This year, we’ve seen a number of watches released to mark milestones. Those have generally been in terms of decades, and focused on when a particular model came into being. What about a movement? Can you make the passing of time for that introduction? Well, Christopher Ward certainly does, and they’ve introduced the Christopher Ward C60 Apex LE to do just that.
The milestone here, for the Christopher Ward C60 Apex LE, is the SH21 movement tucked inside. It was just five short years ago that this British-designed in house movement hit the scenes, and now it’s back, and it’s had a good bit of work done to it. In this case, Christopher Ward worked with one of my favorite watch companies (especially for doing interesting things with movements) Armin Strom to take the movement in the direction of semi-skeletonized. You get some glimpses of that on the dial side (via a cutout encircling the dial) and under the bright-orange bridge holding the power reserve indicator (in terms of days, not hours).
To really see the movement show, you need to flip the Christopher Ward C60 Apex LE over. There, you’ve got a skeletonized rotor that looks like a cut-off steering wheel, and plenty of views to the springs and gears in and amongst the blued bridges. This is a rather impressive caseback view (when we’re often just subjected to boring views of unfinished movements), and it’s almost a shame it’s hidden away on the back of the watch.
So, the movement of the Christopher Ward C60 Apex LE is cool, that’s covered. What about the watch itself? Well, the C60 line is also known as the Trident, which is a diver lineup. They’ve done their level best to make this a serious dive watch with a 300m WR rating, super-duper bright lume (Super-LumiNova® Grade X1 GL C1), and a uni-directional timing bezel with a lumed ceramic insert. Oh yeah, there’s also one of the less useful dive watch features (for most of us), the automatic helium escape valve. And if that weren’t enough to let you know it’s a dive watch, the dimensions of the stainless steel case will remind you – 42mm by a hefty 16.35mm thick. Gotta house that cool movement somewhere, yeah? Surprisingly, the specs list the weight at just 99g, which must be for the head only, or with it on the rubber strap.
Through and through, the Christopher Ward C60 Apex LE is a very cool and clever-looking diver, with a very nicely finished (and capable) movement. The odds of you seeing one in the wild – aside from buying one – are going to be slim. Only 100 pieces of this beastie are being produced, and if you want to snag one for your own wrist, bring along £3,495 for the privilege. We’ll add this one to the “wins” column for the watches CW has released this year, I do believe. christopherward.com
Watch Overview
- Brand & Model: Christopher Ward C60 Apex LE
- Price: £3,495
- Who we think it might be for:
- Would I buy one for myself based on what I’ve seen?
- If I could make one design suggestion, it would be:
- What spoke to me the most about this watch:
Tech Specs from Christopher Ward
- Calibre: Calibre SH21 – automatic with power reserve complication and date
- Frequency: 28,800 per hour
- Timing tolerance: -4/+6 seconds per day
- Case: 316L stainless steel
- Diameter: 42mm
- Height: 16.35mm
- Weight: 99gr
- Water resistance: 30 ATM (300 metres)
- Dial colour: Blue
- Lume: Super-LumiNova® Grade X1 GL C1
- Strap width: 22mm
- Lug to Lug: 54mm
- Features
- Limited Edition of 100 pieces
- Swiss made
- 35 jewel self-winding chronometer with power reserve complication
- 120-hour power reserve
- Hour, minute, central seconds, date
- Skeletonised bridge and decorated barrels, with anodised aluminium and tungsten rotor
- Brushed and polished marine-grade stainless steel case
- Unidirectional zirconia ceramic bezel
- Integrated automatic helium release valve
- Anti-reflective domed sapphire crystal
- Semi-open dial with circular brushed Ruthenium ring, engraved Ruthenium plate and orange anodised aluminium bridge
- Bevelled blue outer ring with white minute markers
- Blue power reserve indicator ring with orange numerals and circular brushed rhodium outer ring
- Altimeter-inspired date wheel
- Super-LumiNova Grade® X1 GL C1 hands, indexes and bezel
- Top-brushed indexes with diamond polished facets
- Sandblasted and polished hands
- Signature Trident counterbalance on seconds hand
- Exhibition backplate with unique engraved serial number
