Christopher Ward – C12 LOcO The Twelve Frisco Orange 41mm Steel - 2025
A revolution in motion
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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“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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“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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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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“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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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.
TECHNICAL SPECIFICATIONS
Collection: The Twelve C12
Model: C12 LOcO The Twelve Frisco Orange Edition
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Ref. C12-41H6D1-S00O0-RO
Material: Brushed, sandblasted and polished stainless steel
Size: 41mm
Height: 13.0mm
Lug-to-Lug: 47.5mm
Case Weight 70g
Weight inc. bracelet 100g
Water Resistance: 3 ATM (30m)
Platine Colour: Orange
Movement
Calibre CW-003
Power Reserve: 144 hours
No of Jewels: 29
Complication Type: Passing chime
Vibrations: 28,800 p/hr (4Hz)
Timing Tolerance: -0/+7 sec p/day
Lume: Super-LumiNova® Grade X1 BL C1
Strap
Size: 25mm
Material: C12 Loco rubber FKM straps
Colour: Orange
Bracelet : Polished, brushed, and sandblasted
Features
- Swiss made Handwound mechanical in-house Calibre CW-003
- 144-hour power reserve
- Free sprung balance wheel and escapement visible dial side
- Brushed, sandblasted and polished stainless steel
- Screw-down exhibition caseback
- Unique engraved serial number
- Polished, brushed, and sandblasted bezel
- Brushed and polished hands
- Anti-reflective top and bottom sapphire crystal
- Multi-layer dial, base on opaline sandblast finish and vertical brushed
- Floating sapphire time telling dial
- Top-brushed indexes with diamond polished facets
- Super-LumiNova® Grade X1 BL C1 filled hands and indexes
- Textured rubber strap, brushed marine-grade stainless steel Bader deployant buckle with 'Christopher Ward' engraving and quick-release pins for easy changing
- Eco-friendly luxury presentation case and owner's handbook
🔰Fully refundable deposit of $4,595.00 / £3,795.00 / 4’195 CHF payable now
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Press releases - 2025
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www.ChristopherWard.com
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