Carbon and Titanium are two materials that make you think of high performance engineering; fighter aircraft, spacecraft or the pinnacle of motorsport. So when a company like Christopher Ward--with 20 years in the market space under their belt--decides to use these materials to make a watch, you know you're going to get something super lightweight, tough and well-engineered.
As part of the Christopher Ward military watch range approved by His Majesty's Armed Forces, The C63 Colchester is a tribute to the British Army's Paratrooper Regiment and has some subtle design features as a nod to the Regiment. Like the rest of the models in the Military Collection, this particular CW is named in line with the HQ/Training Academy/historic location tied to the affiliated troop; in this case, the name of the Colchester comes from the Para Regiment's HQ.
Two major things stand out about the watch: the landing crosshairs sit centered on the dial, paired with the famous beret colour of the Paras for the second hand sit in high contrast against a matte, forged carbon dial. When the light catches the raw material, it is mesmerizing and something I find myself staring at. The Colchester has that "If you know, you know" vibe and that's something that fits nicely with us here at SBWC.
Based on the already lightweight C63 Sealander Elite with a full Titanium case weighing in at 45g, the Colchester manages to undercut that at 38g thanks to its Carbon Infused case and Forge Carbon dial. It's the attention to detail which is something I'm noticing within the design team at Maidenhead here in the UK. While it could have easily had a steel crown to keep costs down, they instead continued forward with the watches' light-weight theme and sought to utilize Titanium. This is something which would be unnoticeable to passersby, and many owners, with it having a retractable crown. But it's in the finer details that us watch enthusiasts see that no stone was left unturned, and CW understands that.
So we have a featherweight case which is tough as hell, a retractable crown to reduce any potential line snags, and a trusty COSC-certified Sellita SW200 movement at the heart of the watch, keeping us in check. Something which I feel needs to be mentioned is the packaging of the product, when it arrived via DHL courier, I was completely blown away by the way the watch was presented. With a watch at this price point (£1,090 GBP/ $1,325 USD) you could expect a basic presentation box with little fanfare, but not with CW. As I previously talked about the finer details being what matters, that's no exception on the packaging. The sleeve for the box is designed to slide at a 6-second closure rate to reduce potential accidents with watches falling out of any boxes as excited new owners open them up. Not a real necessity, but the intentful design philosophy continues to show their utmost attention to detail throughout.
I have to admit that prior to receiving this watch I had never seen a Christopher Ward watch in person. The way they operate to reduce the cost to the customer is something which could be seen to be a downfall, with the lack of watches in shop windows for that "try before you buy" experience. But as you will have seen from the previous articles on this website the quality of Christopher Ward watches is exceptional and this variation is no different. It's hard to compare this watch to others being so different but for your money I don't think you're going to find anything like it with this level of quality.
I will be writing an article in the future here on the SBWC blog following my recent visit to the CW HQ. There I will be going into the brand at more depth and discuss topics such as how they operate, go into some of the design processes and what the future has in store for the team in Maidenhead. Make sure you have signed up to the newsletter to receive the latest news from the SBWC team.
