Feature: Tissot PRX vs Christopher Ward Twelve
You might have seen recently that Christopher Ward entered the chat about 1970s-style integrated strap watches inspired by the legacy of the great watch designer Gerald Genta. There’s been a lot said about Christopher Ward’s entry, the ambiguously titled “The Twelve”, and whether or not it’s worth the extra. So should you fork out an additional £440 or should you save it?
Background
So why are people obsessed with this integrated case look? It all started in 1972 when Audemars Piguet announced the other-worldly Royal Oak. Actually, it didn’t, because other manufacturers like Rolex with its futuristic 5100 got there first.
Like many other watchmakers faced with the inevitability of the cheaper and more accurate quartz technology, Rolex created the 5100 as a drastic reinterpretation of its brand for its first quartz watch. That way customers could see the difference between the older mechanical models and the new high-tech quartz ones.
What made Audemars Piguet stand out? It faced the same problem, but it tackled it in a different way. Where brand like Rolex and Omega typically made simpler, everyday watches, Audemars Piguet was a classical watchmaker with its roots in complication. Making elaborate, highly complicated pocket watches was its real calling.
Quartz couldn’t be any more abhorrent to them. They needed to find a way to make mechanical watches popular again. So, they hired young, upcoming designer Gerald Genta to design them a watch that would house a strictly mechanical movement.
It’s the same idea as having a sail yacht, a record player or a horse. There is better technology out there, but there’s something indescribably appealing about the older, analogue approach. And so the Royal Oak become the poster child for the romance of a mechanical watch. Not only that, it was also incredibly expensive, far more so than it had any right to be, and that made it even more desirable.
Whilst the look has fallen in an out of favour, there’s no denying how eye-catching it is, and so whilst most of can’t afford the dizzying heights of a Royal Oak, we can stretch to Tissot’s PRX. In Powermatic 80 form, it’s a steel, 40mm watch at £610 on a bracelet or rubber strap, and £580 on a leather strap.
It’s no surprise it’s been so incredibly popular, offering a high spec, Swiss made watch in this style for way, way less than £1,000. There are other choices out there, but because of its all-round greatness, it became the de facto choice for budget conscious buyers. That makes asking an extra £440 for the Christopher Ward a difficult pill to swallow. The PRX, being much cheaper, remains the obvious choice in this niche.
But does it? As we’ll see, the Christopher Ward asks slightly different questions and comes with different answers, so perhaps the answer isn’t quite as clear cut as you’d expect. Perhaps, with a little bit of shady maths, that extra £440 won’t seem quite so large. Or maybe it’s all just a whole lot of extra cash for nothing. Let’s take a closer look at both watches and see how they stack up against each other.
Review
When you think of Swiss watchmaking, you think of high quality, very fine craftsmanship—basically all synonyms for “expensive”. There’s no two ways about it. Luxury goods command luxury prices. That’s why the Tissot PRX blew so many socks off around the world because it somehow managed to find a hack to bring a taste of the elite to the masses.
Let’s not get too carried away, though. £610 is still an awful lot of money. But in Swiss watch terms, it’s a still a fair few pennies off the typical entry price. You would ordinarily expect to spend north of £1,000, and would often find yourself with a quartz watch for the privilege.
So how does Tissot do it? Mass production and modern manufacturing techniques mean the PRX is far from the Christmas card ideal of a lone Swiss watchmaker assembling watches in a mountain shack, but it does mean costs come down considerably. The Powermatic 80 automatic movement, which as the name suggests packs a pretty remarkable 80 hours of power reserve, switches some metal parts for plastic, and overall, at close scrutiny, the finish of the watch won’t match that of something like a Rolex.
But it’s not going to, is it? It’s £610. Still, as a package, it manages to beat any expectation of what’s possible by carefully dividing up the budget needed to make it. That’s really the impressive thing about the PRX. It’s been optimised for customers rather than built to an uncapped cost. It could have quite easily been several thousand pounds more expensive.
It’s not all perfect, however. The design required larger wrists to wear, even at a reasonable 40mm. Those first links don’t have any play in them at all, and are effectively just lug extensions. That means those with even medium-sized wrists need to downsize to the 35mm version, and the 35mm version only comes in quartz. It’s so close to being the perfect entry-level Swiss watch, but it just doesn’t quite make it. Not quite. Can the Christopher Ward make a better case for that extra £440?
So who is Christopher Ward? Unlike Tissot, which has been making watches in Swizerland since 1853, Christopher Ward has a substantially shorter history, releasing its first watch in 2005. The idea behind the brand isn’t particularly glamorous or romantic, with the founders focussing more on supply chain efficiencies and production savings than conjuring thoughts of Swiss mountains and elegant watches.
It’s taken some time, but the efforts gone into making the best quality watch for the smallest price have finally aligned with the ability to design a pretty attractive watch. The Twelve borrows from a number of different integrated designs, perhaps chiefly the far more expensive Czapek Antarctique—you won’t be surprised to learn, therefore, that these two watches share a common designer.
The big difference between Christopher Ward and Tissot is that because it doesn’t use retailers in the traditional sense, it can shrink its margins down considerably, making them many times less than the established brands can achieve.
That’s all boring, though. It’s no use if the watch isn’t any good. So, is it? In a word, yes. Where the Tissot is let down at close scrutiny, the Twelve has no problem. Overall it’s a more carefully thought out and well executed design that highlights just how simple the PRX is. There are more shapes, more facets, more finishes overall. It’s a more complex watch, with details that Tissot couldn’t hope to squeeze in for the budget.
Take a look at the dial, for example. The waffle texture on the PRX is clean, but simple. The hands and markers are basic. On the Twelve, the dial is peppered with raised pyramids in the form of the brands logo, with platforms for text raised in just the right places. The hands and markers have a crisp, distinct form, with multiple layers of finishing on each.
The case and bracelet tell a similar story, with the PRX’s offering a simpler take on the format with less detail and flourish. The twelve-sided bezel of the Christopher Ward—that gives the watch its name—blends from hard angles to a smooth circle with a mirror-polished facet identical to the £7,900 Zenith Skyline.
Both steel models come with the Sellita SW200, which doesn’t even get half the Powermatic 80’s power reserve, but does have a faster, smoother beat, and is minus any plastic parts. That’s all very well and good, but the if the entry point for the steel Twelve on the bracelet at £1,050 is still just a hair too much to stretch to, you can pick it up on the rubber instead at £850.
So, between the Tissot PRX and the Christopher Ward Twelve, which one is best? There’s no question about it, the Twelve is a higher quality watch. Christopher Ward has combined its efforts to give maximum quality for minimum cost with a watch design that’s incredibly appealing. But the Tissot continues to stand as an entry point into this particular corner at a price that’s unmatched by big, traditional Swiss watchmakers. That you can save even more cash by going quartz is a real bonus, too. Ultimately, although the gap in quality between the two is far greater than the £440 would suggest, the cost difference is still a consideration. If you can’t stretch to the Twelve, you’ll still very much enjoy the PRX.
