Christopher Ward - showroom visit

So right off the bat let me say this is a list of things that I am currently very unlikely to buy:

GMTs

Faux-tina lume

Integrated bracelets

Butterfly clasps

Deployant clasps

Novelty watches

Anything over 43mm

Doesn’t mean I can’t admire some of these but in the context of the visit I didn’t want to spend undue time focusing on any of these. And, sadly, that list does scope out (for serious interest from me) quite a lot of CW’s current headline range (e.g. Twelve, Bel Canto, Dune and a lot of GMTs). And I don’t think it would be helpful for me to comment on any of those watches as I wasn’t “hungry” for them.

I was sat with my CW host sharing a table with five full watch boxes and around 50 watches covering much of CW’s current range - and with further watches along a sideboard. Other than 10 variants of the Twelve (colours, straps, etc.) the selection was very broad as there was really only one of each model size, with other colour variants on the sideboard and accessories (straps and bracelets to hand).

After a fair amount of discussion and handling I filtered out the watches pictured here as watches of particular interest. Some of them I wouldn’t buy in their current form (e.g. due to faux-tina lume) but I wanted to record them in case they iterate the model closer to something I would buy. The watches are:

Sealander Elite titanium Elite 1000 42mm C65 Acquitaine C60 Trident Pro 300 40mm (the 38mm is also pictured) C60 Lympstone Royal Marines (PVD stainless steel not titanium) C65 Dune

Overall from handling these particular watches, I was very impressed with the overall quality. The bracelets and finishing were everything you would expect in this price bracket - and indeed upwards. The bezel action on the Pro 300 was sublime while - by comparison - that on the Aquitaine was a tad disappointing, being quite picky. But I do get why CW has a strong and enthusiastic following and receives so many plaudits in this forum.

General impressions on CW from my visit (none of these points are official from CW just my musings):

- CW was chosen as the badge as the name among the founders they felt could/would convey the most trust, etc. and could/would best quickly develop British “heritage” associations 

- the new branding (downplaying the prominence of the full CW name on the dial) has really only come about since CW himself left the business as it would have been a difficult internal discussion prior to that

- the new branding is going well and they are experiencing increased demand as a result of the more neutral branding

- some of their recent models have proved to be more successful than they expected

- so a general uptick in demand and success with new models is good for them as a business but they are working to build out to support and service that growth

- for example, the Bel Canto has been very popular but the mechanism has a high degree of complexity and involves a high level of hand-building and testing by hand and so they have been behind on this particular model. Didn’t seem to be to do with sourcing components much more just order volumes and skilled labour capacity 

- as part of CW’s development they are moving soon from their current and original premises to new premises (still in central Maidenhead)

One point I didn’t manage to bottom out is whether their approach to pricing (retail is three times cost) is with or without a loading for overheads (R&D, advertising, warranty, admin, etc.) and also the VAT position. 

Having felt the quality of the watches and looking at their UK prices … take the C60 Trident Pro 300 40mm that’s £915 on a bracelet so that’s £762.50 exclusive of VAT (sales tax) and 1/3rd of that is around £250. I could dig out their accounts and look at their gross and operating margins for more clues but for a good quality Swiss-made Sellita movement watch and considering CW volumes, I’m guessing there is no overhead loading and 3x production cost seems to hold fairly true. Certainly if there is an overhead loading it can’t be very much and I think it would need to be fairly sizeable to cover the other things involved.

All in all am I a rabid convert? 

I am definitely a convert but so much of their range isn’t for me (faux-tina lume in particular kills off some watch designs I otherwise really like) but I will be an enthusiastic follower of the brand and I hope to acquire my “perfect” CW at some point. I can definitely get why various crunchers have been raving on receiving their Tide Pro 300s recently - if they did it in a 40mm then that might well be the one for me.

Visiting CW was definitely a pleasure and my host was really helpful and enthusiastic both about CW but about watches in general. If you’re wavering on CW because you haven’t handled them and are able to visit then I definitely recommend doing so. The time slots are 45 minutes which I think may be about right especially if you can be pretty focused going in. It was tight for me because I had no real focus at all. The booking form does ask you to specify anything you are particularly interested in and I would encourage you to do this, specifying size, colour ways and straps so as to hopefully be able to see exactly what you want on the day.