If you keep up at all with the world of watches — and since you're reading a review of a Christopher Ward watch, I'm guessing you do — then you're no doubt familiar with the term integrated bracelet luxury sports watch. It's a loosely defined genre born from the work of the late Gerald Genta, who pioneered the form first with the Audemars Piguet Royal Oak in 1972 and continued with the Patek Philippe Nautilus and IWC Ingenieur, both in 1976. These types of watches had, for the most part, integrated bracelets that flowed into a thin case, textured dials, sharp angles and different finishes that make them sparkle, all while being robust enough to take swimming or hold up to a few knocks.
Around the late 1990s, the integrated bracelet look was cast off as dated, but in the past five or so years it's come roaring back and is arguably now more popular than ever. Variants of the Royal Oak and Nautilus are perpetually sold out, IWC resurrected Genta's design for the Ingenieur at Watches & Wonders 2023 and practically every brand under the sun has its own version of a luxury sports watch. One of the latest to join the fray — and one of the most intriguing — is Christopher Ward with The Twelve. The British-based, Swiss-made brand has long provided some of the best value-for-dollar watches in the industry thanks to its DTC sales model; the company was launched as the first watch brand to sell exclusively online, which it began doing in 2005.
But making a $1,000 dive watch that holds its own against $3,000 dive watches is one thing. How could CW possibly achieve the levels of finishing required for a proper luxury sports watch with an integrated bracelet, considering that those watches tend to retail for anywhere from $10,000 to over $30,000 in stainless steel, while still holding onto its affordable reputation? I got my hands on The Twelve and wore it around for a couple of weeks to find out.
Christopher Ward The Twelve: What We Think
Christopher Ward pulled it off. The Twelve has a gorgeous design and flawless finishing that makes it stand out in a crowd and compares favorably with watches costing many times its price. It's also executed in a size that will keep almost everyone happy, with a compact and thin fit that wears comfortably on small wrists and enough flash and wrist presence to not look dainty on larger wrists. The watch is robust enough to function as a true sports watch, but it's still refined enough to work in formal settings, too. But perhaps what impresses me most about The Twelve is the attention to detail in the design, with clever touches nearly everywhere you look.
But no watch is perfect, and that includes The Twelve. The design, while beautiful, certainly takes inspiration from a number of other luxury sports watches, and that may rub some potential buyers the wrong way. The watch's movement could also be improved, as it's not as accurate as one would expect a luxury watch to be. But overall, for the money — and even for two and three times the money — there is arguably no better watch available in this style.
The watch is beautifully finished
A watch in this style lives or dies by its finishing, and CW really knocked it out of the park with The Twelve. This thing catches light like nobody's business and glitters like crazy on the wrist, and there's never a dull moment when looking at it — both literally and figuratively. The case is vertically brushed across its flat top, with a mirror-polished chamfer running along each side. That chamfer is repeated again on the underside of the satin-brushed sides of the case, helping to further thin out what is already a rather svelte design. The signed crown is flanked by a pair of large crown guards which are held in place by tiny hexagonal screws, giving the watch a sort of industrial touch.
The bezel is 12 sided — hence the name of the watch — and while it doesn't appear to have too much going on at first, you'll be rewarded upon closer inspection. The thin top ring of the bezel is vertically brushed, which leads to the twelve-sided part of the bezel sporting a mirror polish. The cutouts of the twelve sides are bead blasted, and then finally there's a circular-brushed ring at the base of the bezel. It's a lot going on in not a lot of space and really shows CW's finishing prowess and attention to detail.
Finally, there's the bracelet, arguably the star attraction of any watch in this style. CW eschewed complexity in favor of better finishing in a tradeoff to keep costs down, so the bracelet has a hard-angled, single-link design instead of multiple links like on the Royal Oak. The links are brushed vertically with polished edges running down each side and across the bottom of each one, and the bracelet looks fluid and serpentine on the wrist. It tapers elegantly and fits seamlessly against the case's male end link. The watch is available on a rubber strap, but that honestly seems pointless to me. If you're after this style of watch, spend the extra $230 and get it on the bracelet.
