Review: Christopher Ward The Twelve

Last year, British brand Christopher Ward absolutely fired our socks off into the next dimension with the Bel Canto, an hour strike chiming watch for less than $4,000, lifting it from a watchmaker providing high quality watches at an affordable price in the background to the star of the show. It was like that bit in the movie where the nerd girl takes off her glasses and it turns out she’s actually hot. You might think that this means Christopher Ward is going to start hanging out with the jock kids and abandon those who stood by it before it was hot, but no. This is the latest watch from Christopher Ward, and it’s the best you can buy for less than $1,000.

Background

In a podcast episode recently, Tom and I were talking about the new IWC Ingenieur. He asked me if their revival of the legend Gerald Genta’s 1976 Ingenieur SL had come too late, if the hype for the integrated sports watch was dying down. My initial thought was yes, yes it is.

Prices of the big boys like the Royal Oak and Nautilus continue to slide. We’re seeing trends of smaller, yellow gold watches starting to appear, nods more to the 80s than the 70s. And I remembered of course that the current 70s hype train pulled in just as quickly as I imagine it will depart.

I owned a Royal Oak at one point, if you didn’t know. Now, I hate to go all hipster on you, but the reason I was able to own it was because pretty much everyone else thought it was uglier than Satan’s armpit. I paid less for it then than you would a brand new Moonwatch now. The Nautilus was the same, and so was the Aquanaut. Especially the Aquanaut. You couldn’t give those away.

So, my first thought was yes, the time of the integrated watch is coming to a close. Maybe not this year, but soon. But then I realised something. What if the hype for that 70s watch style was coming to an end, but not for everyone? We’ve spent the last few years watching the icons of this style becoming more and more of a unicorn. Even unicorns are like, damn, bro.

This trend we all talk about hasn’t really been enjoyed by us at all. We’ve been watching from the side lines, cuckolded by investors as we watch our dream timekeepers get abused by people who don’t care. But we care. The values may shrink and the media vans with their big satellite dishes may all drive away, leaving our little corner of the world abandoned and blistered with the scars of what just came, but we will still care.

That’s where Christopher Ward comes in. The Twelve—the bezel has twelve sides, that’s it—is the flashing lights of the red cross on the distance, here to nurse our ailing hobby back to health. It’s got what we need and it’s not going to bleed our wallets for the privilege.

It’s hardly original in its design. It’s obviously inspired by that 70s look, but the inspiration goes a little deeper than that. The twelve-sided bezel, angled into a flat circle in the middle, is lifted straight from the Zenith Defy Skyline. The crown guards and expansive dial proportions from the Czapek Antarctique. The dial itself owes a lot to the both the Zenith and the Czapek. The bracelet is formed of blended three-piece links like the PRX, except in the opposite direction. The only thing I can definitely find that’s not borrowed from any of the others is that the bracelet attaches to the outer edges of the case and not the inner.

But here’s the thing: this watch starts at $995, and as we’re about to find out, that money goes a long, long way. It’s like discovering the supermarket does an own-brand medicine you’ve been paying way too much for. In a way it’s a relief, because it means you can enjoy what you love most without feeling guilty about it. The Twelve comes at a very interesting time after the release of the Ingenieur, and as you’re about to see, it asks a lot of very difficult questions.

Review

So, The Twelve. It comes in two materials, steel or titanium. The steel model gets four dials, glacier blue, Nordic blue, basalt grey and arctic white. The titanium gets a smoky dial ringed in black with either astral blue or nebula purple in the middle. You have a choice of a metal bracelet or rubber strap, with the rubber available in black, dark blue and light blue. No fancy names for those.

The differences between the steel and titanium models extend just beyond the dials. Both materials have cases 40mm across, sealed with a screw-down crown to 100m, but the steel is 9.95mm thick and the titanium 8.95mm thick. That means both are nice and thin, but the titanium one is just a pinch thinner. Why? Because the steel model gets a straightforward Sellita SW200 and the titanium a chronometer certified SW300.

What this means is that The Twelve can be enjoyed across a variety of price points starting at just $995 in steel on rubber up to $1,825 for titanium on the bracelet. My personal favourite? Titanium on rubber at $1,375. The bracelet is pretty flexible, but on the rubber strap this watch works even on wrists down to six inches, the side profile of the case giving the illusion of the watch being even thinner than it already is.

What all the watches benefit from is a remarkable attention to detail and quality that makes you question the entire industry. I told you The Twelve is asking some very difficult questions, and be they practical or aesthetic, everyone else better start coming up with some answers, and quick. Let me walk you through it.

The case, even in titanium, is intricately sculpted and polished, with bevels on the crown guards, case edge, bezel and even on the inner portion where the case meets the strap, a detail that’s reflected all the way down the bracelet. The bracelet itself gets a quick release mechanism built into the watch and tapers well with screwed links to a double deployant clasp that embarrasses a 5711.

The dial gets a brushed, applied logo, and brushed hands and markers edged with polished chamfers. The dial itself has a repeating texture that apes the brand’s Swish logo, combining the Swiss and English flags. Even the date window, regardless of the dial colour, matches perfectly. When was the last time you saw that?!

There are so many facets to this watch that do things much more expensive manufacturers chose to cut corners on. The titanium is polished, something Rolex decided was too hard. The thickness of both materials is less than a centimetre, a slenderness the Ingenieur couldn’t manage. It blends the case and bracelet without any awkward joins like the Zenith Defy Skyline. All this, and it’s still made in Switzerland, the most expensive place in the world to make a watch.

Now, in the spirit of impartiality—because I’ve been waiting for a watch like this since I sold my Royal Oak and couldn’t get it back—I, very much not in the spirit of the embargo, showed this watch to a bunch of different people. I’m talking people with mega collections packed with Royal Oaks and Nautili, people who were thinking about their first watch more towards the lower end—and even people who make watches themselves with their bare hands and sell them for many, many monies. All of them said the same thing. This watch is unbelievably good.

The watch isn’t even for sale yet and a few of those people have already said they’re going to buy one. Heck, I’m going to buy one. Christopher Ward has answered the prayers of watch fans the world over in creating something that ticks virtually every single box in fat, black marker pen. The hype isn’t over. It’s just begun.

What do you think of the Christopher Ward The Twelve? Does it answer your prayers too? Do you also think the name is stupid?