The love affair between British brand Christopher Ward and Amsterdam-based legacy retailer Ace Jewelers has been in full swing over the past twelve months. Industry veteran and co-owner of Ace Alon Ben Joseph, and co-founder and CEO of Christopher Ward Mike France quickly established a close working relationship, built on mutual respect and the huge amount of combined experience their partnership brought to the table.
Ace Jewelers was founded in 1975 by David Ben Joseph. Nowadays, it is owned and operated by his two sons, Alon and Amir. Both men have grown up in and around the watch and jewellery industries and are deeply passionate about their work, Ace’s position in the local community, and providing excellent customer service that focuses on uniting genuinely passionate people with their perfect luxury item.
The Ace & Dik boutique is located just across the road from the Rijksmuseum on one of the most prestigious streets in the Dutch capital. As a certified pre-owned retailer as well as an authorised dealer for many luxury brands, it is possible to find watches from industry-leading names such as Rolex, Patek Philippe, and Audemars Piguet sitting alongside more modern names such as Christiaan van der Klaauw, NOMOS Glashütte, and Frederique Constant.
In recent years, Ace has become a leader in the field of collaboration. Utilising the Ben Joseph family’s deep roots in the industry and thousands of connections, Alon and Amir have worked tirelessly to bring to market a series of (often) Amsterdam-inspired timepieces or watches that celebrate the famous Dutch orange. Brands such as Bamford, Airain, NOMOS Glashütte, Frederique Constant, van der Klaauw, and more have been featured in the retailer’s rotation, with many more projects planned for the future.
Meanwhile, Christopher Ward is the UK’s leading mechanical watchmaker. Founded in 2004, the brand was best known in its early days for its transparent pricing structure that clearly communicated to the customer exactly what the watches cost to make — one third of whatever the retail cost would be.
This was a stunning move at the time. While several brands have tried to emulate the strategy since, nothing beats being the first one to the party. This business model is Christopher Ward’s thing, and it always will be.
For years, the brand produced good quality but more emulative pieces, referencing popular and existing watch styles. Latterly, however, the brand has upped its game in serious fashion, releasing stunning original timepieces like The Twelve and the GPHG-winning Bel Canto.
Interestingly, the brand’s open pricing structure and clearly small margins means one thing: working with retailers, at least in a traditional manner, is almost impossible to do at a profit for both. That’s where the special relationship between Mike and Alon came into play, and with a bit of flexibility born of their shared passion for collaboration, that hurdle was overcome.
Christopher Ward x Ace Jewelers 'The Hebrew Twelve'
Choosing which platform to use for their first collaboration was straightforward. A fan of integrated steel sports watches, Ben Joseph instantly gravitated towards the popular “Twelve” model, designed by his good friend, Adrian Buchmann.
“It was a natural fit, I’ve followed Adrian’s work for years and always love working with him on any kind of project. When Christopher Ward expressed the willingness to create a special model for Ace, I jumped at the chance and instantly knew which direction I wanted to go in that both respected the design tenets of The Twelve while referencing my own culture. The Twelve Hebrew follows in the footsteps of previous collaborations Ace has pursued, celebrating other cultures around the world and is a simple but meaningful twist on what has become an established modern classic in the entry-level space.”
The Christopher Ward x Ace Jewelers Hebrew Twelve vivid blue fumé dial utilising the classic Twelve pattern has been paired with an applied 12 o’clock index in Hebrew. Although it may well be low-hanging fruit to draw attention to “the 12 of The Twelve”, it’s a satisfying way of giving this watch its own character while nodding to the name of the model. Given Ben Joseph’s history of using different scripts in his previous collaborations (most notably with Elka on the collaborative Diversity Series), it seems plausible that should this model meet with success, further international iterations of The Twelve may follow.
One interesting aspect of this model is the gradient blue dial. Although gradient dials are not uncommon and a much-beloved feature of many Twelve models, all of those pieces up until this point have been titanium. This is the first time Christopher Ward has produced a stainless steel model with this striking dial finish. Furthermore, the richer, vivid blue makes for a striking contrast against the whiter case and bracelet material. It is a fresh, rugged watch that captures the zeitgeist perfectly and will surely interest fans of Christopher Ward, collectors of Ace Limited Edition timepieces (of which there are many), and supporters of the British watchmaking scene (which, thanks to brands like Christopher Ward and Studio Underd0g is making serious waves in the industry right now).
At 40mm wide, 9.95mm thick, and boasting an extremely compact 44.5mm lug-to-lug, the watch head of this “C12” weighs just 65g, and a mere 160g on the bracelet (which, for many lovers of The Twelve is one of the main selling points). Beating away inside the case, which itself is water-resistant to 100m, is the Swiss-made automatic Sellita SW200-1 caliber, which has a run time of 38-hours on a full wind.
Limited to 50 pieces worldwide, the Christopher Ward × Ace Jewelers The Twelve Hebrew will retail for €1,350 including VAT (around £1,125 at the time of going to press), and is available now via a private page on the Christopher Ward website.
