Christopher Ward C9 5 DAY AUTOMATIC User guide

C9 5 DAY AUTOMATIC
O W N E R ’ S H A N D B O O K

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Your Christopher Ward watch has been designed
and engineered by highly talented craftspeople
to ensure not only accurate and precise
timekeeping but also to bring a real pride of
ownership that only luxury items of the highest
quality can ever hope to deliver.
You have made an investment, a good one,
and the aim of this handbook is to help you
make the most of that investment during what
I hope will be a lifetime of ownership.
Christopher Ward
TIME ON YOUR SIDE...
INTRODUCTION
CONTENTS
C9 5 DAY AUTOMATIC 2–9
TECHNICAL INFORMATION 10–11
HOW TO OPERATE YOUR
C9 5 DAY AUTOMATIC 12–17
OUR WATCH CARE PROGRAMME 18–19
KEEPING IN TOUCH 20

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C9 5 DAY AUTOMATIC
YOUR C9 5 DAY AUTOMATIC
Few watch brands create their own movement
and of those that do, only a handful add
something really original and important to
the world of watchmaking. Christopher Ward’s
in-house Calibre SH21, which powers
the C9 5 Day Automatic is one such movement.
Created by our master watchmaker, Johannes
Jahnke, our new calibre, which is a certied
chronometer by the Swiss Ofcial Chronometer
Testing Institute (COSC), can run under its own
steam, once fully wound, for 120 hours/5 days.
There is no compromise in the stability or robustness
of the movement which means the wearer can
be condent that their watch will withstand even
quite rugged conditions and require the minimum
of servicing.
The design of the watch follows the familiar modern
classic ethos of the C9 Collection. It has that
understated and timeless quality which requires
each element to be harmonious and brilliantly
executed so that the whole becomes greater than
the sum of the parts.
Every aspect of the watch exudes elegance
and high quality – from the sharpness of the
dial’s indexes to the subtle brilliance of the Bader
deployment that gives the perfect nishing touch
to the ne Italian leather strap or bracelet.
Our new in-house movement, which can be
gloriously viewed through the sapphire crystal
exhibition window in the case-back, has been
nished using a traditional, and difcult to
execute, hand-grinding technique so favoured
by English watchmakers of an earlier era.
As a relatively small, independent English watch
brand we have created an important addition
to the watchmaking cannon which will give its
owner a lifetime of undiluted pleasure as well as
precise and accurate timekeeping.

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“ The launch of our rst in-house
movement, which is perhaps the
most important development for
a British watch brand for 50 years,
tops out our rst ten years perfectly.”
CHRIS WARD

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C9 5 DAY AUTOMATIC
There are only a handful of brands selling accessibly
priced in-house movement watches and of those
that do, none is based in the UK. Whether you
like it or not, that makes the C9 5 Day Automatic,
its SH21 calibre, and its very accessible price point
interesting.
I rst talked to Chris Ward about whether he would
– or could – make an in-house movement a couple
of years ago. He’d invited me to write a piece for
his magazine on the Swiss competition commission’s
then-pending decision to withdraw supply of
movements and parts made by its subsidiaries to
third-party watch companies – companies that
include Christopher Ward.
Christopher Ward has always expressed a
spirit of independence and we like to see
that same spirit in the watch media. That’s why
we asked respected journalist Robin Swithinbank
to write the first review of the C9 5 Day Automatic,
incorporating our first in-house movement, SH21.
Robin Swithinbank is an
experienced watch journalist,
editor of Calibre magazine,
and a regular contributor to the
Financial Times, The Times and
specialist watch magazine QP.
THE C9 5 DAY AUTOMATIC
Review by Robin Swithinbank

