Christopher Ward has announced a new watch in its C1 Collection, the range that introduced a moonphase function in 2015’s C9 Moonphase wristwatch and followed it up with 2019’s C1 Moonglow.
A moonphase is a watch complication that displays the sunlit portion of the moon, as seen from the Earth, at any given point during each 29.5-day lunar cycle. (That’s the time it takes to get from a new moon, when it’s not visible, to a full moon and back again.)
The new watch, known as the C1 Moonphase, follows the affordably-priced British brand's recent run of wrong-footing the industry with releases that offered unusually high specs at an unusually low prices.
In 2022, the C1 Bel Canto, the most affordable Swiss-made mechanical chiming watch in the world, retailed for £2,995 (prices of thousands of pounds are more usual) and was so in-demand it sold-out before Christopher Ward could hold its own launch party for it.
This summer, another watch, The Twelve, took the highly-popular integrated bracelet design and geometric case shape made desirable by Patek Philippe, Audemars Piguet and IWC in the 1970s, and incorporated it into a 36mm sports watch that sold for £1,050, again a fraction of the models its own advertising made cheekily clear it was aping.
Now the C1 Moonphase comes with a some similar standout features that show Christopher Ward’s enthusiasm to dominate the watch blogosphere chat remains undimmed.
First, the new C1's dial is made from aventurine, a glass-infused form of quartz, with reflective flakes of copper oxide that are said to represent the night sky. In another point of difference with other moonphases, the dial is starkly minimal – it features no indexes, markers or brand logo.
The point, says Christopher Ward, is to put the focus on the main event – the representation of the moon, some 25 per cent larger than shown on the brand's previous models.
Thanks to an innovative in-house movement, the calibre JJ04, the moon is linked to the hour hand and is in perpetual motion, meaning the phases of the moon remain accurately reproduced as the disc makes its 29.5-day journey around the dial.
So long as the watch stays wound the moon stays in perpetual motion – admittedly at a snail-paced rate, so that all its phases are accurately represented in a single smooth movement.
In addition, moonphase complications tend to be represented in sub-dials tucked away at 6 o'clock – not form the main focus of the timepiece.
Keep the watch wound and it will correctly track the moon in the night sky for the next 128 years.
By our estimations, just three or four perpetual monophases currently exist, in far steeper price brackets, including the red gold H. Moser & Cie Endeavour Perpetual Motion, at CHF 39,00, or around £35,000.
The C1 Moonphase retails at £1,995 on a leather strap and £2,120 on Christopher Ward’s latest bracelet, ‘The Consort’, described as having a ‘jewellery-like’ appearance and made from 127 individual links of brushed and polished steel.
The new watch measures 40.5mm in diameter, comes with a display caseback and a 38-hour power reserve.
“I think it’s our most beautiful watch ever,” said Mike France, company founder and CEO, at a launch event at London’s Royal Observatory Planetarium on October 25.
“The most asked-for complication was the moonphase. What we wanted to do was celebrate that magnificent celestial being in all of its glory. And so none of this ‘small aperture at 6 o’clock' nonsense for us. We wanted a huge moonphase."
"That’s what the C1 Moonphase is celebrating,”
