Since its introduction near the end of 2022, the C1 Bel Canto has ranked as Christopher Ward‘s flagship watch, redefining not only what the brand is capable of but also changing the idea of what an affordable grail watch looks like.
In November of last year, CW launched what is arguably the ultimate version of the Bel Canto with the Lumière. While the original Bel Canto was all about sound with its sonnerie au passage complication that chimes at the top of every hour, the Lumière amped up the visual interest with a fully lumed display.
With its bright green dial, the Lumière is a lot visually, and not everyone is a fan of its over-the-top look. But now CW has returned to the Bel Canto Lumière well with a new version called the Nova that offers the same insane luminosity in a more understated package.
Super Nova
The Nova is the same watch as the original Bel Canto Lumière, which has now been given the additional moniker “Neon,” just with a different color scheme.
While the original featured lines of green lume emanating from the watch face at 12:00 and stretching across the entire dial, the Nova features white rays of Super-LumiNova instead. This creates a much cleaner look that allows the rest of the watch’s dial to shine. There is now less to distract from viewing the chiming complication and its signature “songbird” striking mechanism, which had become visually lost on the original Lumière.
