You see it clearly - it's the Christopher Ward C60 Sapphire

While you may not be down with all of the nomenclature, you are aware of the Christopher Ward C60 Trident lineup. It’s been seeing a lot of design changes and tweaks lately. It’s sort of like that universal platform that just lends itself to mods, it seems. The latest of these? The Christopher Ward C60 Sapphire.

For watches, sapphire crystals are nothing new. Even outside of watches, we’re seeing synthetic sapphire show up in other places (like the lens of your iPhone camera). But, what about INSIDE the watch? Yes, the crystal on top, that’s almost a given. But under that? Well, that’s what CW has done here with the dial.

We’ve seen translucent dials before, and I’ve reviewed a couple. While it can seem a little gimmicky, it is a delightful way to have an open-work dial without actually, you know, having to cut into the dial. Which isn’t to say that this dial didn’t require work, because they certainly had to cut, grind, and polish this just right to get it to fit the case, as well as retain the optical characteristics.

For me, it certainly doesn’t hurt that the sapphire dial of the Christopher Ward C60 Sapphire is a lovely blue (the same tint is used on the exhibition caseback as well). The dial itself gives that lovely floating effect for the printed stuff (logo and the like) as well as the indices, and allows you to see some of the movement (and the whole date wheel, never my favorite thing). I find it curious that they didn’t do anything to gussy up what you can see of the movement, be it finishing or some engraving. Perhaps it was a cost control measure.

That said, the movement in the Christopher Ward C60 Sapphire is the well-known Sellita SW200, which is just about as basic of a work horse as you can get for a Swiss movement these days while avoiding the ETA-pocalypse. All of this is wrapped in the case that still maintains the 600m WR rating – no mean feat coming in under 13mm thick. That means the bezel is a dive timer (uni-directional) with some tasty lume – both blue and white, though we’ve not seen a lume shot as of yet.

The best part of all this? Pricing on the Christopher Ward C60 Sapphire starts at just ?795 (approx $991). Which means, for under a grand, you’re getting a Swiss-powered dive watch that is actually capable of diving, with a bit of panache courtesy of that sapphire-hued dial. While the rubber-and-textile strap is interesting (as we covered in this review), I’d recommend that as a second option, and get the bracelet if funds allow. The watch was just released today, but we’ll of course see about getting a loaner in for a hands-on look at that new dial. christopherward.com