Everything here feels decidedly premium, and The Twelve looks a lot more expensive than it is. The brushing is consistent and beautiful, and the mirror polishing is especially impressive. It's truly distortion-free — you could literally use this bezel to clean your teeth, not that I have. I own a Grand Seiko with the famed hand-crafted "Zaratsu" polishing, and I can say that the daylight between the polishing on this CW and on my GS is much smaller than you'd expect.
It's comfortable on a variety of wrists
I am of the general belief that most watches are too big. My wrists are smaller than average — 6.25 inches/16cm — and all of the watches in my collection clock in with cases that measure fewer than 40mm across. So when I saw that The Twelve was a 40mm watch, I was disappointed, thinking it would wear too large like the 40mm Tissot PRX, a watch to which The Twelve has drawn numerous comparisons. But when I received my loaner watch from Christopher Ward, I was pleasantly surprised. Not only did the 40mm not feel too big, it felt just right.
The case is 40mm, yes, but it begins to taper immediately and you're not left with a ton of extra real estate around the bezel like on many other luxury sports watches. What's more, the lug-to-lug distance is just 44.5mm, and while the end links of the bracelet don't fully articulate, they angle down enough to wear the length they add is negligible. The watch hugs the wrist, and because both the bracelet and case are thin — just a flick under 10mm for the latter — the watch wears extremely light. It's one of those watches that I forget I have on while I'm wearing it, at least until it catches some light and I can see something shimmering in my periphery.
The movement isn't the greatest
With the finishing and build quality being top-notch, Christopher Ward had to cut corners somewhere to keep The Twelve's price hovering around the $1,000 mark (it's $1,225 on the bracelet, $995 without). And it's the movement where the CW ends up lacking. The watch is powered by a Swiss-made Sellita SW200-1 automatic movement, which is certainly not a bad movement, but it's fairly outdated and performance-wise isn't what you'd want from a luxury watch.
The movement has a power reserve of just 38 hours, which by today's standards is certainly on the low side, especially when you consider that the PRX and an ever-increasing number of other watches from the Swatch Group are packing 80 hours of timekeeping between caseback and crystal. Then there's the accuracy. Christopher Ward says The Twelve's movement will keep time to within +/- 20 seconds per day. My sample consistently ran 20 seconds slow per day, which is right at the high end of the movement's tolerance. That's expected for, say, a $500 Seiko, but if you're pitting yourself against luxury watches, I think timekeeping precision has to be more of a priority.
It's perfect for everyday wear
Part of the appeal of these luxury sports watches is they, at least hypothetically, make great everyday watches. They're fancy-looking enough to function in dressy situations, they're sporty enough to work in casual situations and they're robust enough to take on adventures. I certainly found that to be the case with The Twelve. The watch is flat-out gorgeous, and regardless of what I was wearing, it always seemed to be the star of my outfit. It just always looks good.
It also works great as a real sports watch. While lacking dedicated functions like a dive watch or chronograph, the watch is still a great companion on the wrist. It has a screw-down crown with 100m of water resistance, so swimming isn't a concern (I did not swim with the watch, but I did wear it on a boat). And, unlike many other integrated bracelet watches, The Twelve has fantastic lume. The Super-LumiNova formula SLN X1 BL C1 may be an absurd mouthful of gibberish, but it glows blue, shines bright and lasts all night.
The design is packed with small details
One of my favorite things about watches, and part of the reason why I find them so interesting, is when they incorporate seemingly insignificant but ultimately thoughtful details that contribute to the overall design or function. And The Twelve does an excellent job in that regard. Take the dial, for instance. At first glance, it looks like your standard waffle or tapisserie dial like you see on the PRX or Royal Oak. But look closer and you'll see that the dial is actually made up of a repeating pattern of tiny little 3D pyramids in the shape of a cross — the same cross that appears in the brand's "Twin Flags" logo representing the flags of England and Switzerland. The dial overall is stunning and hypnotic in a way I wasn't expecting (it doesn't translate well to pictures or video), and that creative pattern is to thank for it.
