Christopher Ward The Twelve

"Christopher Ward doesn’t do luxury. Tool watches, yes. Innovative complications, of course. Value for money, most certainly. But luxury – with its show-off implications and forced scarcity – we’ve largely shied away from. If we were to approach this world at all, it would be on our own terms. Well, we did. And here’s the result. The Twelve is our first integrated bracelet sports watch since the C20 Lido of 2008, and represents a new peak for Christopher Ward. Combining reassuringly beefy build quality with a sleek fit and finish, it brings five-figure quality levels into the real world, making its home in that ever-widening gap between the strictly dressy and the purely sporty. A place, after all, where most of us live our lives. The Twelve references a style that came to prominence in the 1970s with the Audemars Piguet Royal Oak and Patek Philippe Nautilus. Both featured bracelets that flowed seamlessly into the watch head, the entire thing feeling of-a-piece. Both were made of humble stainless steel, scandalously eschewing precious metals. And both seemed immensely individual and desirable, while allowing a conservative industry to have fun with design.

The Twelve brings the pleasures of such pieces with none of the downsides. Fittingly, it’s home to some of Christopher Ward’s boldest design moves. It has a twelve-sided bezel – dodecagonal, no less – which gives a subtle scalloped look. It features a heavily textured three-dimensional dial, built of little moguls referencing the ‘pluses’ of the twin-flags logo. And it has a remarkable combination of intriguing surface finishes on case, bracelet and bezel. Indeed, as you turn The Twelve in your hands, you’ll find intriguing details everywhere. In a playful tip of the hat to the Royal Oak, six exposed screws hold down the 12-sided case-back surround, while Christopher Ward’s sword and triangle handset is rendered in a slim, sophisticated fashion. A highly polished piece in every sense, The Twelve sparkles in the sunshine, comes alive under dimmed lights, and feels at home everywhere."