 Sealander in hunter green for my first higher end watch. I am loving it so far and feel that the value for money is great. While I don’t have a lot of experience in watch finishing etc, I feel that the quality is great! This is really my one watch collection right now and is a great GADA watch. I have a few bands for it which allows me to wear it for any situation. And as everyone has already said, you can’t really beat the value for the money.

I bagged a C60 sapphire for a great price, still not cheap, my first CW and its a beautiful looking thing. I wont go into a long drawn out desrciption but mine and many of their range have an interesting balance between rugged tool watch and smart almost dress watch refinement. I will just mention the case, their “light catcher” cases are gorgeous and look amazing from all angles.

Very hard to find a watch that matches the quality for the price and also includes designs that won't age poorly.

I was beginning to think maybe I was crazy. Was I the only one seeing these uncanny resemblances!? Am I that much of a troglodyte that anything vaguely circular with three hands appears to be a homage to me!? Have I been erroneously writing off CW?

But yesterday, Adrian Barker weighed in on the topic (granted, he likes the homage and had nothing bad to say about them):

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YSclsjgdU3o

And then I noticed that CW themselves acknowledge their C63 is an homage to a 'classic...explorer':

So now I am feeling slightly better about my assessment; they certainly are making homages. They're not bad homages and they're probably reasonable quality for the price.

Nothing like each other really