The watch manages to incorporate plenty of other clever touches, too. The date window is color-matched to the dial and placed above a half-marker at six o'clock, which keeps the symmetry of the dial preserved while also maintaining luminosity and a nicely-finished applied index on the southernmost part of the dial. The caseback features its own bezel, which is a perfectly-aligned replica of the bezel surrounding the dial. This unique arrangement gives the watch a unique profile with even more symmetry, while also featuring an extra dose of great finishing in a place where many brands wouldn't bother. There's always something to look at with this watch, which keeps it interesting.
But it's not the most original design in the world
The most frequent criticism lobbed at The Twelve from the watch enthusiast community is that it's a ripoff of other watches. While I don't believe that's the case, I do think that CW borrowed from other better-known (and much more expensive) watches when coming up with The Twelve. The watch that seems to draw the most comparisons is the Czapek Antarctique, which has a similar case shape and crown guards and a very similar dial layout, including the hands and indices. (It's worth noting that Adrian Buchmann, credited as one of the chief designers of the Antarctique, is also head of product design at Christopher Ward.)
I also see a lot of the Zenith Defy Skyline in The Twelve, as that watch also features a nearly-identical 12-sided bezel and a dial pattern featuring a repeating logo; a star in Zenith's case. There were multiple times when I caught a glimpse of The Twelve in a mirror and my mind went "Oh cool, a Zenith Defy Skyline" before I registered what I was looking at.
To be fair, CW hasn't exactly been shy about its influences and isn't trying to pull the wool over anyone's eyes. The brand has mentioned those watches and others in interviews as influences and even added six hexagonal screws to the caseback as a stated nod to Genta (a bit on the nose for me, personally, though I'll admit it looks good). It seems what the brand is saying is basically, "You like those watches? Cool, so do we. We made a similar watch that costs way less." And the brand certainly has a point there. The Zenith? Those start at $9,000. Czapek? That will set you back about $25,000— if you can even get one. You want a Royal Oak? SRP is $28K but be prepared to spend $57,000 on the gray market with no manufacturer's warranty because the waiting list is years long.
Christopher Ward The Twelve: Alternatives
If you're not a fan of The Twelve for whatever reason, there are plenty of alternatives. I'm not sure that any quite hit the nail on the head in terms of overall quality, design, sizing and affordability, but watches are subjective to a degree and you may find something you prefer elsewhere. The most frequently cited rival of The Twelve is a watch I've mentioned many times already: the Tissot PRX. It's an extremely popular watch that's available in 40mm and 35mm options, so sizing shouldn't be an issue. At $675, it does cost around half as much as the CW, and while it's nicely finished for the money, it still looks and feels considerably cheaper than The Twelve in the metal.
Another option is the Maurice Lacroix Aikon, which comes in both 39mm and 42mm. Its design is clearly very Royal Oak-inspired, possibly too much, but it's a well-finished watch from a Swiss brand with a 50-year history. The Aikon retails for $2,300, but can often be found for a bit less — still more expensive than The Twelve, though, and it has the same movement. The Nivada Grenchen 77 is a remake of the resurrected Swiss brand's watch from the same year and is decidedly more retro (and Royal Oak-like) in its design than the very-contemporary Twelve. It is a bit cheaper at $1,150 and a bit smaller at 37mm, but also over 2.5mm thicker and lacking the sharp finishing of the Ward.
Finally, competition comes from Christopher Ward itself. The brand makes a titanium version of the twelve featuring a titanium case and bracelet, brightly-colored fumé dial and a COSC-certified SW300-1 automatic chronometer movement rated to -4/+6 seconds per day. Because of the movement, The Twelve (Ti) is a full millimeter thinner than The Twelve in stainless steel. But the lightness, thinness and improved accuracy will cost you — an extra $670, to be exact.
