Christopher Ward gets a fair bit of love here at WWR, mainly because they produce high quality, attractive watches at affordable price points. Now in their 10th year, the company is updating their line of dive watches, the Christopher Ward Trident Collection. The new collection offers four choices of movements, along with a number of other improvements and two case sizes.
The entry into the Trident range utilizes a Ronda 515 quartz movement in a re-engineered case depth rated to 300 meters. The watch is offered in both 38mm and 42mm case diameters, with prices ranging from $415 for a watch with a NATO or leather strap to $495 for the watch on a stainless bracelet. There are five colors available for the 120-click unidirectional bezel, black, orange, blue, green and red; all the watches have black dials except the blue bezeled version, which comes with a blue dial. All the Tridents are Swiss made and feature a Guilloche wave pattern dial and the trident counterbalance on the second hand, as well as SuperLuminova SLN-T-C1, for increased visibility in the dark.
The next model up is the Trident Pro, which is the entry point for the mechanical Tridents. The look of the case remains the same, as does the choice of 42 or 38mm case sizes, but the depth rating is increased to 600m and utilizes either an ETA 2824-2 or Sellita SW200-1 automatic movement. The other major upgrade from the quartz version is the inclusion of a zirconia ceramic bezel.
There are 6 color combinations for the Pro: the black bezel is offered with either a black or white dial, the blue bezel comes with a blue dial, and the green and red bezels are offered with a black dial. Missing from the options on the automatics is the orange bezel, which was always my favorite. I assume that producing an orange ceramic is an issue, and hope this color will be offered in the future. There are four different strap options, each at $825, and the watch on the stainless bracelet is $915.
The next step up in the line integrates Patrick’s favorite complication, a GMT hand. The GMT shares the case specifications of the Pro, but utilizes an ETA 2893-2 automatic movement. The options here are somewhat simplified, with black, green and red bezels, all with a black dial featuring the line’s Guilloche wave pattern. Again, the watch is offered in both 42mm and 38mm cases, both sizes with the ceramic bezel. The strap options are for red or black leather straps, a black leather NATO strap, or a black natural rubber strap, all available for $1,100. The watch on a stainless bracelet is $1,185.
The final version is a COSC certified three hand automatic driven by the in house SH21 movement. The COSC version is a pre-order for February delivery. The watch is offered only in 42mm with a white dial and black ceramic bezel, on either an alligator or rubber strap or stainless bracelet. The rubber strap version is $2,065, while the ethically produced alligator strap with a deployment buckle (available as an option on leather all non-NATO straps) or stainless bracelet is $2,275. The in-house movement beats at 28.800 vph and has a timing tolerance of +6/-4 seconds per day. The COSC version is limited to 300 pieces.
