Some of my threads and posts might indicate I am a big fan of watches.

Bad news tends to travel further and faster than good news. This is not a story about a bad interaction but rather an incredibly positive interaction with two companies.

Due to my carelessness I accidentally installed an aftermarket bracelet that had one of the ends reversed so that the open part to get a tool in to remove spring bar was on the end with the clasp. Uh oh. I managed to get a bracelet stuck on my brand new automatic chronograph. This watch does not have drilled lugs like the one the bracelet came off of so I discovered the problem at the worst possible time. Frustration ensued and damage was inflicted upon my beautiful new wrist watch. This isn’t an inexpensive watch that I F&$@ked up either.

I shot an email out to the manufacturer explaining how my dumb mistake resulted in aesthetic damage to my gorgeous Christopher Ward C60 automatic Chronograph. Within 24 hours I had an email response and a shipping label. Christopher Ward’s representative offered to ship it back to the U.K. on their dime and assess the tomfoolery I inflicted as well as perform a regulation while it was back at the manufacturer. That’s incredibly fair.

I printed off shipping labels, packaged up my beloved C60 and called DHL. I get a human being on the phone in less than a minute who asks me if I will be home for the next 1-2 hours for them to pick it up or if I needed more time. Wow! DLH was already my favorite shipping company because of my MANY positive interactions with their company so I knew they were good but this surprised me.

DHL is awesome. They were not joking about that time frame. My watch is already on its way back to the U.K. Christopher Ward is great too and they have already exceeded my expectations. No, I don’t expect them to fix it for free, I made it abundantly clear I goofed up and know this will cost me. Fingers crossed it doesn’t cost me too much.

If you have been considering a Christopher Ward watch I can say with my experience owning three of them now that they are superb watches. Their designers are creating some beautiful mechanical masterpieces. I wish I had discovered them sooner.

This message has been edited. Last edited by: stickman428,

I’m no watch connoisseur, but your post prompted me to check the site and I found the C65 “Sandhurst” interesting as the very plain style I like. Are all their watches ordered directly from the company via the web site? How long do deliveries usually take? Why do you like their watches?

Sigfreund,

Yes, you order direct from their website. By cutting out the middle man and not having a dealer network it allows Christopher Ward to offer VERY high quality watches at a damn competitive price especially when you compare them to the luxury brands that cost a lot more and offer little to no actual increase in quality or components.

You can use the coupon code “125LOUPE24” as a coupon code to get $125 off any Christopher Ward watch over $625 until March 31. Discovering this coupon code that they do quarterly I believe actually encouraged me to buy my first Christopher Ward watch.

Deliveries are blazing fast and take about 2-3 days.

I own a lot of watches and I adore this brand. The quality is fantastic the components used including Swiss Made automatic movements are superb and their warranty and customer support is also VERY VERY VERY good. When it comes to designs and bang for your buck Christopher Ward is pretty damn hard to beat.

Among the most persnickety in the watch community you will find a common emphasis on “in house movements” or basically movements that the company designs and builds. Christopher Ward also deserves accolades for investing in VERY neat in-house movements as a way to elevate their brand and show just what they are capable of. Those will be the most expensive in their line up but also showcase their watchmaking prowess.

Thanks. I will have to give it some serious thought.

It’s subjective of course but I really like their style.

This stealthy DLC finished (Diamond Like Carbon) C60 Abyss GMT has been on my wrist for nearly a month non stop. I love the contrasting gun metal gray and black DLC along with the silver hands and how they catch the light.

DLC coating is tough as nails. If I were to smack this watch on something hard the finish would not flake off but dent in along with the stainless steel.

It is right now -9 seconds from atomic time and will catch up a little closer to being dead on as my physical movement throughout the day winds it up the mechanical movement. That isn’t bad for being set almost a month ago.

I also like that for $40 Christopher Ward will custom engrave many of their watches. This one has a personalized laser engraving on it which makes the brand and watch even more special.

This one has a quick detach mechanism built into the bracelet so I could remove it without any tools in less than 2 seconds. I put it on a mesh bracelet briefly but realized it looks best on its original bracelet.

