Christopher Ward’s Ambitious Travel Watch Sets a New Standard for the Category

Christopher Ward has made a lot of fan-favorite GMT watches over the years, but more recently, the market has passed the brand by.

That’s because all of CW’s GMTs have used the Sellita Calibre SW330 movement, considered the top third-party option for a Swiss-made automatic GMT. The SW330 is a solid movement, but it’s not a “true” GMT. It features a fourth hand that’s independently adjustable instead of the local hour hand, which many consider less desirable for travel.

In 2022, Japanese manufacture Miyota changed the game when it launched its Cal. 9075, the first “true” GMT movement available as an off-the-shelf movement. Its use quickly proliferated in the microbrand space, with loads of brands offering traveler GMT functionality in watches that could often be had for even less than CW’s Sellita-powered GMTs.

As a Swiss-made brand, the Miyota was never an option for CW: Swiss-made watches must use Swiss-made movements. So if Christopher Ward was ever going to have a “true” GMT watch, the brand was just going to have to make the movement itself.

So that’s exactly what it’s done.

Christopher Ward

The truth

Today, CW unveils the C63 Sealander True GMT, which is powered by the brand-new, in-house Cal. CW-002 movement.

The movement is, of course, the most exciting development here, since it will obviously be used to power future CW GMT watches, so I’ll start there before getting to the watch itself.

The movement is built on the base of the Cal. CW-001 movement (originally called Calibre SH21), which was the brand’s first in-house movement back in 2014. Cal. CW-002 inherits its base movement’s twin mainspring barrels and five-day power reserve, along with its COSC chronometer certification.

It then adds a GMT mechanism made up of 16 new components and 7 reworked parts, and miraculously manages to do so without adding any height to the movement. This is thanks to some clever engineering courtesy of a new bridge that holds the GMT wheel and other components without increasing height.

Christopher Ward

Admittedly, when I heard CW made an in-house GMT with a five-day power reserve, I assumed it would be like 17mm thick. Instead, the C63 Sealander True GMT clocks in at 14.15mm. That’s not exactly a thin watch, but it could be a lot worse. For reference, it’s about a half-millimeter thinner than the Tudor Black Bay GMT and Black Bay Pro, both of which measure 14.6mm tall.

The movement is housed inside a 40.5mm stainless steel Sealander “Light-catcher” case, making it plenty wearable, and is capped by box sapphire crystals on both sides. The dial … has a lot going on, and will be the most divisive aspect of this watch, along with the price.

Available in black or white, the dial features a grained texture and has essentially the same applied indices and handset as the Sellita-powered C63 Sealander GMT, all filled with Super-LumiNova X1 BL C1. The indices sit on a raised, circular-brushed ring, and there are printed 24-hour markings on a fixed grain-textured inner bezel.

Christopher Ward

At 9:00 sits a round power-reserve indicator tracking the 120 hours of juice, and at 6:00 is a second subdial for the running seconds. Inside the hour ring at 3:00, there’s a cutout exposing the decorated GMT bridge, while outside the ring is a date window. The GMT hand, power reserve hand and part of the date’s border are all varnished in an accent color: orange on the white model, and turquoise on the black.

The movement is visible through the caseback and is rhodium-plated with some decoration, including Côtes de Genève, and the skeletonized rotor is made of tungsten. The watch is water-resistant to 100m with a screw-down crown, and it comes on either a fitted, quick-release rubber strap with a keeperless deployant or on CW’s usual steel Bader Bracelet with a quick-adjust push-button clasp.

Christopher Ward

Availability and pricing

I’ve been a pretty big fan of virtually everything CW has put out over the past four or so years, but this one has me feeling pretty divided.

On the one hand, the movement is an undeniable achievement. There are only a handful of brands making their own true GMT movements, and for a small, attainable indy brand like CW to join that exclusive club — with a five-day power reserve and COSC certification, no less — is extremely impressive. While not as showy, I think the Cal. CW002 is nearly as groundbreaking as the movements in the brand’s Bel Canto and C12 Loco.

On the other hand, you have the design. CW purposely set out to make a watch that didn’t look like your usual GMT. I applaud the effort and the willingness to take risks, but I personally don’t care for the design. I think the dial just has too much going on. What’s more, I think the evidence suggests that most people want their true GMT to be in the Rolex GMT-Master style with a rotating bezel, which is why Longines and Tudor — the brands most likely to compete against this watch at its price point – both make them like that.

Longines

Then there’s the price, which somehow seems both too affordable and too expensive, which maybe means it’s just right. The C63 True GMT comes in at $3,995 on the rubber strap or $4,135 on the bracelet. By comparison, a Longines Zulu Time 39mm is considerably cheaper at $3,450 on a leather strap or $3,550 on a steel bracelet. The Tudor Black Bay GMT is quite a bit more expensive at $5,125 on rubber or $5,350 on a steel bracelet.

Of the three, I think the Longines offers the best value, and is a good example of how to make an original-looking GMT watch that still gives off classic, sporty GMT vibes. It’s thinner than the CW at 13.5mm, is COSC-certified, has a three-day power reserve, an anti-magnetic silicon hairspring and a ceramic bezel. It’s also the best finished watch of the trio, and while some will split hairs by saying its movement isn’t technically in-house, the Cal. L844.4 is exclusive to Longines, so who cares?

Still, the Christopher Ward True GMT’s specs are decidedly impressive, and you get some things the Longines is missing, like a microadjustable clasp (Longines, please put the clasp from the Spirit Pilot on the Zulu Time!), a longer power reserve and an exhibition caseback. Personally, I can’t wait to see what other watches the brand comes up with for the Cal. CW-002 in the future.

Christopher Ward

Christopher Ward C63 Sealander True GMT

Specs

Case Size	40.5mm
Movement	Christopher Ward Cal. CW-002 automatic GMT
Water Resistance	100m

• $3,995 at Christopher Ward

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