Question about Christopher Ward SH21 movement
First off, I have to say I don't know a lot about Christopher Ward, but I have been following their recent releases and agree they make a good product. Saw the new release today and noticed it's using the in-house SH21. Seems to be a good movement from various reviews I've read so far. But it looks like nothing else in the current catalog besides the new Twelve X is using it? And looking back it seems to be sparsely used over the last 10 years? Can anyone shed some light on this for me? Seems odd. Cheers.
Edit: Yes I have way too much time on my hands. I used the Christopher Ward database and pulled out all the watches that used the movement:
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Chris
New watch enthusiast.
Pennsylvania, USA
Member since
Last active: 4 min ago
7.25” / 18.42 cm
Shed some light in what matter?
It's their "show off" movement. The SH in the name are initials of some individual who designed it, don't remember the name, I guess it's easily googlable. The highlight is the huge power reserve and the design is made to be easily skeletonized, or rather designed to be good looking skeletonized.
Shed some light in what matter?
It's their "show off" movement. The SH in the name are initials of some individual who designed it, don't remember the name, I guess it's easily googlable. The highlight is the huge power reserve and the design is made to be easily skeletonized, or rather designed to be good looking skeletonized.
Just thought there might be some information as to why it hasn't been used more, since it's been available for 10 years. Looks like it's a pretty decent movement and for it not to have been used in the existing catalog until the new Twelve X seems odd to me.
Just thought there might be some information as to why it hasn't been used more, since it's been available for 10 years. Looks like it's a pretty decent movement and for it not to have been used in the existing catalog until the new Twelve X seems odd to me.
I guess it's very expensive to manufacture and CWs goal is not to have a catalogue full of 5000€ watches, they know that their name is not big enough yet to pull it off. their main sellers are sub 1500€ ~2000€ models.
Also, they can't dilute the exclusivity of the movement by making it too common, too affordable.
Also, their manufacturers may be too busy with Bel Canto orders and they couldn't supply a steam of two different high end movements. That might've changed recently.
There are no official information, so we are left to speculate like this.
I guess it's very expensive to manufacture and CWs goal is not to have a catalogue full of 5000€ watches, they know that their name is not big enough yet to pull it off. their main sellers are sub 1500€ ~2000€ models.
Also, they can't dilute the exclusivity of the movement by making it too common, too affordable.
Also, their manufacturers may be too busy with Bel Canto orders and they couldn't supply a steam of two different high end movements. That might've changed recently.
There are no official information, so we are left to speculate like this.
I definitely think they consider it higher end, but I don't think to that extent. Take a look at this video which specially talks about it in 3 previous models (C1 Morgan Aero 8, C1 Small Seconds, and C8 Power Reserve).
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qA6B0S2YQus
The video is 4 years old but he is talking about the retail price points, and they all seemed to be in the $2000-$2500 range. So this predates the Bel Canto by more than 2 years, and again, the movement has been around since 2014. I'm sure there is more to their strategy on this, just not sure what it is.