Christopher Ward – C1 Bel Canto Automatic Edition

Christopher Ward – Limited C1 Bel Canto Titanium Automatic Edition 2022

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The art of sound
C1 Bel Canto: the chime is now

Creating a chiming watch is one of the greatest challenges in watchmaking – and one that Christopher Ward has passed with the limited-edition C1 Bel Canto.

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Meet the extraordinary C1 Bel Canto.

Limited to just 300 pieces, it marks the debut of a brand new in-house calibre, FS01. In the metal, it feels utterly alive, marking each hour with its cheerful, reassuring internal chime. And it sees CW assert its horological ambitions like never before.

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Christopher Ward has always pushed the creative envelope. It’s this philosophy that produced in-house movement Calibre SH21, and was responsible for the legendary JJ calibres (named after our first master watchmaker Johannes Jahnke) – unique modules piggybacking on existing movements.

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Today, the key to the C1 Bel Canto is FS01, a new chiming movement named after current technical director Frank Stelzer. In all horological history, little has tested the watchmaker like creating sound, so it’s no wonder Bel Canto took three years of tortuous development.

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Bel Canto is what’s called an hour chime, or – more romantically – a Sonnerie au Passage complication, which translates as ‘Passage of Time’.

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“Bel Canto is an extrapolation of the C60 Concept, in that we’re taking the best hand-finished components and putting them within reach of many,” says Jörg Bader Junior, head of product at CW’s Biel atelier. “But in terms of technological challenge, it’s taken us into uncharted territory. We had to figure everything out for ourselves.”

The layered dial plays host to a floating time-telling sundial

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With each JJ calibre, the desire wasn’t just to produce a complication, but to do it in a fresh, efficient way. Ten years ago, JJ01 was designed to offer the most accurate jumping-hour function possible and, by spreading the load over an entire hour, Johannes managed it. This success became one of the starting points for FS01.

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It’s a little known fact that Christopher Ward creates watches for Meistersinger, the German specialist in single-hand timepieces. A few years ago Frank made a new model for them, the Bell Hora, a Sonnerie au Passage. Would it be possible to do something similar for Christopher Ward?

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“The Bell Hora was a stepping stone,” says CEO and co-founder Mike France. “But with Bel Canto we wanted to bring the striking mechanism to the front, so the wearer could watch it in action. The question became: could we make a chiming watch both look and sound beautiful at the same time?”

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“Finding a way to split out the components so they felt balanced across the entire face, took years,” says CW watch designer Will Brackfield. “Each time we moved one piece, it had a knock-on effect on the others. The platine – the blue module plate behind the important elements – would have a gorgeous sunray finish, so we needed to find a way to hide minor components behind that too.”

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Frank began with a Sellita SW200-1 automatic base movement paired with JJ01, which charges incrementally over an hour to then make a single movement. But his modifications would eventually involve the creation of 50 new components, and become a race against time once an on-sale date of Autumn 2022 was confirmed.

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“One of the great challenges was striking the right balance between note and loudness,” says CW’s head of product design, Adrian Buchmann. “We soon learned that the case would have to be made of Grade 5 titanium, a material we’d never used before, with lots of empty space and resonance points. It’s a very dense metal – and creates a sound cage with the best possible vibrations.”

So, what exactly does the chime sound like? “Elegant,” says Mike. “Luxurious,” says Will. “A long, high-pitched note,” says Adrian.

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No one can quite define it – it is more like a xylophone, or a hotel bell? – but all agree that it’s delightful. Technically, it turns out to be a D, also known as Re (“a drop of golden sun”) on the fixed do solfège system, familiar from The Sound Of Music.

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“One thing everyone comments on is how the bridge structure towards the bottom looks like a bird,” Mike says. “The red ‘beak’ is actually the on-off mechanism, controlled by a pusher at 4 o’clock, and moves to indicate whether the chime is on or off, while the hammer is its tail. Bel Canto means ‘beautiful singing’, so there’s whimsical humour going on which seems very Christopher Ward.”

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Other details are equally as ambitious. The dial consists of intriguingly stacked layers, rising from the platine through the bridges to the time-telling subdial and finally the twin-flags logo, printed on the lower surface of the sapphire crystal, while the 41mm Light-catcher™case has been given a subtle sporty makeover.

Click, to see the large size. ▶ BIG FOTO Of course, CW couldn’t do this alone, and the C1 Bel Canto is also a tribute to many brilliant suppliers and partners, all noted specialists in their fields. Perhaps the most famous is Armin Strom, maker of high-end open worked watches, which contributed the platine, but Chronode (the bridges, hammer and gong) and Viquo Deco (the special wheels required) were also crucial.

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It goes without saying that the C1Bel Canto is far more affordable than any comparable watch. Chopard’s LUC Strike One costs £54,000 for a similar mechanism and finish, while others are twice that or more. And Bel Canto? On a leather strap it’s £2,995 | $3,595 | €3,895 and on the titanium bracelet, £3,305 | $3,975 | €4,295.

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Quite simply, no brand anywhere has made the art of sound so accessible, or opened up the possibility of owning such high horological art to so many. Hearing really is believing.

#ChristopherWard #C1BelCanto  

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TECHNICAL SPECIFICATIONS

Model: C1 Bel Canto Automatic Edition

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Case
    Material: Grade 5 Titanium
    Size: 41mm
    Dial Colour: Rhodium
    Platine Colour: Azzuro blue
    Height: 13.0mm
    Lug-to-Lug: 48.0mm
    Case Weight: 53g
    Water Resistance: 3 ATM (30m)
Movement
    Calibre FS01
    Power Reserve: 38 hours
    No of Jewels: 29
    Complication Type: Passing chime
    Vibrations: 28,800 p/hr (4Hz)
    Timing Tolerance: +/-20 sec p/day
    Lume: SLNC1X1BL
Strap
    Size: 22mm
    Material: Italian leather and Titanium bracelet
    Leather Strap Colour: blue or camel

Features

•     Swiss made
•     Limited Edition of 300 pieces
•     Self-winding 29 jewel movement with FS01 module that chimes on the hour
•     Floating time display with fully visible mechanism
•     Hand finished bridges, gong and hammer
•     On/Off pusher at 4 o’clock with red on/off indicator
•     38-hour power reserve
•     Brushed and polished case in titanium grade 5
•     Deep stamped caseback with soundwave motif
•     Push-down crown with twin flag motif
•     Anti-reflective domed sapphire crystal
•     Raised and polished indexes
•     Eco-friendly luxury presentation case and owner’s handbook 

Limited to 300 pieces

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Press releases - 2022
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www.ChristopherWard.com