£3k for a Christopher Ward

[TheJimi]

Who's upset?

[prand]

Apologies, I may be imprinting my own chippiness and reading more into responses above than I should be!

Personally I do find paying more than a few pennies on a watch a bit pointless, but then I do understand people do like spending their money on nice things and some of these things retain their value quite well...

I do wish CH Ward quite well, I hope that upping their game, producing their own movements and moving into "sub-sub-premium" or whichever sector they aim to be in is a success for them. I'm not too keen on their copies, which although have a market, makes them look a little less than honest, but hey, lots of watch sellers do very well out of this, even the big ones.

I guess the problem is the change in their company ethos, which was to originally supply well priced, but good watches, using a channel to save costs and deliberately cock a snook at the big boys. Now they just appear to be wanting to be part of that gang and set prices based on what the market will bear. Looks a bit dishonest.

Obviously the quality needs to support the price too.

[SVS]

Prand, I think you've hit the nail on the head re: the change in company ethos. That's what makes the higher prices seem dishonest.

Also, CW's newer prices make many of their watches more expensive than long-respected brands like Stowa. I wish CW well because it's a British company, but the latest prices put me off buying CW.

[Janesy B]

Maybe when their core range stops being homage watches, people will take them seriously.

[Zoon]

SVS said:

Prand, I think you've hit the nail on the head re: the change in company ethos. That's what makes the higher prices seem dishonest.

Also, CW's newer prices make many of their watches more expensive than long-respected brands like Stowa. I wish CW well because it's a British company, but the latest prices put me off buying CW.

A British company with Swiss made printed on the face.
Why not have a USP over the other companies and sell a British made movement?

[CAPP0]

Janesy B said:

Maybe when their core range stops being homage watches, people will take them seriously.

For me, they overstep the homage mark significantly, a lot of their watches are not "how can we design something which nods to and pays homage to X", but "how little of X do we have to change to get away with not being sued for producing copies".

The sad thing is that they didn't start out doing that.

[nikaiyo2]

Paul Drawmer said:

As a basic Bremont is £2850, how is a CW at £500 in the same market?

It's only £750 under a Mille Miglia Gran Turismo , a proper watch.

They do a pilots watch, not sure what it's called, for more than the basic IWC Mk XVII. Or 300 less than a Zenith.

I genuinely do not get why you would buy a shopping channel watch, that screams cheap and nastiness when you could own a genuine good watch for similar money.

It's like buying one of those MR2 Ferraris for the same price or more than a real one, just window licking mental.

[SVS]

I would buy CW if this was still their company ethos:

prand said:

their company ethos, which was to originally supply well priced, but good watches, using a channel to save costs and deliberately cock a snook at the big boys.

Now Steinhart seems to be increasingly filling the gap in the market that CW has vacated. Not to mention all the high-quality German manufacturers that have solid brand value (e.g. Damasko, Stowa, Archimede, Tourby).

[Lorneg]

SVS said:

I would buy CW if this was still their company ethos:

prand said:

their company ethos, which was to originally supply well priced, but good watches, using a channel to save costs and deliberately cock a snook at the big boys.

Now Steinhart seems to be increasingly filling the gap in the market that CW has vacated. Not to mention all the high-quality German manufacturers that have solid brand value (e.g. Damasko, Stowa, Archimede, Tourby).

and that funny little British company, http://www.classicchronographs.co.uk/ the one with the ethos to make the very best chronograph in the world with no homage(ing) at all.