I contacted Christopher via email and asked for some background on CWL and I received this response from Christopher's business partner Mike France and thought it worth sharing. enj

"Essentially, I have known Chris for 25 years or more and when he told me about his vision for producing watches of the quality usually associated with the premier brands for a fraction of the price I was interested but deeply sceptical. But Chris is a determined man and eventually my scepticism turned into a challenge…which he accepted…to produce the evidence. If he did, I and my business partner, Peter, would invest in Chris’s company.

And many months later he produced samples of two of the most glorious watches I have ever worn (We now know them as The Malvern Automatic and The Malvern Chronograph) which he had developed by calling in many, many favours, with some of the best British designers and his long standing friends in the watch industry. When he explained the movements and told us of the manufacturers (for instance, the cases were produced by the same manufacturer who makes for Beetling and Tag) we were astonished.

Together, we worked up a strategy which included creating an extremely cost efficient business model which, by cutting out every middleman including the retailer, allowed us to either make huge margins or share most of the savings with the customer to retain a uniquely value orientated price structure. We obviously chose the latter route because that’s the sort of people we are.

And then we decided to deliver the type of service and attitude for our customers that if not unique is extremely hard to find these days. This includes being prepared to be as open and straightforward and as approachable as possible.

The hope is that, eventually, by word of mouth we will grow to a size that allows us to make a fair return. That is sometime off but when we receive comments from people like yourself it makes what is essentially a labour of love incredibly rewarding."