It seems to me that the key concept that has captured the attention of the watch industry this summer is coral reefs. Venezianico released the Corallo, H. Moser released the Concept Pop coral and now Christopher Ward are here with the C60 Trident Reef, a collection of summer dive watches inspired by the coral-themed artwork of Ana Brecevic.
Looking at the case and structure of the C60 Trident Reef, it introduces a new Light-catcher dive watch design with a uni-directional bezel and 200m water resistance rating. It also offers a brand-new sizing for the Trident range with the introduction of a 44mm edition alongside the more established 41mm version. At 44mm it really pushes back into that 2000s sensibility of bigger watches, which is a trend I’ve noticed slowly seeping back into the industry after a few years of vintage proportions.
The most standout feature though has to be the dials and colour-matched aluminium shrouds along the edges of the case (protective linings over the case-middle). As I briefly mentioned, the colours are inspired by the works of Ana Brecevic, an artist who sculpts coral reefs alongside other flora in paper using spectacular colour and detail. There are five models in the collection, each named after a type of coral.
First is Chalice Yellow, which has a teal dial, bezel and shrouds with a vivid yellow minutes hand and rubber strap. Second is Tuba Orange, which is much easier to identify because it’s the orange one with blue accents. Third we have Helio Blue, the electric blue edition with orange accents. Then is the more restrained Galaxea Black and lastly the Acro White with teal accents. The Acro White is unique among them as the only one to feature ceramic shrouds rather than aluminium.
They’re bright, fun and clearly ready for summer adventures. Plus, as they house the Sellita SW200-1, they’re nice and accessible so that you don’t have to feel too bad about the occasional knock or scrape. Specifically, on Aquaflex rubber strap they are £695 and on Bader steel bracelet they are £850. Your daily summer runabout is here.
Price and Specs:
More details at Christopher Ward.
Christopher Ward has definitely made it’s mark within the watch industry, and, was (as far as I’m aware), pretty much at the forefront of the micro-brand emergence, so hats off to the brand in general.
If you look at the range, (apart from the Bel Canto, which was a definite divergence) and possibly the “Dune” range, most of their watches tend to follow a similar theme of robust chunkiness with a dive style bezel, so I guess nobody should be surprised at this latest release, which is undoubtedly a dive watch, but at 44mm, a monster, but with lollipop colours, so, rather than “leading”, they are following a questionable trend of overly bold colours. But, at the sub (pun intended), £1k price point, maybe it will appeal to the beach ready trendy types.