Christopher Ward

After successful careers in retail, Mike France, Chris Ward and Peter Ellis were at a bit of a loose end, so while sailing along the River Thames in 2004 they decided to start a watch company that reflected their shared love of horology. But this was going to be no ordinary watch brand…

SHAKING THINGS UP
From the start our goal was to bring premium watches to as wide an audience as possible. And we’d do it by selling directly from our website to the customer with no expensive marketing campaigns (or celebrity endorsements!) and third-party retailers involved.

We also determined to treat our customers the way we’d want to be treated – with openness, efficiency and care. Many of them have become more like friends than consumers.

A PRICING REVOLUTION
Our pricing model has been the same since day one. We design in-house, use the best possible components, calculate the cost of the watch and multiply it by three to get the selling price. This allows just enough margin for us to make a fair profit. It also means our watches are up to a quarter of the price of equivalent ones from our more famous Swiss competitors.

We didn’t know it at the time but apparently we “disrupted the industry” with our approach to selling ‘proper’ watches.

OUR FIRST WATCH
Our first watch, the C5 Malvern Automatic, was released in June 2005. Suspicious because of its price, Dave Malone, an influential member of the Timezone forum, bought one with the intention of exposing us as fraudsters. But he was astonished by the watch, saying in a review: “The fact that Christopher Ward can supply a watch of this quality at this price makes even the ordinary Swiss and German brands look overpriced.” Soon, the orders were flying in.

BRINGING THE SWISS ON BOARD
More watches and complications followed, including our first mechanical chronograph, the C7 Grande Rapide. In 2008, we started working with Swiss watchmaking veteran Jörg Bader and his company, Synergies Horlogères, based in Biel/Bienne. Working together we introduced our biggest-selling range, the Mk I Tridents, and when he discovered a young East German watchmaker, Johannes Jahnke, everything stepped up a level.

JJ AND HIS UNIQUE WATCHES
Originally from Dresden, JJ began to create bespoke modifications of proprietary movements – the famed ‘JJ Calibres’. The C9 Single Pusher Chronograph, powered by Calibre JJ02, was recognised by the industry in the 00/24 Watchworld awards in 2014 while WatchPro magazine said the C9 Moonphase (Calibre JJ04) was one of the 10 best mechanical watches of 2015 alongside models from brands like Vacheron Constantin, Jaeger-LeCoultre and Audemars Piguet.

OUR OWN MOVEMENT
By 2014, Christopher Ward and Synergies Horlogères had become such close partners that we merged in July 2014. But more importantly, we released Calibre SH21, the first commercially viable movement from a British watch brand in 50 years. Designed entirely by Johannes Jahnke, and built at our atelier in Biel, it put Christopher Ward in that select group of watch brands able to make their own calibres.

REFRESH AND REBRAND
To reflect our place in the watchmaking world, and to point to where we’re going, 2016 saw the launch of the new brand logo, a fresh website and a revitalised magazine (now called Loupe). We’ve also brought the unique UK/Swiss nature of Christopher Ward to the fore: combining the pioneering, entrepreneurial spirit of the British with the precise, functional Swiss mindset.

INTO THE FUTURE
Whatever the future brings, one thing remains the same: our obsession with making premium-quality watches accessible to as many people as possible by doing things a different way – the Christopher Ward way.