Christopher Ward C8 Power Reserve Chronometer

The C8 Power Reserve was the first aviation style watch to be fitted with CW’s famous SH21 movement with its 120 hour power reserve. In the case of this watch, it’s the hand-wound SH21 with power reserve and small seconds sub dials - about as good as they come!

As with all SH21-powered watches, it’s a COSC certified Chronometer, although in the case of this particular watch, the COSC certificate is missing (It’s still keeping COSC-spec time though).

It’s a pretty large watch at 44mm, but thanks to being a hand crank, it stands at just 11mm tall and sits surprisingly well, even on small-medium wrists. The lack of rotor also means you get the best possible view of that stunning SH21 engineering through the huge exhibition case back.

It was launched in August 2016 (at £1,650 in steel and £1,700 in PVD) and was officially retired in 2019, so most C8 PRs are dated between 2016-2019, however a few did briefly surface in 2020 and 2021, so if you have one of those, you’re one of a lucky few.

Condition

It’s a used watch which has picked up a few marks over the years. In the pics you can see some areas of worn/blemished PVD coating near the top of the bezel. In the flesh the watch looks much better, it's hard to see those marks! My LED light cube is making it look much worse than it actually is!

It’s unfortunately missing it’s papers (user book, warranty card and COSC Certificate), however it does come in a CW case with covering letter and polishing cloth.

The strap is a bit worn, but still has plenty of life left.

The watch runs out of power with the Power Reserve dial showing around 0.5 days remaining. A minor fault, but one I want to point out.

On the plus side, it’s keeping great time and is offered at £1,000 less than the original selling price, so any negative points are more than reflected in the price!

Specifications

• Case size: 44mm

• Lug width: 22mm

• Height: 11mm

• Waterproof: 50m

• Movement: Calibre SH21 hand-wound automatic

• Power reserve: 120h

User Manual

A PDF version of the owner’s handbook is available on the CW website: https://www.christopherward.com/on/demandware.static/-/Library-Sites-cw-library/default/dwa910e1cb/pdfs/Aviation/c8_power_reserve_manual.pdf

Final Notes

• The first five images are library photos. The others all show the actual watch and package.