Christopher Ward

Christopher Ward was founded in 2004 by three friends — Christopher Ward, Mike France, and Peter Ellis — united by a shared love of watches and a conviction that the luxury watch industry was systematically overcharging its customers. Their proposition from the outset was straightforward and deliberately disruptive: sell directly from maker to buyer, cut out the retail markup, and charge what the watch actually costs to produce multiplied by three — their 3x pricing model — rather than the 5x to 10x multiples typical of the industry. Twenty-two years later, the brand sells to customers in over 100 countries, has won the highest awards in watchmaking, and has produced the first commercially viable mechanical movement from a British watch brand in more than fifty years.

The brand straddles two national identities with purpose. Design is conceived in England — in the words of the founders, the country that gave the world the Aston Martin and the Sex Pistols simultaneously — carrying a spirit that combines refined elegance with quietly rebellious attitude. Manufacture is entirely Swiss: every Christopher Ward is handbuilt at the brand's atelier in Biel, Switzerland, where the world's finest watchmaking talent is concentrated, and where the brand's own in-house movements were developed. The most significant of these is Calibre CW001, created in collaboration with movement specialist Agenhor: the first commercially viable mechanical movement from a British watch brand in over fifty years, and the powerhouse of the C1 Bel Canto — Christopher Ward's signature high-complication model. The CW001 drives the Bel Canto's defining feature: a striking hour chime with a deep, resonant gong sound, produced without the traditional complexity of a minute repeater, using a novel proprietary mechanism. Each watch also carries British twin flags engraved on the rotor, and the brand's signature Light-catcher™ case geometry is engineered to maximise the play of light across its surfaces.

In 2023, the C1 Bel Canto made Christopher Ward the first British watch brand in history to win a Petite Aiguille at the Grand Prix d'Horlogerie de Genève (GPHG) — the most prestigious award in watchmaking. The recognition confirmed what the brand's community had long believed: that honest pricing and genuine craft are not mutually exclusive. The achievement was followed by T3 Brand of the Year 2024, and WatchPro British Watch Brand of the Year for the third consecutive year in 2025.

The current collection spans 422 references across eight style families. The Atelier line comprises the brand's most sophisticated and technically ambitious pieces, including the C1 Bel Canto (the GPHG-winning chiming watch, now also available in the Bel Canto Classic and Bel Canto Colour editions), and the C12 Loco jumping-hour. Dive watches include the C60 Trident — the brand's long-running signature dive model in several generations (Trident Pro 300 and Super Compressor among them) — and the C65 Super Compressor, a heritage-inspired dive watch with the dual-crown double case back of 1960s professional diving instruments. The C63 Sealander is the brand's versatile everyday automatic, available in 36mm, 39mm, and 42mm with GMT and standard automatic variants across a wide range of coloured dials. Adventure and Field watches cover pilot and military-inspired references. The Moonphase collection, the Twelve and Twelve X, the Aquitaine dress watch, the Motorsport line (C10 and derivatives), and the Dune/Aeolian textured-dial series complete the offer. All watches come with Christopher Ward's 60:60 Guarantee — 60 days free returns and 60 months movement warranty — and can be fully customised through the brand's bespoke service. A binding commitment to donate 2% of total sales to charitable causes (including the Blue Marine Foundation and Alexander Devine Children's Hospice Service) has amounted to nearly £2 million donated over five years. The brand publishes Loupe, a quarterly in-house magazine covering watchmaking, design, and culture.