Why I don’t own a Christopher Ward

Not all of them have that hand. I've got a C65 Trident GMT, and it just has stick hands.

I don’t think you’re crazy. I think design wise there are elements that just don’t do it for me. The logo for example I am not a big fan of. I have also read so not great reviews on their watches in passing when things go south and their customer service being unresponsive.

I like the hr hand, but not the minute hand...+ There are A LOT of choices in this price range and that tends to take me away from CW.

I'm not a fan of odd hand design in general. The Snowflake rules out most Tudors, Omega's arrow minute hand rules out Aqua Terras, I'm just about accepting of the Mercedes hands now, and I don't like these CW big arrows either, though I'm ok with the smaller arrows on Vostok's hour hand.

Bottom line is that if something doesn't sit right with you on the dial before you purchase, you can guarantee that if you buy it that bug is going to be the only thing you see every time you look at it on your wrist.

We buy a lot of art, and we've had to wait for several years to buy works from a couple of artists that we generally love but who put their own idiosyncratic mark somewhere in each work. No point in spending big bucks on something that just isn't right.

Hmmm…all of the GMTs on their website currently have Lance hands as do all of the Trident models. All of the C65s too with the exception of the chronograph and super compressor models. Maybe this is a recent design choice that will change as often as the logo?

They recently switched the C65 to the C60 style handset, so I expect it will stick. It's CW's "thing", alongside the "light catcher" case.

I personally love them, as they are distinctively CW, without being obnoxiously different from "normal" hand sets, like the new Breitling Superocean.

Art is subjective. If you don't like it, don't force it, it's completely okay

I have zero experience with the brand beyond a 10 minute conversation with a guy who was at least my age at the time, dressed like the young clueless intern in my studio with a strange orange hair dye job and CW watch on his right wrist despite the fact that he sipped his coffee with his right hand, his lady friend obviously the reason for his wacky appearance was 30 years his junior( good for him?). He initiated a convo when he noted my Calatrava as being the key reason that he wore a CW that he did not want to be his grandfather. I never knew my grand dad and would have traded my Patek for time with my father’s father if he was 1/4 the guy my dad was!

Trident really isn't my thing either. It has a rich history as a motif on British coinage / other artifacts of state, so if I was British I'd be all over it, but without the nationalistic sense of attachment it's quite distracting. (I also get pretty annoyed by the glyph that Ball uses.)

It's a combination for me really, and I did consider getting a C60 Trident sapphire, so I'm not an anti CW guy.

The first think that I don't like is the second's hand with its pointy trident counter weight. I can understand its presence on all their "Trident" models, but sticking it on other models, like they did on the Sealander, has no valid reasons, unless CW wants to rebrand itself into the Trident watch company.

The second thing that I don't like are the choice of hands and indices, or to be more specific - the complete lack of harmony that came with mixing completely different hands and indices. This become very obvious to me once the Sealander GMT is compared to the Aquitaine GMT. The Sealander GMT is a mess. Every hand has a different style and none of them really match the dial. The Aquitaine GMT introduced ONE single little change and this was matching the style of the lume pip on the second's hand to the indices, and the result is a much more elegant and pleasing dial.

Whilst I can't say I love the Trident counter balance on the second hands, I got over the ever changing logo and was happy to settle on the abstract twin flag over the actual name on the dial face.

I think what drew my to the Trident was the fact I wanted a white dial diver, that had a super clean and legible dial I could read (which this does very well in both bright and low light).

The bezel I was meh and I think it worked better on a the black dial version but I don't mind the hour hands.

I think everyone has a preference to what they want to see in a watch. And for some this will be jarring, but there's plenty of other CW options.

The reaction of a non-watch person: my wife hated the CW C63 36mm Acer red dial when she saw it (even more than the Sinn 104 black dial with a “big ugly bezel”).

She said it looked “cheap and nasty”. Sadly that doesn’t mean she’s up for me buying something “expensive and luxurious”!

I sold both.

I really admire the CW’s on the whole, and a couple of the bronze watches have really got under my skin but there is something in the design language that just doesn’t click with me and I really can’t put my finger on it. I suspect I will own one at some point but it will most likely be because I find one super cheap on eBay.

They have a 60 day returns policy. Buy one and have a play. They are really nice in the hand. I would say that their finishing out classes their movements. Maybe wait to see what they put the SH21 v2 in. Also, I’d buy on a strap, their bracelet adjustment system is very stiff.

Like an earlier post, you like em or you don’t were all human

I love mine had it 9 years this year and it’s been faultless, I love my trident second hand

I gave my CW to my son. I am just glad he took his name off of ther face of the watch...JMO

Totally agree the name on the watch was even worse.

Probably, mine is a few years old.

I do not get why so many people seem to dislike the CW name on the dial. Vacheron Constantin, Breguet, Patek Philippe, A. Lange…they don’t get this…Anyhow, I don’t mind it at all (as long as it isn’t at nine o’clock :) I do get the dislike for the logo though…weird 80’s computer graphic.

As to the hands: the lance hour hand is indeed perhaps not the best choice. I’m biased towards simple sticks/slim obelisks myself. But it does give the watch a bit more ‘sportiness’ than it otherwise would have. I don’t mind the trident counterbalance for the seconds hand at all, but not a fan of the arrowhead (should be reserved for date pointer or GMT). Minute hand is fine. So overall, I’d score the hands 7/10. Not great, but not enough of a distractor if other elements score high enough.

I own the C63 GMT and the green ombré dial, nice bezel, camel strap, build quality and good looking minute, seconds and GMT hands more than outweigh the slightly odd lance hour hand for me.

The Alpha hands of the Aquis seem so much better with similar indices. I guess that’s one of the reasons I purchased it over a CW?

Or maybe I’m nuts😉

Not at all you like what you like!

I'm with you too. There's just something generic about their current mainstream models. And adding import duties to watches that are not inexpensive for what they are (mostly commonplace SW-200 movements) makes them largely unappealing to me. YMMV.

Ibused to think exactly the same, but that feeling went away as I realized how good these watches are