Christopher Ward C4 Peregrine Chronograph

Here we have a piece of Christopher Ward History. As you may know, Christopher Ward was formed in 2004 and in 2005 they launched their first two watches: the C5 Malvern automatic and the C3 Chronograph quartz. By 2006 the range had expanded to six watches: the C1, C2, C3, C4, C5 and C6 - all carried a subtle "SWISS MOVT" at the bottom of their dials, because while the movements were Swiss, the watches weren't assembled in Switzerland, as they are now (Swiss-assembled watches can carry the "SWISS MADE" tag.)

The watch for sale here is one of the original C4s and dates back to 2006 when Chris was still personally signing each and every Certificate of Authenticity and covering letter! Both those items, plus the user manual and original 'version 1' presentation case complete the full set of 'box and papers' as they're known.

The C4 is Christopher Ward's only watch to use the ISA 8174-220 quartz movement, making it unique as the only CW watch to feature an alarm function. The alarm time is set by adjusting the blue 'alarm' hand and the bottom left button switches it on and off: two beeps for on and one beep for off. The C4 was available in a multitude of different colour and strap combinations, with blue, red, black, panda and silver face options. Then there were silver, gold and black cases with various strap and bracelet options.

The watch in this listing is the C4 SST, signifying S for silver case, S for silver face and T for brown leather strap. It's on its original brown leather strap which has another little feature which is unique to the early C4s: a twin pin tang buckle - later C4 (and all other tang buckle CW leather straps) use a single pin. Its original selling price was a bargain £140 (or £120 to non-EU customers!)! By 2016 when CW released the final 200 'Phoenix' C4 models, the price had risen to almost £400 for the bracelet model.

For a used watch that's almost 15 years old it's in very good condition. It has picked up a few minor blemishes along the way, but nothing worthy of specific mention. It's on the original leather strap which suggests it's spent far more time in its box than it has on a wrist. In Jan 2019 CW installed a new calibre, so it's in perfect working order and should provide many more years reliable service.

In summary, it's a nice original and very collectable piece of Christopher Ward history.

Specifications

• Case size: 42mm

• Lug width: 22mm

• Height: 13mm

• Waterproof: 50m

• Movement: ISA 8174-220 quartz
  

User Manual

A PDF version of the user manual is available from the CW website: https://www.christopherward.com/on/demandware.static/-/Library-Sites-cw-library/default/dw52449287/pdfs/Motorsport/c4_manual.pdf

Final Notes

• The first photograph is a library shot. The rest show the actual watch and package.