Yes, the title is a pun. If it isn’t immediately obvious as to how don’t worry, we’ll get to that soon enough. For all of you who got it, well done. I hope you’re all wryly grinning as I was when I wrote it because you probably know what’s coming…
Christopher Ward Twelve X - Credit WatchGecko
I need to kick this off by once again apologising for being quite wrong about the Christopher Ward 12. When it was first released, my vacillation on its success as a design was on full display across several episodes of The Real Time Show, during which my co-hosts, Alon Ben Joseph and David Vaucher, went back and forth on its merits as a standalone piece of work or whether it was a masterpiece of “contextual design” (which is my new way of saying an opportunistically timed copy of something else that’s flying off the shelves, but often in another price point).
The comparisons of the CW 12 are obvious. It looks a bit like a Tissot PRX but a lot like a Czapek Antarctique. Both the PRX (a watered-down but highly commercial watch at a gob-smackingly accessible price point) and the Antarctique (a barnstorming disruptor in the luxury steel sports watch space) have dominated headlines over the past couple of years and so it seems entirely logical that Christopher Ward would want a slice of that pie. Whether the 12’s design was original enough to deserve it was a question I struggled with for a while until I acknowledged that the thing that matters most is not necessarily how it looks, but why it looks that way.
Christopher Ward Twelve X - Credit WatchGecko
The Antarctique and the Christopher Ward 12 were both designed by Adrian Buchmann. That makes a big difference to my interpretation of the 12. Had they been designed by different people, it would have been tough to get away from the likelihood the latter had been in some way inspired by the former. But accusing a designer of copying their own work kind of precludes the possibility of them having a style of their own.
We don’t look at two or more of the paintings from any of Picasso’s defined periods and scoff that, for example, Guernica and The Weeping Woman are basically the same thing because of their stylistic similarities. Instead, we look at their content, digest their message, and wrangle with what the artist intended us to feel when studying two very different works that just happen to both be presented in a cubist mode.
Christopher Ward Twelve X - Credit WatchGecko
Although I do see watchmaking as an art form, the parallels of the industry are not exact, thanks in large part to the vast material differences between watches — something that is barely a thing in the paint-on-canvas portion of the fine art world, unless you like to paint with liquid gold (which, I do believe, some people do…).
What that means is that there is scope for the same design principles to be applied across many different price levels with varying degrees of handwork, material development, or in-house manufacturing deployed to match the desires of these disparate demographics.
Christopher Ward Twelve X - Credit WatchGecko
Is it fair to say the Christopher Ward 12 is therefore a budget Czapek Antarctique? In a word, yes. But in the best possible way. This is similar to buying a Timex x Seconde/Seconde collaboration model for £250 instead of shelling out for the model he did with Moser. It’s the same as buying a Bvlgari Bvlgari Roma watch instead of a Patek Philippe Nautilus and getting that warm and fuzzy feeling inside for having bought into the Gerald Genta legacy for a song.
You get the artist but at a price you can afford. Better still, you get the same value-of-money assurance that Christopher Ward (with its transparent 3x mark-up strategy) is perhaps most famous for.
And the Christopher Ward 12 is value-for-money. It’s a lot of watch for a little over a grand. But the Christopher Ward 12 X?
That takes things further – much further.
Christopher Ward Twelve X - Credit WatchGecko
In 2023, Czapek unveiled the Antarctique Revelation. It was a skeletonised version of the Antarctique and it was the best new drop of the year for the brand (in this writer’s opinion). The one, teensy-weensy drawback? The 35K price tag. I liked the watch and I wanted it, but I like my house and wanted to keep on living in it more, so I regrettably had to pass. Now, we are presented with the titanium 12 X, which retails for just under £4,000 and boasts not only an aesthetic you might expect to pay more for — a lot more — but also the calibre SH21, which is the brand’s very own in-house engine that just so happens to be celebrating its first decade on the market.
Typically, I dislike skeletonised dials. I don’t like their busyness. I prefer excellent finishing and serenity to distracting springs, cogs, and jewels, that lack the kind of balance I look for in a watch display.
Christopher Ward Twelve X - Credit WatchGecko
Here, however, I am happy to eat my words. This watch reminds me of so many things I didn’t ever think I’d see in the sub-5K bracket I really do mean it when I say it is a revelation. At least for me, personally.
In this dial-less display, I don’t just see the Antarctique Revelation; I see shades of Armin Strom, Ulysse Nardin, even MING, for goodness’ sake! Astoundingly, the watch looks even better from the back, with the finger bridges and rotor weight combining beautifully for an edgy, industrial aesthetic of which I cannot get enough.
Christopher Ward Twelve X - Credit WatchGecko
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This watch is a chronometer. It has a modern (and, I think), timeless case made from brushed and polished titanium. It is water resistant to 100 meters. The movement is in-house and gorgeous to look at. The display is about as legible and toned-down as a skeletonised watch display can be (although would I like to see a version of this with a wafer-thin layer of smoked sapphire over the display and ceramic lume injected into engravings on the underside of the crystal itself to intensifies those MING vibes? You bet I would….
It’s a piece of up-to-date horology by a skyrocketing brand that has Go Anywhere, Do Anything credentials, for around half the price of the recently released Omega Speedmaster (which had a white dial, in case you missed the memo). When you think about it like that, even the brand power of Omega and the oh-so-stuck-in-the-past story behind the Speedy itself start to sound like woolly justifications for choosing it over this humdinger of a release.
Christopher Ward Twelve X - Credit WatchGecko
We'd already predicted that skeletonised watches would be a massive trend for 2024 and right on cue, Christopher Ward seem to be proving us right. I can’t wait to hear how this one is received by the watch community and look forward to seeing how it sells. For my money, it’s a winner — it is easily the best CW 12 yet, a coming-of-age model for the family, a satisfying triumph for Buchmann, an absolute bargain, and a gauntlet thrown down atop the many other gauntlets Christopher Ward has tossed confidently at the feet of its contemporaries. Game on.
