Christopher Ward C11 Makaira Pro 500

Those who preach you should only buy watches with your heart, rather than your head, will always argue that resale values should never be a consideration when buying a watch… then they’ll contradict themselves by making sure they always drive a German car because of their safe residuals! For those who buy watches with both their heart and their head, the C11 Makaira Pro 500 has has proved itself to be a wise investment, with tidy examples having fetched well over their original RRPs for a few years now.

The first C11 (the aviation style MSL) arrived in 2011, but it wasn’t until August of 2012 that CW dropped the dive edition, with its innovative internal rotating bezel (operated by the upper crown). Dubbed the Makaira Pro 500, it initially cost £500 with the silicone rubber strap and £560 on a bracelet - rising to £550 and £610 respectively over the next couple of years. It sold okay, but didn’t exactly set the world alight and by 2015 the remaining stock was sold off at reduced prices. From what I’ve observed over the years, I’d say at least 90% of Makairas were sold on rubber straps with the remaining 10% being fitted with the stainless bracelet option.

The Makaira Pro 500 was available with white, blue or orange markers. There were also a couple of Titanium limited editions which had yellow or green markers.

The watch for sale here has the orange markers and like many other Makairas is now on a non-original strap (in this case a CW Hybrid rubber) because the original black silicone rubber straps were prone to splitting if worn regularly.

One anomaly of these orange Makaira 500s is that they’re notoriously difficult to photograph with faithful reproduction of the orange markers. Under the LED lights of my photography cube the bezel markers appear a muddy orange while the hands and face look almost yellow. In reality, both are very similar shades of orange and the hands/face are far more day-glow than they look in the pics.

Condition
Offered in good used condition. There are light dings and marks dotted all over the case and the back has marks consistent with a bracelet or NATO strap being used for a period. Other than the case back, I’d say the only mark worth singling out for specific mention is a small nick at the bottom left when looking at the left side of the case. While it is a used watch and wears its blemishes with pride/honesty, I’d still say it’s better than many C11s you see and it could be restored to like new condition with relative ease.

It’s fitted with a black/orange CW Hybrid rubber strap (available from CW for £65) which is in great condition.

It’s keeping good time. On the timegrapher it’s running at approx. -9sec per day - comfortably inside CW’s +/-20sec window.

Supplied in a CW travel pod with a copy of the standard covering letter. The owner’s book with Certificate of Authenticity are not present (a link to a PDF version is below) so I don’t know the exact age, however we do know they were sold between 2012 and 2015, so it’s between seven and ten years old.

Specifications

• Case size: 42mm

• Lug width: 22mm

• Height: 12.5mm

• Waterproof: 500m

• Movement: ETA 2824-2 or Sellita SW200-1 automatic

User Manual
A PDF version of the owner’s manual is available on the CW website: https://www.christopherward.com/on/demandware.static/-/Library-Sites-cw-library/default/dw234255e3/pdfs/Dive/c11mak_manual.pdf

Final Notes

• The orange hands and markers are a very bright, almost day-glow colour in the flesh - difficult to replicate in the photographs.

• Having followed CW for many years, I’ve observed a few of instances of crowns being pulled out/off of MSL versions. While I’ve not seen it on a Makaira, it’s still advised to take extra care when pulling the crown out to the time-adjusting position three.