C65 Aquitaine GMT - long term review

Love at first sight in the digital world is a far different experience from the good old analog days, when key ingredients for a sparkling love affair were physical proximity and immediate interaction. Yet, our own evolution, which is happening at a much slower pace than technological advancements, ensures that our emotions stay pretty much the same in both worlds that we now live in.

Sweet longing that doesn't leave for days, that makes us itch inside until the trigger is pulled and the buy button is finally pressed in hope of much-desired peace. The relief is instant and serves as a quick fix to our addiction, yet it is gone as quickly as it came. Being replaced by the anxiety of a first encounter in the flesh, by the fear of possible disappointment.

Although similarities with the modern dating world are so vivid, this is a story about a different type of love affair known to a very specific kind of people, watch lovers.

When London is not around the corner, the only way to start an affair with watches from Christopher Ward is their web shop beautified with the high quality photos difficult to resist. The generous 5-year warranty and free return up to 60 days offers a painless exit strategy, which certainly makes the purchasing decision of a luxury product a bit less of a risky proposition than finding a life partner on the Internet.

By selling their watches exclusively online for almost 20 years, Christopher Ward brought to the market a different business model which focuses on the quality of the products rather than on expanding the physical stores network. If one chooses to believe in the marketing, this approach should provide us, the watch enthusiasts, with far more accessible models which are fairly priced at the quality level of the traditional premium brands.

The Aquitaine C65 GMT is the first Christopher Ward in my collection and after a year on my wrist I am happy to report that in this case marketing is not just empty talk. Like with every love experience, certain disappointments are to be expected in long term relationships, which also happens to be the case with this romance.

All in all, this is a story with the perfect beginning, long honeymoon, some disappointments, final redemption and a happy end.

The first positive experience was the purchase itself, or to be more precise, the ultra fast delivery. It took less than 48 hours from placing the order to receiving the watch in Austria where I live.

From all the watches in my collection, the Aquitaine has spent the most time on my wrist. I really enjoyed the wearability of this piece since its case shape and dimensions fit perfectly to my 17 cm wrist. The watch is very comfortable especially on the stainless steel bracelet that has a very good micro-adjustment. During the summer months I was wearing a blue rubber strap bought on Amazon.

Despite intensive use through my rather active lifestyle, this watch has negligible signs of wear. Mostly on the rather large deployant clasp, which is very sensitive to desk diving and gets quite easily scratched. The case itself is without any scratches which is very surprising, typically the case is first on the hit list. The same goes for the sapphire bezel still in perfect condition, which is expected, and certainly testifies to the high quality of this watch.

The fine feeling of luxury of this sports watch continues on the dial which comes in the color of white sand, especially when the light hits the polished edges of the applied indices. They are filled with Super-LumiNova, and the same goes for the Marine Blue ceramic bezel, which makes this watch very usable in low-light conditions.

There is not much text on the dial itself, yet the print is very sharp, including the date at the 6 o'clock position, which is absolutely perfect. The only thing that differs a little from the high standard is the logo, which seems a bit one-dimensional, without depth and rather basic. The execution of the logo disrupts the atmosphere of harmony and luxury of the entire package. The new applied logo which could be seen on the latest releases from Christopher Ward would be a much better fit here.

The white sand dial has a lot of character and emphasizes the retro feel of this watch. This color is much more visually attractive than the black version (called Orca Black). Yet contrast and legibility is not the best, especially in bright light, so a quick glance is usually not enough to read the time on this dial, until the sunlight hits the polished hands. In this sense the Orca Black would be a more practical choice for daily use, although it looks a bit “pale” in comparison.

The watch's characteristic hands, with a lollipop seconds hand, are complemented by the blue GMT hand in the same color as the 24 hours bezel. The so-called Office GMT, which, as the name suggests, is a very useful feature in the business environment because it enables tracking of an additional time zone via the GMT hand which can be adjusted independently from the hour hand.

Since this was my first GMT watch, I was very interested in this feature initially, but have not been using it very often. A few months later I added the Seiko Presage to my collection, which comes with the Traveler's GMT mechanism. This variant is much more interesting since it allows the hour hand to be adjusted to local time of your traveling destination without stopping the movement. In this case the GMT hand points to your home time.

If you have a dilemma about the GMT complication, my advice is to save money and choose the automatic model without GMT (C65 Aquitaine Automatic). The only variant available with the COSC certified movement comes in Bronze (C65 Aquitaine Bronze COSC), so if you don’t mind the material this is probably the best option due to its superior mechanism.

Which brings us to the biggest disappointment I experienced with this watch - the accuracy of the Sellita SW330-2 movement. According to the specifications it is a solid and relatively new movement, it ticks at 4Hz, with GMT complication and 56 hours of power reserve. The most surprising spec is the tolerance of +-20 seconds per day. This rather wide tolerance is the weakest point of this mechanism on paper and unfortunately turned out to be very accurate information in real life usage. My watch is running fast +17 seconds per day on average, which is on the higher end of the tolerance. It would be interesting to hear experiences of other owners, so please leave your impressions in the comments below.

Although formally the mechanism is within the limits of tolerance, and is not subject to being repaired under the warranty, it is very hard to wash away the bitter taste when I compare the Aquitaine with other watches in my collection. On average, they are more precise, often on the COSC level, yet they are more affordable.

Some will say that the accuracy of a mechanical watch should not be an issue since we can read the perfectly accurate time at any moment from a mobile phone, which is hard to disagree with. Yet, it is completely incomprehensible that Christopher Ward paid so much attention to the countless details of this watch and greatly managed to raise the quality of execution to the level of top brands, and at the same time completely ignored the heart of this piece and spoiled the excellent overall impression.

The only consolation is that Sellita movements can be easily serviced and regulated by any skilled watchmaker, in comparison with in-house movements. Certainly a good option that I will probably use at some point, so that the Aquitaine can truly shine in its full glory and beat with a strong heart on our journey together for a long time to come.

Despite the movement being a serious weakness, the Aquitaine is such a beautiful and well built watch which brings me a lot of joy, so I will definitely keep it in my collection.

Since my now already serious romance with the Aquitaine survived all the challenges, I have decided to add a new member of the Christopher Ward family to my collection (which, by the way, is very accurate +3 seconds per day), but that's a topic for another story.