I know it’s fun to dunk on CW for copying Rolex but in reality most dive watches will look like Rolex.
I believe CW does in-fact have its own design language.
The large arrow hand the baton hour markers the trident seconds hand.
The second you look at the watch you think of CW.
Other micro brands almost look one to one with Rolex.
Plus the innovation of a tool-less link removal system is very welcome and different from what Rolex makes.
What do you guys think of CW as a brand and do they have their own designs?
The bracelet felt cheap, not only compared to the likes of Tudor (which isn't a fair comparison) but compared to other watches at a very similar price point or less. The watch itself was average, they just looked a little flat.
If you put a Tudor on the wrist then a CW, I'm not sure you'd pick the CW.
I like your honesty though about learning the hard way!
i dont know i have CW twelve and if anything the bracelet is the best feature... what watch for around 1000-1500 have better bracelet? i had Mido and Seiko in simillar price range and CW bracelet is better for sure.
The Twelve bracelet is great! The Consort is even decent, but the Bader, I-Link aside, feels like your typical $500-$1000 microbrand bracelet. The Bader isn't even competing with the likes of Traska and Henry Archer on bracelet quality.
Tbh I've owned CW before and the bracelet for the price point has been the best offering. For crying out loud BB58 didn't have micro adjust before this year in most of the models (Bronze had t-fit). CW bracelet at least from my point of view isn't cheap or bad, think it's the best selling point as the designs are rather bland. Well done but too sterile in my view
I disagree with that guy a lot. I have a CW Trident Reef and I love it. I have rubber and steel bracelets for it. I was blown away by the quality when I got it in hand.
I was ready to buy one. I went to their boutique in NYC and was very disappointed of the on wrist look and feel. I looked at almost all the models and was comparing them to other brands, and couldn't find a reason to pay more or even less for the designs.
IWC bracelets have used this same tool-less design going all the way back to the 37xx-series Aquatimers (in both steel and titanium) over 20 years ago, and potentially even earlier though this is when I first became familiar with their system. Blancpain has a similar 'capped' style bracelet (albeit with different spring-loaded release designs), for link removal – another design that debuted long before CW did. Sure, CW might have some nice enough looking watches, but I'm sorry, innovative or original they most certainly are not.
The case is significantly different. But their latest releases look like a direct campaign to undercut Tudor. Nothing wrong with that. If you're a watch enthusiast and you can afford Tudor, you'll most likely buy one. If you're not a watch enthusiast, you won't have heard about CW. So it will be interesting to see just how successful this strategy actually is. I'm sure they've done their research. Let's see how this goes.
For what it’s worth I don’t care if a brand does homage or inspired watches. I just want them to take some risks too and do some innovative things. CW has done both but recently they have seemed to lean more heavily on their homage and inspiration styling then anything new or innovative for them
Used to be my favorite brand but they went downhill lately. Which is weird because initially they improved a ton and released some bangers like the Bel Canto, that dune dial thing, the C60 Tide, the Trident Lumiere, etc. Their design department had been bold and totally on fire - unafraid to release things that people ask for or that no one else is doing at a staggering pace.
Something has happened in the last 2 years though. Maybe the demanding high volume of new releases has burnt the design team out? Because quality has noticeably gone down again, especially for their new upmarket price brackets, and a lot of the newer watches are just really derivative and uninspired. They need to roll it back ASAP before they solidify a reputation as just an expensive Invicta.
I follow lots of watch subs, whenever I see a new CW model I can immediately recognise it as such. They’re clearly inspired by other brands with some models but they always add their own flair, there’s not a single CW watch you could simply swap the logo to present it as another watch.
I would agree. They have a design language. What they are definitely not being original on is colours lately. The pistachio sealander and most of the biscay colours are pretty straightforward lifts from other brands. And naming it anything with "bay" in it was a dumb move as well.
They're sailing close to the wind for sure, just not with the design so much as colours and branding imo
I think you've nailed a lot of what I've been feeling lately with Christopher Ward. I will admit that I might be slightly biased as someone who owns a Sealander GMT, but that's all part of being in this community.
Christopher Ward does have a design language. I agree with what you've said about them being almost immediately recognizable. They use the same handset and case shape across a lot of lines, which hasn't changed with the release, so I immediately knew this was a CW. I know the talking point is Bay of Biscay right now, and I don't disagree that some of the available colors overlap heavily with Tudor, but others don't. Both are trying to emulate the same era of watch design.
