A revolution in motion - The C12 Loco is Christopher Ward’s most ambitious watch to date.

Introducing Christopher Ward’s most ambitious watch to date – featuring a new in-house movement, the company’s highest-ever levels of finishing, and a dial design the watch world’s going to go mad for, The C12 Loco.

All mechanical watches are in some way ‘alive’ – but few more so than one with a visible balance wheel rapidly oscillating back and forth, and providing ongoing treat for the eyes. They highlight everything that makes a technical watch special: bold choices, constant motion, design as well-considered beneath the bonnet as above. The best of these see-through designs are fascinating, jaw-dropping vehicles for the imagination, a hypnotic treat from either side of the case. It’s an area Christopher Ward’s explored before – but never with this level of rebellious audacity and unflinching commitment.

“One industry insider described our new C12 Loco as ‘Bel Canto on steroids,’” says co-founder and CEO Mike France. “It’s called The Loco because the movement of the balance suggests locomotion – and it also reflects the crazy level of ambition it took to create it!”

Taking design cues from the hit Bel Canto, but feeling younger, fresher and more sporting, it’s hand-finished to an insanely high level – with the emphasis on depth and detail – and can hold its head high alongside £25,000 pieces from the world’s most storied makers. But at a Christopher Ward price point, of course.

And it just happens to contain what’s only the company’s second ever in-house movement, a cousin to Calibre SH21 (soon to be renamed CW-001) called CW-003, designed by technical director Frank Stelzer. Sounds cool, right? But you don’t know the half of it…

Many open balance watches actually feature ‘tourbillons’ – it means ‘whirlwind’– and describes a method of mounting the escapement and balance wheel in a rotating cage, theoretically eliminating the minuscule impact of gravity pulling at the movement. First developed in the early 1800s – two horological giants, John Arnold and Abraham-Louis Breguet, were key in its development – they never look less than amazing, viewed through a window in the watch face. But then so do the similar but more everyday ‘open heart’ watches, which lack the cage of the true tourbillon, and so can offer the giddy excitement of a visible balance wheel without the need to charge such buttock-clenching sums.

“It’s the high-end indie brands who’ve really been taking the lead with open balance watches,” says Adrian Buchmann, Christopher Ward’s design director. “And there’s a real joy to them, in that you're looking at something in constant motion. They’re always fun, always alive, but with the best of them – and I count ours very much among that number – the whirring balance wheel is only the centrepiece of some incredibly well-considered movement architecture, with many elements hidden and others exposed. If you know watches, just one glance at the back of our C12 Loco will tell you just how high-end it is – not only in the details, but the entire design.”

Only a unique, custom-designed balance wheel would do

The story of The C12 Loco began in the wake of Bel Canto: a big “What’s next?” moment for the company, with all sorts of ideas floating around and the idea of a balance-focussed watch very much to the fore, but ill-defined, out of focus.

“Things became clearer, though, through a playful doodle of Frank’s,” says Jörg Bader Jnr, product director at Christopher Ward. “I noticed him sketching something during an overrunning meeting. Using Bel Canto as a foundation, he’d mirrored the 12 o’clock bridge at the 6 o’clock position, then added a balance wheel. The idea was simple but powerful: adapt this design using our in-house SH21 movement, and we could create something fresh and visually striking. It felt like a quick win – the perfect combination of simplicity and ambition.” Even better, market analysis revealed an interesting gap. Yes, there were a few entry-level open balance watches – simple pieces from the likes of Tissot and Raymond Weil – but then there was a huge jump to more ambitious, complex and well-finished watches by a mix of ‘names’ (Zenith, Girard-Perregaux, Ulysse Nardin), cutting-edge indies (Armin Strom, MB&F), and brands that combine both. What if Christopher Ward could offer a design close to the latter but nearer the price point of the former? “What was missing was a watch to bring true value and innovation to the mid-range,” Jörg says. “And I felt that could be us.”

