Review: Christopher Ward C1 Bel Canto 41mm Azzurro Blue
An hour chime timepiece that is sure to bring many years of horological joy
The Christopher Ward C1 Bel Canto is no doubt one of the most intriguing novelties unveiled in 2022. Without any prior announcement, the first 300 pieces “Azzurro Blue” were sold out in 7 hours on Nov. 1, 2022. One week later, the second 300 pieces “Verde Green” were all snatched up by watch lovers in mere 2.5 hours. A waitlist button on the site collected 7000+ email addresses in a month. There was a ton of buzz around this chiming watch designed for the watch enthusiasts .
I was very lucky to have placed an order ahead of the 301th buyer on that first day. The Bel Canto ticked 3 boxes on my wish list, which allowed me to pull the trigger quickly. First, I had always wanted to add a watch with an openworked dial. My grail is the AkriviA AK-06, an unobtainium for most folks. Secondly, I was intrigued by watches that make beautiful sounds. But the only affordable option was an alarm watch, which just didn’t sound that appealing. Thirdly, I had been looking for a watch from the UK for my collection.
The Bel Canto arrived from across the pond two months later via DHL in a gorgeous wooden box. Along came a hand-written note from Mr. Mike France, the CEO of Christopher Ward. It reads “I hope your new Bel Canto brings many years of horological joy”. The song bird has landed on my wrist safe and sound! What an incredible mechanical art and horological wonder! The beauty and sound were just beyond expectation. I was over the moon.
A Brief History of the Young Brand
Christopher Ward (CW) was founded by Mike France, Peter Ellis and Chris Ward in 2004 in Berkshire, England. It was the first online-only watch retailer selling timepieces directly to the consumer. The British designs and value pricing had won over a group of loyal fans. They even started a forum dedicated the brand which attracted even new customers through words of mouth.
In 2014, CW announced the merge with Synergies Horlogères SA, a Swiss supplier with whom they had worked closely for many years. On the same day, Caliber SH21, an in-house movement was announced too. It is a certified chronometer with an impressive 5-day power reserve. This merge proved to be a game-changer for CW’s future, as it now holds in-hand true watchmaking know-how. The winning strategy of British designs combined with Swiss watchmaking finally came into focus. A comprehensive watch offerings were further enhanced by e-commerce savvy, ingenious marketing and responsive customer support. The new CW logo reflects this Anglo-Swiss brand positioning, which consists of twin-flags of England and Switzerland.
The booming watch market from 2020 to early 2022 led to a crowded field of many micro-brands. How could CW stand out and win over even more demanding watch collectors? The talents from CW’s offices in Biel and Maidenhead worked tirelessly for 3 years towards a hit. The answer was an hour chime, or in French, a sonnerie au passage. It is an audible reminder of the passing of time, at the top of each hour. The remarkable achievement was to bring this chiming complication with a stunning openworked dial at an amazing price point. This watch was lovely named bel canto, meaning “beautiful singing” in Italian.
The Teams Behind the Bel Canto
While the Bel Canto was a delight for watch lovers everywhere, many folks in the industry and media perhaps were caught off-guard. In hindsight, it should not be a total surprise, if we look at the talented teams assembled at CW.
Mike France, CEO of CW
Jörg Bader, CEO of CW Switzerland
Frank Stelzer, Technical Director
Jörg Bader Junior, Head of Product
Adrian Buchmann, Head of Product Design
Will Brackfield, Watch Designer
Swiss suppliers
Armin Strom (the platine)
Chronode (the bridges, hammer and gong)
Viquo Deco (the special wheels)
Mr. Jörg Bader was leading Synergies prior to the merge in 2014 and continues to manage the CW team in Switzerland. With a watchmaker father, he is really an industry veteran born into the profession. Jörg’s immerse connections with the Swiss industry proved to be an “unfair” advantage that few other young brands can match. Taking a novel product like Bel Canto from the drawing board to market really took a village.
Mr. Frank Stelzer worked at Omega for 6 years before joining Synergies in 2012. He now leads the watchmaking team at CW as a technical director. Frank took over the helm from Mr. Johannes Jahnke in 2017, who was with Synergies for almost 10 years. Johannes worked for Lang & Heyne prior to Synergies and now is a senior leader at Sellita. We will see their names again when we discuss the movement for Bel Canto a bit later.
Interestingly, Mr. Adrian Buchmann is a Swiss who joined CW’s office in England in 2015. He was credited with creating the unique aesthetics defining the CW collection.
Clearly, The CW teams are led by the best talents in the watch business with strong passion and dedication. The close collaboration among the watch-making team, product team and design team paved the way to Bel Canto. The flawless executions by the top-notch Swiss manufacturing partners carried the project to the finishing line.
Bel Canto: The Look
The invention of openworked dials elevated the watchmaking to a whole new level. Wearers are able to admire the beauty and intricacy of the mechanical creations with ease. The true masterpieces would showcase the highlighted structures, while hiding the rest components. In the case of MB&F LM101, it is the balance wheel right at the center of the 3-D dial. On the openworked dial of AkriviA AK-06, it is the eye-catching power reserve indicator. For the Bel Canto, it got to be the chiming mechanism, the whimsical song bird.
Just like the more complicated minute repeater, Bel Canto comes with a hammer and a gong. The steel gong is placed along the edge of the dial. It has been tuned so the sound is a delight for the ears while being loud enough to be heard from the wrist. The hammer is the tail of the song bird. The red ‘beak’ is actually the on-off mechanism, controlled by a pusher at 4 o’clock, and moves to indicate whether the chime is on or off.