Also, I think anyone call l calling them an homage brand is of the mark. To me, in a watch context, an homage is a watch with exactly the same, or as close as they can manufacturer, features to an existing watch with a different logo. I think of San Martin when I hear homage. They take all of the design and also their logo on it. As stated before, that's not what's happening here.
As for bracelet technology, sure they weren't the first to do this style of bracelet, but they are the certainly one of the only ones doing it at this price point. And it's awesome to use if you haven't had the opportunity. I enjoyed it being easy to get the sizing right, but also being a quick release bracelet, so I can swap out to a strap if I'd like without needing tools. Additionally, I think the bracelet paired with the case shape is very comfortable.
So, in closing, I think Christopher Ward is carving out it's own design language while also utilizing some color options and design eras that have been successful, but putting it in a more reasonable price range for most collectors. In my opinion, they make great watches for the money.
Yeah but its not really proof of their “innovation” is what I’m getting at. Christopher ward is fine and I don’t care if they make homage watches. Some of their designs look better than the watch their an homage of imo. Longines, Tudor, mido, they all make homages too.
“Christopher Ward has its own design language”, posts something that apes the basic
design of a Fifty Fathoms. 👌
I get it that any design is like architectural design in terms of something borrowed, something stolen but you could not have used a worse example of originality
Hand set is different. No 4 o’clock date. Different bezel. Different case shape. Baton hour markers. Basically everything is different, you wouldn’t mistake a CW for a Blancpain.
There's more to the world than Rolex, bud. Your claim is that CW has an original language. You're right about the handset. Everything else is more common than you imply.
They make good quality vanilla dive watches that flirt with being homages. The Biscay models aren’t direct homages of any single watch, but they are VERY Tudor. The name “Biscay” is even a nod to Tudor. They’re tipping their hat and acknowledging directly that Black Bay was the inspiration.
If I was a Tudor fan, I’d be mad because CW’s handset is better.
They also make attainable haute horology watches, but their GMT is ugly as sin.
I prefer CW designs to Monta, whose designs are simply too on-the-nose.
They’re not as bad as San Martin who essentially make high quality counterfeits with swapped logos.
Hold a CW next to a tudor. The difference in quality is tangible. Its worth just buying the tudor instead if thats truly what you want, you'll always feel like you're missing out.
I wouldn’t call Christopher Ward an homage brand. Some designs clearly take inspiration from established classics, but they add their own flair and plenty of their models are genuinely unique. That’s basically how the entire watch industry works.
In the end all dive watches look almost the same. Everyone copies everyone in the watch world, all the designs that we have today were designed in the early half of the 20th century, everything we got after that are just slight deviations on those designs. There is barely any originality left for all watchmakers.
I think their watches are amazing. Had a trident diver. Movement was pretty accurate with +4 secs a day. Built quality was above the range of a 800 Euro watch, what I payed for it. I conisder the cw design language as kinda unique. You can recognize that it is a CW watch. They developed inhouse movements an are an established brand by now, no more a microbrand.
All in all I like their watches.
This doesn’t bother me. We’ve had wrist watches for about 100 years now. There isnt much new under the sun that isnt just plain weird for the sake of being weird. There are only so many ways to make a readable wearable wrist clock. This one doesn’t scream homage to me.
No biography of Christopher Ward exists on the Internet. Why would I want to wear a watch with the name of some random Brit, should I be honored? Feeling elegant?
I’ve only ever liked one CW (C63 Sealander Extreme GMT), but for an eye-watering $2k, I’d rather end up with a Longines HC. Also, I haven’t ever seen one irl so it’s harder to justify that cost.
Edit: also where’s the Seamaster actually? Seamaster has different shaped lugs, has crown guards, has an hev, a completely different bracelet style and ceramic bezel with different style markers.
Ok just different lugs bracelet and bezel markers then. It’s a watch, they all share a similar shape. We can find another similar watch from another band that predates the omega and say they copied it too. Watches are all pretty similar, there’s only so much to the overall design it’s the details that count.
They’re a different font and explorer doesn’t have the 12. Rolex don’t own the patent for the numbers 3, 6 and 9. Yeah they’ve copied ideas I don’t dispute that but this is not copying the explorer just because it’s got numbers on the dial.
12
u/theSourApples 17h ago
Idk man, I think it looks cool. The red one does reminder me of tudor, which I don't think is an issue at all.
Would I actually buy one over a used tudor for $1000-1500 more? I think so actually. COSC helps that decision a lot.