When it comes to coins, those created with mistakes tend to be worth more than their ‘perfect’ counterparts. When it comes to CW watches with dial mistakes, it’s more novelty value than financial value that gets added.

In this post I thought I’d compile a few of the CW ‘mistake’ watches.

First up, top left, we have a number of C70 GBs and DBR1s which were produced missing their 87 pips from the Tachymeter scale around the inside of the bezel, so this one is very much a manufacturing fault.

Next up, top right, we have the C60 SH21 Abyss. When these first launched, the faces stated a diving depth rating of 600m on the right side of the dial. I can see how this human error might have happened, because all other C60s at the time were rated to 600m, but this particular model, with its huge exhibition case back, was actually rated to ‘only’ 300m. CW fitted new dials to their shelf stock and offered to replace the dials on all customer watches. I’m guessing around half of the early customers opted for a new ‘correct’ face, whereas the other half opted to keep theirs with the 600m ‘error’ face.

Finally, bottom two, we have the recent C65 Super Compressor. This one is just a plain old stinker! As soon as CW launched this watch, eagle-eyed folk spotted the SUPER COMPRESSOR printed toward the bottom of the dial was off-centre to the left. CW took two courses of action for these. Ocean Blue customers were offered replacement dials, whereas the Black Sand watches were sold at discounted prices in lieu of the offset detail. While you can see the off-set fairly well in photographs, it’s barely noticeable in the flesh.

Hopefully this is a post which doesn’t need updating in the future!

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When CW first started trading they made a big noise about their 60:60 guarantee - 60 days to return your watch if you change your mind after purchase (as long as it was still new/unworn) and a 60 month movement warranty.

Fast forward a few years and CW moved the goalposts somewhat on the movement warranty, watering it down a little by recommending their watches should be serviced every 3-4 years. For years that resulted in customers who occasionally had problems with their watch being were told by CW that the watch required a paid service rather than a free repair - often resulting in disappointed customers at best or disillusioned and lost customers at worst.

The good news is that CW recently made a small, but very significant update to its website. Their 60 month movement warranty has gone back to being a true 60 months, dropping the requirement for a service between 3-4 years old in order for them to honour the last year or two of the warranty.

That’s great news for anyone planning to buy one of my watches which is coming up for four or five years old, but slightly bad news for me, as I now need to update all the listings to take out CW’s “it must be serviced by us” small print!

Well done Mike and Peter, great move.

The Ward Hoard has been live for just over a year now. With the new year having just started, I thought I’d mark the occasion with a new landing page photograph. It’s also bugged me from day one that I never bothered to set the times! Although in my defence, I did have my hands pretty full trying to get the site live!! Before the old photograph goes, I thought I’d take a quick look at the watches that were in it…

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ONE - In the top left position we have the CW’s first ever Jumping Hour watch. At the time is was known as the C9 Jumping Hour, but following the introduction of the Mk2 and Mk3 models, it’s now known as the ‘Mk1’. There’s some interesting info covering the history of JH watches and how the JJ01 movement was created in the watches’s User Manual, which is available on the CW website. This particular watch was number 200 of 200 and now lives with its new owner in the USA.

TWO - At the top middle we have the C8 UTC Worldtimer. I’ve always had a soft spot for these. I like the twin offset crowns (the top one rotates the internal bezel), I like the design, I like the GMT function, I like the 44mm size, it’s just a great and interesting looking aviation-inspired watch.

THREE - Top right. Released in 2017, CW’s first ever bronze watch was a version of the Mk2 C60 600 Pro. I remember CW doing some market research the year before its launch investigating whether people would be interested in buying a watch made of bronze. Judging by the five (I think it’s five anyway) different bronze watches they’ve created so far, it was a good decision. It’s not the first time they’ve moved away from steel for their watch cases - back in 2013 they released the C1000 Typhoon FGR4 which had a super-lightweight ceramic case.

FOUR - Bottom left. Below CW’s first JH watch sits their last: 2017’s C1 Grand Malvern Jumping Hour. It was dropped from the Dress range in 2018, but a few slipped out in the following years, including the 2021 one I’ve been meaning to photograph and list for months!

FIVE - The C700 was Christopher Ward's flagship Motorsport watch at its launch in 2011. It was the second Ward to use the famous ETA 7750 Valjoux movement - the first being the C40 Speedhawk. A variation can also be found in the current £1,270 C60 Chronograph.

SIX - The C70GB Brooklands is a 500-piece Limited Edition watch which was part of the original six C70 Grand Prix models launched in 2009. The C70 was a brave move by CW, creating a series of very eye-catching motorsport-style models. It turned out to be a hit, paving the way for some 22 different C70 models over the years!

SEVEN - Bottom right. The C40 Speedhawk was the first CW watch to use the ETA 7750 Jaljoux movement and was the most expensive watch in their range at the time at £700 (about £1,000 today with inflation). I remember lusting after one in 2009 when they first came out, but my wife and I had just had our second child, so I couldn’t afford one at the time! I did treat myself to the quartz-powered ‘little brother’ version though: the C4 Peregrine. I got my hands on the ‘real deal’ a few years later!

