If I didn’t like their watches so much, I’d probably be sick of hearing about Christopher Ward by now.
The 20-year-old British independent brand has been on an incredible hot streak over the past two years thanks to a continuous hit parade of releases from the chiming Bel Canto in 2022 to the cheeky (and sold-out) Desk Diver collab with seconde-seconde just last week.
But arguably the brand’s greatest recent achievement was its introduction of the Twelve last year. An integrated sports watch with a level of finishing and detail previously unseen at its ~$1,000 price point, the Twelve quickly became the brand’s de facto flagship and has since expanded to offer a broad array of sizes, colors and materials (the CW site lists 42 references on the Twelve’s product page).
Now, Christopher Ward has made yet another update to the Twelve, and it’s one that vastly improves the watch but, shockingly, won’t cost you any extra money.
In Need of an Adjustment
Earlier this year, CW introduced the Twelve X, a titanium, skeletonized version of the watch powered by the brand’s in-house Calibre SH21 automatic movement. At $4,865, the Twelve X is nearly more than four times the cost of a stainless steel Twelve on a bracelet, and more than double the price of a Sellita-powered titanium Twelve chronometer.
The higher price of the Twelve X is largely due to its use of an in-house movement and the more intricate finishing requirements of its skeletonized dial, but the watch also introduced some new technology to the Twelve. Namely, it features an innovative butterfly clasp that offers on-the-fly micro-adjustability, a feature strikingly similar to the one seen on the clasp of the $25,000 Vacheron Constantin Overseas.
