You can now buy Christopher Ward in our London Watch Discovery Studio!

Andrew McUtchen

The British Weekender was an event we held in our new London Watch Discovery Studio a couple of weekends back, and the marquee brand at that show was Christopher Ward. They had the most prominent space, which is called ‘The White Room’, the largest amount of watches on display, and – it’s not contentious to say – the largest crowd on the day milling around, vying to sight, touch and try on some stunning recent releases, including the Bel Canto Classic.

Christopher Ward as a brand is PRIMARY in Britain. You can feel it, you can see it, and you can sense it in the escalating horological merit of its releases – Ward is taking the world of watches on, from the heartland of Great Britain, where it enjoys immense support.

There’s a weird twist, though. This is actually the first time we’ve worked closely with the brand. Given how much we’ve talked about CW over the years, this was our first dip at partnering. How did it go? Time+Tide and Christopher Ward as a duo worked in the same way that Wolverine and Deadpool somehow works. Two, at their heart, cheeky and community powered identities. Two independent founders used to doing things their own way. And two alternative operators – in CW’s case, an alternative to the legacy Swiss brands, in ours, an alternative to traditional retail – adding new value to an industry that sometimes seems averse to change.

Faced with the prospect of this duo disbanding, after only just joining forces, the CEO of Christopher Ward and our founder Andrew, decided this should be more than just a two-day stand. The idea of a longer stint in the studio was hatched.

Rob Corder from WatchPro asked Mr. France about the decision to move into our Watch Discovery Studio and this is what he had to say: “We’ve always done things a little differently at CW, and stepping into the Time+Tide Watch Discovery Studio is no exception. The reason we haven’t experimented with traditional retail is simple – it requires pricing that would break our direct-to-customer model which is core to our business. Equally, Time+Tide are pioneering something different themselves, with their Studio and business model, which has enabled them to challenge conventional retail.

“The way they bring exciting brands into the physical watch space Discovery Studio with the customer experience at its core is a refreshing approach to retail, which appeals to us. That’s why we are piloting this partnership for the next three months.

“Time+Tide have worked closely with us to create a space where people can experience our watches first-hand, without compromising the principles we’ve stood by for 20 years. When I first visited the Discovery Studio, it felt different – warm, inviting, and very much in keeping with our showrooms in Maidenhead and Dallas. It’s an exciting new location to get hands-on with our watches and we’re looking forward to seeing how this trial unfolds.”

At Time+Tide, we love stories about watches. And there are few modern stories as compelling as that of Christopher Ward, written by Mike France and his team.

In the same way that CW has evolved the traditional business model of the watch industry by going direct to consumers and retaining them through escalating quality and range, Time+Tide has evolved the media model by extending it into bricks and mortar in the form of our Watch Discovery Studios in Melbourne and London.

Rob from WatchPro makes a salient point about the outcome of this pilot, if it continues or not: “Even if the pilot with Christopher Ward ends after three months, the impact of [the brand] choosing to work with Time+Tide will ripple across the world of independent watchmaking, not least because it grabbed the attention of the industry for winning a prestigious GPHG award for its Bel Canto in 2023.”

It is an honour to have Christopher Ward as a semi-permanent pop up in our Discovery Studio. There’s only one group of people happier about this development than me, and that’s the London Studio team. Their level of excitement about this brand will be palpable to existing and future customers who come into the studio to try them on ‘in the metal’.

And with that, there’s not much else left for me to say, except to invite you to come down to our London Discovery Studio, 4 Great Portland Street, London, W1W 8QJ to try on a Christopher Ward in person. We’re open seven days a week from 10:00 to 18:00.