But not so fast, Jörg! Quick wins are rarely as easy as they first seem, and by the middle of 2023 things had evolved, but were becoming exponentially more complex too. Early designs had been a continuation of the Bel Canto aesthetic, but new elements kept being added, too. Could there be a small seconds hand? A power reserve indicator? And should we move the whole thing from the Bel Canto case to one based on the newly-released Twelve? Each new addition made sense, but together they were dragging the watch further from the beautiful simplicity that had made the concept so compelling in the first place.

Mike wasn’t sure. “It’s too cluttered,” he said. “Refocus. Take it back to its essence.”

And that was the push they needed. Out went the power reserve and small seconds, though the Twelve case stayed. By August 2023, 90 percent of the design was done – bold, clean, and true to the original vision, with strong horizontal lines and three distinct circles on the back. “Crack on,” Mike said.

Cracking on: a time of bold ambition and big decisions. And one huge realisation – that SH21, the starting point of the whole project, just wasn’t fit for purpose. To make The Loco really sing, a new movement would need to be created: one with elements in common with SH21 (both have twin barrels, for instance), but entirely different architecture and a recalculated energy flow. Born in part of the ambition to evolve Calibre SH21, instead it gave it a sibling.

“The look is crucial in a piece like this,” Jörg says. “We needed an exceptionally clean and clear mechanism that appears simple, even if the underlying complexity is immense. Just a neat, linear and symmetrical layout – which sounds easy, but is anything but.”

A new main plate would be necessary; that much was clear. With that, Frank could position the barrels on top of each other in perfect alignment, then place the intermediate ratchet wheel precisely at 3 o’clock. They’d need a new balance and winding bridge too; they’d also have to deal with the problem of transferring power: first from the mainspring barrels to the dial side, then from the 6 o’clock position through the centre to the balance.

Lots to think on then, and lots of inspired guesswork at every stage, for so much new stuff was being created at the same time. It pushed the design and product teams to their limits. (One example among many: putting the crown at 4 o’clock would have made life easier all round, but the team fought hard against it as it would have disturbed the purity of the vision).

The result, though, is quite something: a brand-new manually wound movement that’s perhaps the most impressive thing the company has ever done.

“It’s hand-finished to an insanely high level”

By October 2024, six watchmakers were testing prototypes, feeding back concerns: the bridges aren’t sturdy enough, causing the barrels to lift. Amplitude is low and irregular, but we don’t know why. So many details, but all boiling down to one key problem – the anchor bridge and pallets weren’t doing their jobs properly – and with this fixed, a major corner had been turned.

“The idea that drove the development of CW-003 was to clear everything away from the right hand side,” Adrian says. “Do that, and you can see just how big the barrels are, and how the bridges stand away from the base plate – all purely visual stuff, but crucial. With the winding mechanism hidden away, we’d only be showing the key visuals, as we’d done with Bel Canto.”

The two movements share perhaps 40 percent of their parts, though the new one’s more expensive to make, mostly because it boasts three small bridges on the movement side and two more on the dial side (to SH21’s one), which all need hand-polished facets. It’s essentially a one-shot creation, developed specifically for The Loco. “If nothing else, CW-003 shows just how far we’ll go,” Jörg says. “If we can only do a brilliant job by creating something entirely new, then that’s what we’ll do.”

To no one’s great surprise, the elements the whole piece revolves around – the balance wheel and hairspring – were among the hardest to get right, and, unusually, are completely bespoke. “Most of the time, standard parts appear in surprisingly expensive watches,” Jörg says. “The same commonly used balance wheels are made in their millions, for instance, and it’s not hard to see why: building new regulated systems is hard, and if you get it wrong – even a little bit – your watch simply won’t tell the time.”

But for this particular Christopher Ward, only a unique, custom-designed balance wheel would do, a rare free-spring version (usually a buzz word for quality) adjusted by tiny screws (rather than the more common regulating pins) that change the inertia of the balance wheel itself, rather than the length of the hairspring. Everyone who’s seen it agrees: it’s a most accurate and elegant solution.

