The C12 Loco marks a
major milestone for Christopher Ward: the debut of CW-003, the brand’s
second in-house movement and its most ambitious project to date. This
new calibre realises Christopher Ward’s ambition of combining the beauty
of an elevated open balance design with the technical precision of a
free-sprung balance wheel - a first for the brand.
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All mechanical watches are in some way ‘
alive’ – but few more so than one with a visible balance wheel rapidly oscillating back and forth, and providing ongoing treat for the eyes. They highlight everything that makes a technical watch special: bold choices, constant motion, design as well-considered beneath the bonnet as above. The best of these see-through designs are fascinating, jaw-dropping vehicles for the imagination, a hypnotic treat from either side of the case. It’s an area
Christopher Ward’s explored before – but never with this level of rebellious audacity and unflinching commitment.
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“One industry insider described our new C12 Loco as ‘Bel Canto on steroids,’” says co-founder and CEO Mike France. “It’s called The Loco because the movement of the balance suggests locomotion – and it also reflects the crazy level of ambition it took to create it!”
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Developed under Technical Director
Frank Stelzer, the hand-wound
CW-003 delivers accuracy of
-0/+7 seconds per day, a six-day (
144-hour)
power reserve via twin barrels and features a bespoke free-sprung
balance wheel. Replacing traditional regulating pins with inertia
screws, the balance allows for finer adjustment and improved long-term
accuracy.
“The idea that drove the development of CW-003 was to clear everything away from the right hand side,” Adrian says. “Do that, and you can see just how big the barrels are, and how the bridges stand away from the base plate – all purely visual stuff, but crucial. With the winding mechanism hidden away, we’d only be showing the key visuals, as we’d done with Bel Canto.”
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The two movements share perhaps 40 percent of their parts, though the new one’s more expensive to make, mostly because it boasts three small bridges on the movement side and two more on the dial side (to SH21’s one), which all need hand-polished facets. It’s essentially a one-shot creation, developed specifically for The Loco. “If nothing else, CW-003 shows just how far we’ll go,” Jörg says. “If we can only do a brilliant job by creating something entirely new, then that’s what we’ll do.”
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At the core of the five-year project was the challenge of aligning
the robust performance and reliability required by Stelzer’s technical
vision with the symmetrical, clean, and highly intentional architecture
envisioned by Senior Designer
Will Brackfield and Design Director
Adrian
Buchmann. Mediating the ‘ping-pong’ between these perspectives was
Product Director
Jörg Bader, who also drew on a refined supply chain of
new and existing partners to deliver the high level of componentry
required.
The story of The C12 Loco began in the wake of Bel Canto: a big “What’s next?” moment for the company, with all sorts of ideas floating around and the idea of a balance-focussed watch very much to the fore, but ill-defined, out of focus.
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“Things became clearer, though, through a playful doodle of Frank’s,” says Jörg Bader Jnr, product director at Christopher Ward. “I noticed him sketching something during an overrunning meeting. Using Bel Canto as a foundation, he’d mirrored the 12 o’clock bridge at the 6 o’clock position, then added a balance wheel. The idea was simple but powerful: adapt this design using our in-house SH21 movement, and we could create something fresh and visually striking. It felt like a quick win – the perfect combination of simplicity and ambition.”
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Even better, market analysis revealed an interesting gap. Yes, there were a few entry-level open balance watches – simple pieces from the likes of Tissot and Raymond Weil – but then there was a huge jump to more ambitious, complex and well-finished watches by a mix of ‘names’ (Zenith, Girard-Perregaux, Ulysse Nardin), cutting-edge indies (Armin Strom, MB&F), and brands that combine both. What if Christopher Ward could offer a design close to the latter but nearer the price point of the former? “What was missing was a watch to bring true value and innovation to the mid-range,” Jörg says. “And I felt that could be us.”
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But not so fast, Jörg! Quick wins are rarely as easy as they first seem, and by the middle of
2023 things had evolved, but were becoming exponentially more complex too. Early designs had been a continuation of the
Bel Canto aesthetic, but new elements kept being added, too. Could there be a small seconds hand? A power reserve indicator? And should we move the whole thing from the Bel Canto case to one based on the newly-released Twelve? Each new addition made sense, but together they were dragging the watch further from the beautiful simplicity that had made the concept so compelling in the first place.
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Over five hours of hand-finishing are applied to each piece, with the
multi-layered movement combining grené stippling, brushing, and
polishing with multiple rounded facets that reflect light in a way that
enhances the movement’s depth.
The two-part dial features zapon-tinté to apply colour to the finely
brushed ‘
wings’ flanking the floating sapphire time-telling dial on the
upper level. Below, further grené stippling adds contrast, divided by a
sculptural, highly polished ‘
ski slope’.
“I’m incredibly happy with it,” Jörg says. “The visual layering is exceptional, every element sitting on a different level, giving the entire watch a very architectural feel. It’s really modern, exceeds every expectation – and the price is amazing value.”
Not so long ago, the shocked CEO of a very large and very famous Swiss watch brand took one look at SH21 and asked, “What gives you the licence to do that?” “Just that we could,” came the answer. Who knows what he’d make of The C12 Loco?
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A great deal of sampling and deliberation took place to decide on the
four colours; Brackfield describes those chosen as “high-octane”,
supporting The
Loco’s highly contemporary movement architecture and
unmistakably sporty feel.
The watch debuts an all-new 41mm version of The Twelve case, refined
to just 13.7mm in total thickness, with a case height of 9.75mm and
box-domed crystals front and rear. It sits close to the wrist and
retains The Twelve’s signature multi-faceted silhouette.
“Without everyone pulling together, we simply couldn’t have done it,” Frank says. “Creating our own balance wheel was key to the whole thing, really – but I can now see why hardly anyone ever tries. Microscopic amounts of material had to be removed, then a little bit more, to achieve constant oscillation, a process that haunts my dreams. My great desire was always to create a clean, cohesive, fluid design that flows effortlessly from the front to the rear and back again, and it’s only immense dedication and great teamwork that’s made it possible.”
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“For a while, getting chronometer certification for the new movement had seemed crucial – but this style of watch demands no second hand, and without that to measure accuracy, no COSC. Fine, it was decided: we don’t need it. “I suspect CW-003 far exceeds COSC standards,” Mike says. “But until we put it into a traditional three-hand piece, there’s no way to prove it for sure.”
The result is a design language that celebrates horological motion
without excess: clean, open, and perfectly balanced. CW-003 was
developed exclusively for the C12 Loco, with no plans for extensive
wider use, reflecting the project’s purity of purpose within the
Christopher Ward portfolio. Named in accordance with its state of constant motion and the sheer
madness of a watch of this calibre being available at this price, and
produced in this volume, the C12 Loco is the culmination of years of
development and exemplifies everything Christopher Ward stands for:
innovation, accessibility, an uncompromising commitment to quality, and a
refusal to shy away from a challenge.
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