I should also mention it has a mechanism built into the clasp that allows you to adjust the bracelet size slightly so you can fine tune without any tools and very easily for ideal comfort.

It’s damn hard to find all these features from a luxury watch competitor and even if you do you’ll pay 3-4 times as much money if not more.

sigfreund, I just remembered something interesting and probably worth mentioning as a possibility I’ve experienced with my international watch purchases. There is a slight chance you may have to pay an import duty fee.

Why did I say possibility? Because it does seem to be applied randomly. I’ve looked online on a large watch forum and it seems to be a the luck of the draw situation as to whether you will be hit with the fee or not.

In my last 5-6 watches to come from Germany or the U.K. I have been hit with a duty fee only once and it was actually fairly easy to handle thanks to DHL’s extremely streamlined payment process.

Of course they hit me on one of my most expensive watch purchases but it was not too bad. It was $89 that DHL collected for the duty fee. I bought another watch two months later from the same company that got flagged for a duty fee (Christopher Ward) previously and the second watched sailed right through without any duty fee.

Thanks for the extra information; definitely good to know. The upper one you posted is appealing as well.

Well I have jinxed myself. Hahahahahh.

No good deed goes unpunished.

I am currently having to explain to the DHL people in Derbyshire (UK) that the watch is going back to the manufacturer for repairs. From my research this morning it looks like this is an easy mistake to make due to the coding of their parcels for repairs being the same as commercial/sales shipments. Zee German shipping company has added unnecessary complexity to a process....who could have ever seen this coming?

I’ve had only one other issue with DHL & Customs and while the timing of that sucked it was resolved pretty quickly. That issue ultimately resulted from an apparent paperwork error. I probably should have expected this after praising DHL.

Had this happened a year or so ago I would have lit into DHL and let them know how unnecessary it is for them to waste my time with this shit and do so with quite a bit of enthusiasm. The slightly more stoic stickman428 decided instead to figure out how this cluster could have occured because it’s possible the damn thing will get flagged again on its way home and going full Karen on people who didn’t cause the problem is just moronic and not exactly good for my blood pressure.

A brief internet search gave me my answer with very little effort. It looks like a lot of these customs issues result from basic paperwork errors relating to similar shipping codes being used for repairs/returns and commercial sales. It doesn’t seem to be a huge issue but one that can occasionally occur.

Yeah. I am really regretting putting that damn bracelet on the watch and causing this glorious cluster.

It is kind of a humorous situation though also a bit aggravating at the same time.

quote:

Christopher Ward watch

The CW watches look great!
My personal experience with DHL was less than stellar though. I ordered a Bosco Sorrento espresso machine from Italy. The maker was great in notifying me of shipping number and date of embarkation at which point all feedback from DHL ceased. In my tracking, I followed the machine through several countries in Europe, then across the ocean by air to New York to a receiving area. It then seemed to disappear into a black hole. It was sitting in a US Customs depot awaiting my paying duty. I knew that there would be some fees but was not notified as to where or how to settle them so it sat for 3 weeks awaiting the release. All they had to do was notify me by phone snail mail or email (which they had on file) and I could have gotten it on the way but no bueno on their part. Once the duties were settled the machine arrived promptly but I didn't appreciate the lack of communications regarding where it was or what I needed to do to get it released.

They have gotten better at that issue but yeah it’s frustrating when a package goes dark on you. It is also frustrating to play the random duty fee game.

When it happened to me recently I was able to log in and pay my duty fee in a few minutes. I received an email with a link and then a payment processing page. I of course did my homework prior to paying to make sure it was not a scam. I was also able to confirm the process and payment I was being asked to pay was legit from the level of detail and information provided.

I’ve shipped and received a lot of watch related stuff internationally and even with the occasional issue in my experience DHL has been the best to work with. Of course issues will arise but when they do I’ve been able to resolve them quickly.