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Building your own watch movement, regardless
of who you are and how much cash you have to
throw around, is notoriously difcult. Even more
so if it’s your rst. The big boys sink tens of millions
into movement manufacturing, and don’t always
get it right. When you’re a smaller operator, the
risks are higher still, because as history has shown,
bankruptcy is only one dodgy gear train away.
As so many do, it’s safer to stick with calibres such
as the ETA 2824 – it’s inexpensive, reliable, easy
to service and looks alright through a case back.
In that light, SH21 is a brave step. A risk, you might
also say. It’s been on the table for four years,
and in the nal development phase for the last
18 months, which is not long by industry standards.
Not least when the calibre has a hefty 120-hour
power reserve and has been built with foresight,
so that in time it might carry modules that will
give a watch GMT, chronograph, power reserve
and perhaps jumping hour functions.
Take that then as a sign of how much trust
Christopher Ward places in its in-house
master watchmaker, the still impossibly young
Johannes Jahnke. At 31, Jahnke has already
C9 5 DAY AUTOMATIC
put his name to Christopher Ward’s C900 Single
Pusher Chronograph and Worldtimer, but the
SH21 is the rst calibre he’s taken from drawing
board to production.
Jahnke’s design is based on Baukastensystem
principles, a modular approach that takes its name
from the German word meaning ‘building blocks’.
In the most prosaic terms, the movement’s
164 parts are assembled in blocks that are then
brought together.
Johannes Jahnke,
Christopher Ward’s in-house
watchmaker and the man
responsible for Calibre SH21
and movements on such
innovative timepieces as
the C9 Big Day Date and
the C900 Single Pusher
Chronograph.

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of a machine and the delicate hand of a
craftsman. First impressions can be deceiving –
lingering on it, it’s really rather charming.
Top side up, the design is increasingly distinctive,
the next chapter in the now familiar C9 story. The
new watch retains the clean, classical look of
other designs in the line, although its elongated
hour markers and spiky central hands create
artfully stark, graphic shapes that give
it a pleasingly modern twist. The message of
what lies beneath is communicated with
classic British understatement – only a note
at 6 o’clock hints at the sophistication of the
powerful automatic below.
Subtlety and understatement are of course
what has made the C9 collection so successful.
It’s Christopher Ward’s signature line, and given
the role played by its namesake – the ingenious
18th century British clockmaker John Harrison,
who solved the problem of establishing longitude
st sea – a tting home for the pioneering SH21.
C9 5 DAY AUTOMATIC
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On the one hand, that means it’s very adaptable;
on the other, it means it’s not the skinniest. The
C9 5 Day Automatic is 13.45mm deep.
Not, as I understand it, that thinness is the point.
Rather, the point is to build a sturdy, tractor-like
base calibre that has all the resilience of a
Valjoux 7750, one of the world’s hardiest
mechanical movements.
Measuring 14 lignes across, SH21 is broad
shouldered, too. This creates space for a wider,
heavier balance wheel, which as horologists
will know delivers more stable and more
accurate performance. Christopher Ward
has been careful to prove the point by getting
the SH21 chronometer certied.
As for decoration, well there’s a story here, too.
Initially, SH21 has an industrial look – a description
more accessible brands often use to cheer up
cost-saving measures. But in this case, the
movement has a traditional handgrinding nish,
a ne grain achieved by combining the power

77

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But for all its novelty and its genteel design, it’s
impossible to ignore the value quota in the
C9 5 Day Automatic. Given it’s price, it feels
remarkably well made, and ddling with the
crown, there’s no tolerance at all, a sign that
someone’s taken the time to engineer it properly.
The ve-day power reserve is frankly impressive,
and the hacking second function is a boon
given the retail price, too.
Much of the explanation for this lies in the
relationship between Christopher Ward and one
of its key suppliers, the young Swiss movement
manufacturer Synergies Horologères, founded by
industry veteran Jörg Bader seven years ago.
It was Bader who discovered Jahnke and backed
him as the one to innovate an avant-garde
in-house calibre. Likewise, it was Bader who
pushed the idea of working with multiple parts
manufacturers in order to deliver the best
value possible. Nine suppliers were used in
manufacturing SH21, and from what I could
glean, that kept investment in the calibre at a
fraction of industry norms.
C9 5 DAY AUTOMATIC
Refreshingly, Christopher Ward is making no
attempt to disguise the number of suppliers it
has used, nor the genesis of the movement itself.
The new calibre’s name alone makes the point –
it’s an acronym combining the initials of its
source and the 21st century.
In this Christopher Ward’s 10th-anniversary year,
SH21 hints at future ambitions. As Swatch Group
continues the process of cutting back supply of
ETA movements and Nivarox parts, and assuming
it remains viable, Christopher Ward’s set-up
may yet come into its own. At the moment,
SH21 will sit exclusively in Christopher Ward
watches, but, says the brand, with production
capacity open-ended, that might yet change.
Since Robin wrote this article, Christopher Ward and
Synergies Horologères announced they had merged
to form a uniquely vertical watch company.

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“What gives you the
licence to do that?”
CEO of a major Swiss watch brand on
hearing about Calibre SH21,
Christopher Ward’s rst in-house movement.
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