“Without everyone pulling together, we simply couldn’t have done it,” Frank says. “Creating our own balance wheel was key to the whole thing, really – but I can now see why hardly anyone ever tries. Microscopic amounts of material had to be removed, then a little bit more, to achieve constant oscillation, a process that haunts my dreams. My great desire was always to create a clean, cohesive, fluid design that flows effortlessly from the front to the rear and back again, and it’s only immense dedication and great teamwork that’s made it possible.”

For a while, getting chronometer certification for the new movement had seemed crucial – but this style of watch demands no second hand, and without that to measure accuracy, no COSC. Fine, it was decided: we don’t need it. “I suspect CW-003 far exceeds COSC standards,” Mike says. “But until we put it into a traditional three-hand piece, there’s no way to prove it for sure.” So, what’s the finished Loco like? Well, it’s quite the beauty, as you can see. At 41mm across and 13.7mm thick (but looking thinner) with a remarkably short lug-to-lug length, it wears easily on just about any wrist. The steel bracelet has a slim butterfly clasp, the hands are multi-faceted, and there’s linear brushing on the platine, while real screws hold everything together. The look and feel of the Twelve X has clearly been one starting point, but so has Bel Canto – The C12 Loco takes elements of both, has them meet in the middle, then moves everything forward three or four steps.

Tried-and-tested tricks like the use of box sapphire crystal and breaking up surfaces have been pressed into service to make the results feel as slim as possible, while the mid-case is built of two components, removing even the slightest hint of a slab side: as with Bel Canto, innovative CNC company Paoluzzo AG machined the new parts. Similarly, there’s no logo beyond those on the rear and the crown. “We love a clean look on these higher-end Christopher Wards,” Mike says. “And anyway, there’s really no good place for it to go.”

At the front, two main elements stand out. First is the floating time-telling dial at 12, taking up approximately half the real estate. It’s crisp, clean and easy to read, with lume on both hands and markers. You’ll have no problem telling the time at a glance, even with that flirtatious balance wheel just below it, so keen to draw the eye.

“Plenty of what we learned on Bel Canto we’ve applied here, though on Bel Canto all the lines are curved,” says watch designer Will Brackfield, who took the lead on most of the design. With this one we needed to carry over the angular facets of the Twelve case to the bridges, so everything looks like it’s been cut with a katana sword – straight and sharp.”

Platine colours are punchy – “supercar shades”, says Will – with a choice of black, white, a striking blue and an even more potent metallic orange, somewhere between McLaren and Irn-Bru. When you turn the watch over there’s even more to look at. The plates and bridges are deep black with fine grained and vertically brushed finishes, a backdrop against which everything else – in varying shades of silver – really pops. The hand-finishing here – from old friends APJ Sarl – is meticulous, holding up to scrutiny under the most powerful loupes.

The modern breed of highly-technical floating balance watches are among the most enticing the industry produces, appealing to an audience awake to independent brands, and admirers of innovation, slick design and technical chops in equal measure

For Christopher Ward, it’s heady company. “Girard-Perregaux’s Neo Bridges, a £25,000 piece, is probably the closest watch to what we’re doing,” Jörg says, “while the MB&F Legacy Machine will always be a benchmark, as it’s perhaps the best known floating balance watch there is. Once again, though, we’re doing something in volume that nobody has attempted at similar numbers before.”The C12 Loco speaks to the wide-eyed seven-year-old in all of us, but at the same time edges Christopher Ward that little bit closer to the rarified world of avant-garde haute horlogerie – without the usual price points, of course. It also demonstrates a brand stretching itself, moving forward in interesting and exciting ways.

“I’m incredibly happy with it,” Jörg says. “The visual layering is exceptional, every element sitting on a different level, giving the entire watch a very architectural feel. It’s really modern, exceeds every expectation – and the price is amazing value.”

Not so long ago, the shocked CEO of a very large and very famous Swiss watch brand took one look at SH21 and asked, “What gives you the licence to do that?” “Just that we could,” came the answer. Who knows what he’d make of The C12 Loco? The C12 Loco

Rubber strap £3,795 / US$4,595 / €4,95Steel bracelet £3,995 / US$4,825 / €5,205

For more information on this watch, visit Christopher Ward