The hour and minute sub-dial is placed in the top half of the dial, which is supported by bridges that match with the body of the song bird. It is a very clean design that draws our attention to the chiming mechanism and the sub-dial. The dazzling blue platine can be viewed without much obstruction. The sunburst patterns are radiating from the center of the sub-dial and playing with the light.
What could I say more? The Bel Canto is literally a mechanical art, a 3-D horological masterpiece and a reference design for combining form with function. It is a beauty to behold.
Bel Canto: The Sound
At Patek Philippe, Mr. Thierry Stern insists on acoustically assessing each chiming watch with his own ears before it is released for delivery to the customer. The chiming complication represents the pinnacle of watchmaking, yet it is like a mysterious art without definitive blue prints. It simply takes years of trials and errors to master the sound making within a tiny space. This was what the CW team had to do over 4 years to get one single ding right. About 60 spring (gong) prototypes were tested before the best one was chosen.
The sound of Bel Canto is sweet, pure, gentle and very satisfying. It is not loud, but the wearer can hear it fore sure from the wrist in a normal environment. It is a pleasant reminder of the arrival of a new hour. It was funny that I liked to check the time on my mobile phone after I heard the ring, haha. I would keep the chime on even during the night. A watch hobby friend told me that he “loved being surprised by the chime”. Another collector said the chime was “a gentle reminder that time is passing … no matter how busy or distracted you are.” I could not agree more.
Here are some samples of Bel Canto sound:
Bel Canto: The Movement
The movement inside Bel Canto is Caliber FS01, named after the technical director Frank Stelzer. It consists of a Sellita SW200-1 automatic base movement and a chiming module. Frank started the development work from Caliber JJ01 which is movement for the jumping hour complication. JJ01 was developed under Johannes Jahnke and named by his initials. A jumping hour caliber must store energy every hour to push the hour disk rapidly. The modifications were made to energize the hammer to strike at the gong.
But that was just the easy part of the work. Mike France recalled that “with Bel Canto we wanted to bring the striking mechanism to the front, so the wearer could watch it in action.” The final openworked design led to 50 new components created for FS01, on top of JJ01.
Now, we might see why Frank Stelzer left the giant company in Biel to join a small atelier in the same town. He was given the opportunity to do crazy things and got a movement named after him. In this regard, the watch industry is just like tech or other industries - the small players often lead the innovations in the field.
Bel Canto: Specifications, Features and Prices
The Bel Canto comes with the option for a bracelet, a blue leather strap and a blue rubber strap. I ordered the leather and rubber straps. The watch feels light with the titanium case. Some folks may prefer it to be a bit heftier, but it suits me just fine. The watch wears very comfortably on the wrist.
Specifications, features and prices:
Size: 41mm
Height: 13mm
Lug-to-lug: 48mm
Case material: titanium
Weight (without bracelet/strap): 53g
Water proof: 3ATM (30m)
Power reserve: 38 hours
Deep-stamped case-back with sound-wave motif
Anti-reflective domed sapphire crystal
3D hand finished bridges, spring, and hammer mechanism
Sunray finished module plate
Mirror polished chiming gong
60/60: 60 day free return and 60 month movement guarantee
Prices (USD)
$ 3,975.00, with the titanium bracelet
$3,595.00, with the calf leather strap
$105.00, the rubber strap
The CW founders decided early on they would not charge over 3x the markup from their costs. It is quite unusual for any companies to openly declare their pricing strategy. But this is what makes CW special. Indeed, close to $4K for a Bel Canto is a fantastic price.
The Subsequent Iterations of Bel Canto
The launch of Bel Canto in November 2022 with blue and green dials was certainly a smashing success. The strong interest might be even beyond the most optimistic expectation by the CW teams. To meet the surging demand, four new colors were announced in mid-January 2023. These are not limited models, so anyone who wants one should be able to get one. However, due to long manufacturing lead time, the delivery of these new colors will take place in the second half of 2023 (for folks who have already placed the orders). If you order a piece today, the expected delivery time is February, 2024.
The latest iteration is a 200-piece custom C1 Bel Canto for the watch collector group “Watches@”. Catching our eyes in the rendering below are the frosted gold dial and blued hands. The color of the beak is blue as well. The blued hands will improve the legibility when reading the time from the sub-dial. Another modification in the case back is an “@” in the center of the sound-wave motif.
Final Thoughts
I first knew Christopher Ward through its C1 Moonglow, one of the most beautiful moon-phase watches ever created. I signed up their newsletters and subscribed to Loupe, a free quarterly print magazines. I was so happy to finally put on my wrist a CW timepiece, the C1 Bel Canto. As I mentioned in the beginning, it ticked quite a few boxes for me. What a tremendous delight to own a limited-edition openworked chiming watch, the first English brand to join my collection!
Quite a few my collector friends have received their Bel Cantos or have one on the way. Everyone was so pleased with the look and sound of the watch. I simply could not remember another recent watch release that had generated similar excitement among watch people. An important factor is of course the amazing price point for such a complication. The overwhelmingly positive responses will motivate the Christopher Ward teams to continue their relentless efforts. We will see more fantastic horological creations carrying the twin-flags logo in the future for sure.
Thank you for the wonderfully detailed review! Do you know of anyone who might consider selling their Bel Canto Azurro?
Lovely review, your joy and enthusiasm shines through. 👏