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The upward trajectory of Christopher Ward in the eyes of enthusiasts and collectors has been well documented over the last few years. The Bel Canto, of course, completely changed the game for the brand, and was an announcement to the broader watchmaking community of something ardent supporters have known for quite some time: that the team at Christopher Ward is capable of real outside-the-box thinking, and has an ambition to tweak expectations far beyond that of most brands in their price range. They have periodically introduced watches since that in one way or another qualify as what you might call “statement pieces,” or watches that seem to exist for the purpose of shifting the community’s expectations around the brand. The Twelve X, introduced earlier this year, is a perfect example, and I’d also point you toward a personal favorite of mine, the C1 Moonphase, which works as an art piece the same was some of the watches created by my favorite high end independents. Their latest offering, at least on the surface, is perhaps not as paradigm shifting as any of the watches mentioned previously, but it’s still generating an awful lot of chatter online for a series of dramatic improvements to just about every feature of a core offering from Christopher Ward: the dive watch.
The Trident collection, Christopher Ward’s dive watch range, is now in its 15th year, and the new C60 Trident Lumière is described by the brand as the pinnacle of the series to date. There are a few key points to consider with this new watch. First, the grade 2 titanium case has been designed to be as thin as possible, measuring just 10.85mm tall (and 41mm in diameter) while still maintaining a water resistance rating of 300 meters. Not only that, but this C60 also has a helium escape valve located on the 9:00 case flank. While this will not be a practical feature for most owners, it’s there as a watchmaking and manufacturing flex. It’s tough to think of a comparable diver with similar dimensions, water resistance, and an HEV for anything close to the price that Christopher Ward is asking.
The thinner case is made possible in part by the use of the Sellita SW300 movement, a more compact and longer running movement (it has a power reserve of 54 hours) than the SW200. It’s also been COSC certified, and should keep time to -4/+6 seconds per day.
I imagine the real appeal for many of the Lumière however will be the dial furniture that gives the watch its evocative, French language name. The new watches use ample amounts of Xenoprint’s Globolight lume material, which is a ceramic infused with Super-LumiNova. The end result are solid blocks of very bright lume that have a lot more depth and glow more dramatically than a typical lume coating. Each hour marker is a block of faceted Globolight, as are the hands, and the Christopher Ward logo. Numerals and markers on the ceramic bezel are also lumed, so in the dark the Lumière really puts on a show. According to the brand, there are a total of 17 applied Globolight pieces on each dial, for five times the total lume seen on a typical Trident, and it’s expected to glow twice as brightly.
There are three dial variants of the Lumière available at launch: blue, black and orange. All appear to have a subtle grained texture, with the blue variant also including a matching bezel insert (the black and orange dials both have black bezels). The Lumière ships on a titanium bracelet with Christopher Ward’s new push button micro-adjustable clasp, as well as an Aquaflex rubber strap. The retail price is $2,390. Christopher Ward