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Breaking news: Titanium is slightly lighter than aluminium.

If you’re reading this hoping to be regaled with some awesome CW pub trivia, then I’m afraid you’re about to be very disappointed! In fact, do yourself a favour and move on because if you finish reading this post, it’s a couple of minutes fo your life that you’ll never get back!

So, down to business. Or not. I realise I’m just talking to myself now. I recently bought a C60 which came with what CW used to call their ‘Sport’ tang buckle on the strap - it’s the chunky looking one with the flat pin. Despite the watch head being stainless, the buckle had a slightly darker-than-usual sheen, so I had a hunch it might be the ‘wrong’ buckle from a titanium watch such as the C11 Elite or C11 Extreme.

A simple magnet test wouldn’t help, because the standard Sport buckles are alloy, so to help satisfy my curiosity, I hit eBay and purchased a set of drug dealer’s, I mean jeweller’s scales for five quid. Is it a set of scales, or a singular scale? It sounds a bit odd saying “I bought a scale”, it makes me think of fish. Anyway, regarding the singular set of cocaine scale/s I bought for £4.99, that included the postage cost! And the envelope it arrived in. And the time it took someone to pick and pack my order. And VAT. And manufacturing costs. And the two AAA batteries. And the box. And shipping costs to send it half way around the world from China to the seller in the UK. How the fook is anyone making money at that?! Anyway, I digress. Again…

Start the drum roll please…

…a standard 20mm Sport buckle weighs in at: 4.72g - or about £350 in cocoin…

…whereas my suspected Titanium one weighed in at: 3.05g. So I was right, it is Titanium and it is the wrong one for the watch!

While I was there, I decided to weigh other CW buckles (wasting yet more valuable time that I should have been spending far more productively, such as photographing watches to sell. Or counting insects.)

The buckle weights are (starting with the Titanium on the scale and then moving to the top left):

• 20mm Sport Titanium: 3.04g

• 20mm C600 black steel: 2.33g

• 20mm dress polished: 3.22g (I’m guessing it’s chrome plates?)

• 18mm Sport alloy with ‘bolts’: 5.13g

• 20mm Bader deployant: 17.47g

• 20mm C4 twin pin steel: 2.04g

• 20mm standard Sport alloy: 4.71g

• 20mm Sport black: 5.15g

• 20mm Butterfly deployant: 12.43g

There you go, I promised this would be an horrifically dull post and I delivered. With interest! Or no interest, as is the case.

Christopher Ward has just posted a bunch of ‘nearly new’ straps and bracelets at 30% off if you’re on the lookout for a replacement of upgrade: www.christopherward.com/sale

It’s pretty safe to say the C60 is by far the most popular dive watch CW has ever made, but when it comes to desirability, measured in price now verses price when still on sale, it’s the C11 Makaira Pro 500 which has proved itself to be the most sought-after CW dive watch to date.

It was born in August 2012 and was available in the three colours shown in the bottom row of the first photograph shown below: black face with either blue, white or orange markers. None of them were limited editions.

A few months later in November 2012, CW launched the 500 piece, £750, C11 Makaira Titanium Elite. It differed from the standard model thanks to its Titanium case, its yellow markers and its COSC certification. It proved to be a very successful piece, selling out within a year and in my humble opinion, becoming the most desirable mainstream C11 ever made.

Buoyed by the success of the Titanium Elite, in 2014 CW released the C11 Makaira Extreme. They made 1,000 of them, it’s waterproof to 1,000m and completing the 1,000 theme, the selling price was a cool £1,000 (actually it was £995, but that kind of ruins my story!) Like the Elite, it was made from Titanium and was COSC certified, but this time it had green markers and (thanks to its 1,000m diving credentials), the case sat some 15mm tall, making it a bit too clunky for some smaller wrists, my own included! While production of the Makaira range stopped in 2015, it took another year to exhaust the supply of Extremes, so you’ll find quite a few of these ones dated 2016. It’s since become a popular piece with collectors, with nice examples changing hands around or above that original £1,000 mark.

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My old collection of C11 Makairas, sadly no longer together as a complete set - sold to add other watches to my collection.

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Away from the mainstream there have also been a couple of little-known C11 Makaira specials: one more by accident and one very much by design.

The first was a ‘parts bin special’, shown on the left below. A clutch of seven watches were assembled in 2015 from the last remaining C11 Makaira spares in CW’s store. The result was a face with blue markers, mated with a white marker bezel.

Below right we have one of 50 very special C11 Makaira Pro 500s which was produced by CW for the Royal Navy Fleet Diving Units, an elite band of frogmen who help out whenever the SAS, SBS or Royal Marines get themselves into a bit of underwater bother! Photo credit thanks to Gareth on the CW Chat Forum, who managed to buy one which was found under the CW sofa in early 2020! I’m not jealous, much! If anyone every wants to sell their Royal Navy Makaira, you know where I am! That said, I’m always interested in buying any nice condition Makaira if you’re looking to offload.

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Seven final C11 Makaira Pro 500s were built with this blue, white and orange marker combo.

