This board doesn't have enough rumor, speculation and gossip, so here goes.

While rummaging through the Poor Man's Watch Forum http://www.pmwf.com/, in a thread about what was on peoples wish list for '06, someone mentioned the "new Malvern Aviator." They said pics would be up in January and the watch would sell for Approx. 130-140 pounds.

Anyone?

Haven't heard about a Malvern Aviator, but I know there is a CW Peregrine Aviator coming up! It is in its 2nd prototype stage right now! diameter will be 42mm...

Hans wrote:I know there is a CW Peregrine Aviator coming up! It is in its 2nd prototype stage right now! diameter will be 42mm...

Wow, 42mm, that will get some attention! I guess still being in the prototype stage puts it a ways off. Any idea about the movement Hans?

I hope to get some more details of Chris in the near future, will let this know on the forum then..

Maybe.. Christopher can give us a sneak preview?
Only for this forum ?

Warhol wrote:Maybe.. Christopher can give us a sneak preview?
Only for this forum ?

Sounds good to me

I think the OG's on the forum will become Chris' unofficial R&D team

I look forward with much interest to the next CW offering and this forum is the place to reveal it first!

Could Chris be the one to eventually produce a gold cased watch without charging £1000+ for £100 worth of gold?
Regards to you all,

Tom

KavKav, I was just trading email with Chris and he apparently has at least a gold plated (10 microns) version coming around the end of March. And, it looks like there is a limited edition version of the gold case with the existing white/silver dial, model 5CGWT. I was considering holding out for one of those, but after creating a mockup of it in my paint program, decided to go with the current one. I would upload my mockup of it, if there was a way to add attachments to these posts.

joerattz wrote: I would upload my mockup of it, if there was a way to add attachments to these posts.

Not sure if you can upload directly from your PC. If not, host the image at http://www.imageshack.org, it takes 10 seconds. Then copy/paste in your message. Others have done it in the Show Your Watch thread so it shouldn't be too tough. Would like to see the mock up.

Hi Joerattz,
I was having a whinge about the disproportionate selling price of a solid 'gold' cased watch.
Pure gold is currently arount the £305 an ounce mark. So that equates to £228.75 for 18ct gold. (18/24)
Let's be generous and add 20% for alloying costs so we will say £274.50 for an ounce of 18ct gold.
A decent gold watch will have about half an ounce of gold in the case and that is a generous figure! So, the gold cost will be say, around £138. Let us be VERY generous and add a case manufacturing mark-up of 100% which gives us £276. Let us be even more generous and allow a retail mark-up of a massive 200% on top of that!
Now we have an approximate case selling price of £828 which I hope you will agree is a massive price bearing in mind the original base metal price.

WHY then is it, given the hugely generous figures above, that a very well known manufacturer sells a very well known watch for £2,850 in Stainless Steel and the SAME watch in 18ct gold for an astonishing £6,700!!! This is a price differential of £3,850 for the gold element of the watch which we have previously estimated at an massively generous £828!
Do you get my point guys? Do you think I am wrong? If so, please tell me how and where you think I am wrong!
Regards, Tom.

Ok, here goes. Let me get all the disclaimers out of the way. First, Christopher Ward has not seen (to my knowledge at this time) or approved of this image. I have no way to actually know what his watch will look like. All I did was grab a screenshot from his PDF of the gold plated Malvern Auto and copied over the white/silver dial. This is really poor quality because of this. I just wanted to get an idea of what the Malvern Auto would look like with the gold case.

http://img323.imageshack.us/img323/7443 ... gwt3ag.jpg

KavKav wrote:Hi Joerattz,
I was having a whinge about the disproportionate selling price of a solid 'gold' cased watch.
Regards, Tom.

I am with you. In all honesty, I think many WIS like the higher prices to make the watches more exclusive. Most of the high-end watches have no reason to cost as much as they do...but yet they sell.

I was reading a comparison (on TZ I believe) of a Breitling replica/fake versus the real thing. I am guessing (totally, never priced one) that the replica was $200-300 and the real thing is 3K+-. Yet in the comparison, there really weren't very many differences. Comparison didn't include inside the case...only exterior. But in all honesty, the differences were very minor and I am guessing for another $50, that replica could have addressed all those issues. So why should a Breitling cost so much more? Yes, I am not including the movement, which is significant, but still...

joerattz wrote:Ok, here goes. Let me get all the disclaimers out of the way. First, Christopher Ward has not seen (to my knowledge at this time) or approved of this image. I have no way to actually know what his watch will look like. All I did was grab a screenshot from his PDF of the gold plated Malvern Auto and copied over the white/silver dial. This is really poor quality because of this. I just wanted to get an idea of what the Malvern Auto would look like with the gold case.

http://img323.imageshack.us/img323/7443 ... gwt3ag.jpg

Hmmm, that looks better than I was expecting. Nice work!

I saw the watches in the pdf also. If the Malverns are the first watches sold then perhaps the pdf watches were prototypes. There are some interesting watches in that file.

El Tiempo wrote:I saw the watches in the pdf also. If the Malverns are the first watches sold then perhaps the pdf watches were prototypes. There are some interesting watches in that file.

Based on the emails swapped with Chris, he plans to offer more options in the coming months corresponding to what you see in that pdf. He didn't really give me any specifics, except, when I asked about a gold plated case with white dial (like the one I drew up), he referenced it by model number...C5GWT.