For a watch company that is not even two decades old, Christopher Ward is an undeniable success story in the horological world. Founded by Christopher Ward, Mike France and Peter Ellis on a boat on the river Thames in 2004, the first watch was only released fifteen years ago. The company has come a long way in the decade and half since then. While not a household name, Christopher Ward has become known among watch enthusiasts for their designs and value for money.
Their most recent release, the C65 Anthropocene, is a 300-piece limited edition watch inspired by vintage aesthetics and environmental concerns. The impetus came from the opera Anthropocene, which makes reference to the eponymous geological age we currently living in, defined by humanity’s impact on the planet. The opera is a poignant reminder of crucial issues of our time – climate change, sacrifice and our ceaseless quest for knowledge. While watching his daughter Jennifer playing “Ice” in the Scottish Opera’s 2019 production of “Anthropocene”, Mike France (CEO and Co-Founder at Christopher Ward) found the ethereal visuals of the opera’s frozen landscape an inspiration for the watch aesthetics and the C65 Anthropocene was born.
The watch itself is a classic GMT function watch. An outer bezel with a 24-hour marker, the second time zone hour hand, hours, minutes, and a date. The layout is familiar and well known since the 1950s/1960s. What sets this watch apart from the usual GMT design is its peerless matt white dial. Obviously, given the inspiration for its design, the purity of the dial stems from the Anthropocene Opera’s frozen landscape. In terms of watch aesthetics, the white dial with black outlined Super-LumiNova® markers, black hands, and the vibrant orange 24-hour hand, makes the reading of time extremely legible and instantaneous. The 24-hour bezel is anodized aluminium.
Under the dial, the watch is powered by a Sellita SW330 movement finished to Christopher Ward’s requirements. For those wondering what a Sellita SW330 movement is, Sellita are the only quality Swiss base ebauche (movement blanks to you and me) manufacturer to rival Swatch Group’s ETA. The Sellita SW330 sits behind a number of quality GMT function watches on the market. It is, like the overall watch design, a tough and dependable mechanical automatic movement.
As the term Anthropocene refers to our current era of human impact on the earth’s ecosystem, Christopher Ward will be contributing 5% of sales from this watch to an environmental charity.
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