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The only C11 Makaira to be produced with a black case was this Royal Navy Fleet Diving Unit special commission of 50 pieces.

The C60’s origins date back to 2007 and the launch of CW’s first dive style watch, the quartz-powered C6 Kingfisher.

2009 saw a clutch of automatic dive watches hit the market in the form of the C60 Kingfisher automatic, the C600 Tri-Tech Diver Elite and now famous C60 Trident Pro 🔱.

The first version of the Mk1 C60 Trident Pro featured the original Christopher Ward London logo and was available in a Henry Ford style ‘any colour you want, as long as it’s black‘. They had a painted aluminium bezel which, while far more durable than the C70 bezel, was still pretty easily marked by modern ceramic standards. While the user manual stated it was 42mm, the watch was actually 43mm.

2010 saw the launch of the GMT version, with its additional 24h hand. They were available in either black with white pips or black with orange pips.

Jump forward two years to 2012 and it’s all change on the logo and colour front. The 2011-introduced CHR. WARD logo arrives on the face and there are bright green, blue and red versions added to the range. The black face version is also expanded with the popular orange bezel version shown below, plus some lessor-known and now quite collectable charcoal grey and khaki green bezel options.

2013 also sees the introduction of the C61, which is the 38mm version and was available in black/black, blue/blue or black/orange. There was no Mk1 38mm GMT.

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The Mk2 Trident launch saw many new colour combos

In 2015 came a huge change to the C60 range with the launch of the ‘Mk2’ Trident Pro 600. That saw the introduction of the far more scratch-resistant ceramic bezel, the pips on the face were switched to batons, the crown also got larger/beefier and finally the depth rating doubled from 300m to 600m. The bracelets now also gained a user-friendly micro adjustment. CW weren’t done with the older Mk1 case design though, they kept that going as the basis for the introduction of the Mk2 quartz range known as the C60 Trident 300. Initially available in seemingly limitless colour combos, the Mk2 range was later trimmed to just include the more popular sellers. The 43mm version was still incorrectly stated as 42mm in the hand books!

A prototype orange ceramic bezel watch was produced, but deemed a little too dull/muddy for mass production. A couple of prototype white ceramic bezel watches also exist - one white face and one black. One new ceramic colour which did make it into production was the dark green version shown in the centre of the image below.

In early 2016 we saw the introduction of the first titanium C60 and later the same year CW introduced their new and current logo - upsetting the traditionalists with its contemporary look and blowing the odd blood vessel by often placing it at 9-o’clock! The haters vowed to never buy another CW watch, others (myself included) failed to see what all the fuss was about. That said, some CHR. WARD Mk2 tridents have been known to attract premiums over the equivalent new-logo version, so some buyers are certainly happy to put their money where their mouth is on the used market.

The new logo didn’t land on a C60 until the start of 2017 with what some (again, myself included) call the Mk2.5. This 2017 range saw the end of the short-lived dark green bezel. It also switched the blue/blue version from a somewhat in-your-face, intense blue to a more toned-down, darker colour. The range was pretty limited with just black and white faces paired with either black or red bezels - plus the blue/blue version. This Mk2.5 version also signalled the launch of the first C60 bronze case and the start of a regular conveyer belt or specials and limited edition steels. Anoraks like me may also be (un)interested to know the technical specs in the handbook finally acknowledged the 43mm case size!

The new and current Mk3 version arrived in Mid 2019. It kept the popular ceramic bezel (obviously), but did delete the top lume pip, which had an occasional habit of getting knocked off of Mk1 bezels. The biggest change for the Mk3 was the new case design. More wasting on the sides give it a far more slim and sleek look on the wrist. A less fussy hand design completes the move to a more modern look and feel. While the Mk2 bracelet would fit a Mk1 (or Mk2 quartz), the Mk3 bracelet is all new and will only fit the Mk3 case - it features wider centre links and user-friendly quick-release spring bars.

Like the Mk1 and Mk2 before it, the Mk3 is available in a 38mm size. But unlike the previous models, the Mk3 introduces an all new 40mm model and the largest size has been dropped from 43mm to 42mm.

The King is well and truly alive, long live the C60 Trident!

In case you were interested in the 12 Christopher Ward watch images used on the home page they are:

• C80 Sector (US version) from 2009

• C20 Lido Automatic from 2010

• Mk1 C7 Rapide Chronograph from 2008

• C11 MSL Automatic Vintage from 2011

• C10 Bomb Disposal 75th anniversary edition from 2015

• C65 Classic Limited Edition from 2016

• C4 Battle of Britain Memorial Flight edition from 2010

• C60 316L Orange Limited Edition from 2017

• Mk1 C60 Trident Pro Automatic red/red from 2009

• C11 Makaira Pro 500 from 2012

• C90 Beckett’s/Power Reserve from 2009

• And finally a C70 BRG edition from 2013

With the exception of the C80 US I either own or have owned every watch shown (I had the GB version of the C80 Sector!)

I’ll revisit this post to give a load of extra info when I get some time. In the meantime, you can track down mountains of extra information via Kip McEwen’s fantastic CWArchive website.

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