Christopher Ward Debuts a Pair of C63 Sealanders with their SH21 Movement

Christopher Ward’s C63 Sealander, the brand’s value oriented, all purpose sports watch that debuted in April 2021, is getting an upgrade this week, and for a good cause. With all of the press concerning Christopher Ward’s Bel Canto at the end of last year, it would be easy to forget that they have another, perhaps even more significant, horological achievement in the Calibre SH21 movement. This five day, chronometer certified movement is the brand’s flagship, and the first industrialized mechanical caliber from a British watch brand in fifty years. It’s genuinely historic, so when they put it in a watch for the first time, it’s a special occasion by default. These new Sealanders live up to the occasion not just in terms of design and aesthetics, but by being the face of a worthy charitable endeavor as well. 

The C63 SH21 Blue Marine is the latest watch that Christopher Ward has made in partnership with the Blue Marine Foundation, a marine conservation organization that the brand has worked with several times. For this release, 5% of the sale price of Blue Marine watch will go back to the organization to benefit their efforts around cleaning the ocean of rising levels of plastics. Similarly, the C63 SH21 Snow Leopard is being launched with the David Shepherd Wildlife Foundation, another longtime Christopher Ward charitable partner. The DSWF is a wildlife charity that funds conservation projects throughout Africa and Asia, and for this release 5% of the sale of each watch will go specifically to projects aimed at preserving snow leopard populations in Mongolia and Kyrgyzstan.

Both watches follow the general format of the C63 Sealander, but with design details that drive home the charitable cause each is associated with. For the Blue Marine, that means a teal dial with a dramatic wave pattern running horizontally across it, with high contrast white, lume filled, hour markers and hands. For the Snow Leopard, we get a white dial with a textured leopard-print motif, and small bright blue accents in the power reserve indicator and at each hour marker. The dial designs are both very on-the-nose, but they look nice enough that I think Christopher Ward can be forgiven. As with Grand Seiko and other brands that design dials in concert with some specific aspect of the natural world, all that matters at the end of the day is that you find them aesthetically pleasing to look at, and I think both examples here succeed in that regard. 

Cases for these Sealanders follow previous examples, coming in at 41mm in diameter with the same distinctive “light catcher” geometry that highlights Christopher Ward’s excellent finishing. The real star here though, as mentioned above, is the SH21 movement. It’s chronometer certified and has a full five days of power reserve, which is indicated in a subdial at 9:00 on the dial. Since this caliber was introduced in 2014, it has been used somewhat sparingly, saved primarily for high profile releases, limited editions, and special watches that see the brand stretching what it is that they might be, so to have the SH21 wrapped up the relatively simple C63 Sealander feels like a win, and a somewhat under the radar way to enjoy the caliber. 

The retail price on both the Blue Marine and Snow Leopard comes in at $1,925. Christopher Ward