I have been a very long time without a wrist watch, ever since my Accurist died after 12 years of faithful service and only one battery change after 7 years. So I started hunting around and came across these beautiful watches after listening to a radio 4 story about watch makers and the return to traditional, classic mechanical movement time-pieces, it got me excited again to buy a quality watch.
Although Christopher Ward is a relatively young company, they have been impressing buyers in the watch market since the company was founded on a river boat in 2004. This company is known for having very high quality watches for a surprisingly low price. Critics and average consumers alike have praised this company since they started to grow in 2005.
When the company took off in ’05 it was right after they launched the C3 Malvern Chronograph and the C5 Malvern Automatic. Being a new company, Ward Watches owes most of its buzz to the internet because of the many forums and blogs that have discussed the company. The biggest and probably most influential areas of the internet that had included discussions on the Ward company were a Timezone and Rolex forum; and also the famous watch blogger Dave Malone (who resides in Australia) wrote about them after purchasing a Malvern Automatic. In Malone’s article he gave the watch a good amount of praise, although his original intentions were to expose that a good watch could not be bought for such a low price.
Some of the styles of watches that they have for men include classic/ dress, aviation, sport, and diving watches. A nice model of the classic/ dress model watches is the C20 Lido watch. This watch is available with black leather, brown leather, or a metal linked watch band. The design of this watch certainly brings one back as it has the classy simple look, but as this watch maintains its simplicity throughout it also carries a beauty to it in all of its aspects by being finely crafted. The notches for time seem to protrude slightly from the surface and show the depth that went into the watch, and the hands look almost like finely crafted swords. A watch along the same line of the Lido is the C7 Rapide.
When compared to the Lido, there are some very big differences between the two watches. From a beauty standpoint the Rapide is the clear winner. The Rapid has a lot going on with numerous dials for a stop watch function and various readings along the perimeter of the watch, but it brings all of this complexity together beautifully and is like an angelic harmony for the eyes. One could look at this watch for an hour and may have still missed some of its beauty, as every singe detail seemed to have been mapped out and carefully thought out before hand by both artists and technicians. The glorious white and silver face contrasts beautifully with a black band, but other bands are also available.
Along with a great product, Christopher Ward is a company that is courteous and accommodating to its customers. Ward vows to listen to complaints, their ethics include a section on finding what bothers people and many of their policies reflect this such as their return policy and their available warranty offers. Ward offers a completely free return on all watches for sixty days after purchase with no questions asked. Christopher Ward Watches is a brilliant company, and at this point it seems that they will stand the test of time.