To Christopher Ward’s credit when I filled them in on this situation they have been incredibly helpful and even said they would make sure this matter was fixed ASAP. The representative I’ve been working with at Christopher Ward also said that if I did get any kind of duty fee for the return not to pay it and to contact them and they would fix it very quickly by working with their DHL contact. They then ended their response with an apology (which wasn’t necessary) and said not to worry about any of the issues I mentioned because they would take care of it.

That sounds good to me.

I’d like to give Christopher Ward a bit more recognition in being an incredibly professional and fair company to do business with.

As some of you know I have gotten into building, assembling and modifying Seiko automatic watches. Seiko autos enjoy a similar amount of aftermarket support as say those who modify their Mustang or Camaro with performance parts....it’s HUGE.

You can actually build a Seiko from scratch with the level of support and aftermarket parts available.

Why did I post all that info? Because of my interest in modding and experience with multiple vendors I have figured out the ballpark price of what a good dive watch case should cost.

The watch Christopher Ward is repairing is one of their more expensive examples and has a slightly more complicated case to machine than say a standard Seiko diver watch case.

TLDR. As I suspected my watch needs a case replacement. I was pleasantly surprised by the evaluation this morning. The repair and regulation was priced very close to where I was hoping. The estimate is actually less than what I expected.

Christopher Ward’s watches are awesome but their customer service is so far the best I have experienced.

That sounds like a great story.

I have bought something overseas a couple of times personally and both times it got held up at customs. The product got through but dealing with something that involves customs and their regulations can be stressful. For work, I deal with a custom broker who acts as an in-between. In the ones I mentioned above, I dealt with the carrier who didn't offer much help or hand-holding.

so now I have this stupid desire to have another frickin watch.

Thanks just thanks,

But man, that C5 Modern Revival looks amazing!!

I see you are now well and truly hooked Stickman. I have been blown away by the quality of my CWs and have always had incredibly positive experiences with their customer service.

A couple of wrist shots because why not. Can’t let you have all the fun.

Green Highlander,

Do you have any more pics of the Christopher Ward with the blue dial? Is that one of the ones with the translucent dials? They are both gorgeous!!!


I can say in my experience with MANY watch manufacturers Swatch group, specifically Tissot, Hamilton, and especially with Omega I was left quite underwhelmed. Omega managed to provide one of the most asinine non answer answers to one of my concerns. I love their watches but my experience with their reps has been disappointing.

The brands that have surprised me with their detailed and fast responding customer care have been Doxa (very good) Zelos (Exquisite) Le Jour via their AD (very good) and Christopher Ward who has thus far exceeded my expectations.

It is the C60 Sapphire. What kind of shots are you looking for so I can take them for you? I will say, the pics don’t do it justice. It is absolutely stunning on the wrist. My daily beater is a C60 black in 42mm but the Sapphire really makes a statement.

A close up shot of the dial would be much appreciated. I’ve been tempted by their sapphire dial divers.

I've got 3 Christopher Wards. A Gen 2 Trident Pro, a Trident Vintage, and a C65 GMT with Pepsi bezel. All are much nicer than expected. If the GMT had a screw down crown (and the old logo) it would be my favorite watch INCLUDING my Omega. It's not the water resistance, it's the fact that occasionally I'll manage to move in such a way that I'll pull out the crown and stop the watch.

That’s too bad about the crown pulling out. I own a few watches without a screw down crown but by and large I prefer watches with a screw down crown and 100m or more water resistance. Even my dress/sport style watch has a screw down crown and excellent WR.

This is the Christopher Ward that I managed to damage enough to require a case replacement.



Lume shot with some jellies in the background.

Today is a good day! My baby came home!

The new case looks great. It was also regulated and came back with another watcy box so now I have an extra Christopher Ward box. Christopher Ward’s communication during the process was excellent. This brand fricking rocks.

I own an obscene amount of watches, this brand is probably my favorite because of the excellent aesthetic design and superb customer service.

While waiting for its return I ordered a Christopher Ward stainless steel bracelet which looks and feels exquisite.








This is a shot of the micro adjust built into the clasp. Here it is fully extended.


And here it is with no extension.