Does CW still offer value for money?

Discuss Christopher Ward watches
charlesdidi
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Does CW still offer value for money?

Post by charlesdidi »

I thought I'd try and liven up this Forum with a question that has been on my mind for a few months. First let me say, that I own a Malvern Automatic. A brilliant watch which only cost me £99 and runs to one second fast a day. Amazing! (My original purchase was not such a success and had to be replaced after 6 months - wonderful customer service!)) I always wondered how CW could sell such a wonderful watch at such a price and indeed, he has had to raise prices; but even at £150 the Malvern is great value. However, what about the battery powered watches? Are they good value? On the face of it, it seems not. In fact, I would guess/I know, that at £125/£150 there are a multitude of well known branded watches that can be bought on the high street. How is the ordinary punter to know the difference between CW and a well known brand. At over £100 all brands seem to be made of good materials and are driven by design as much as quality. Is CW barking up the wrong tree? Should he stick to mechanical watches offering fantastic value? And if he wants to offer a battery powered range, surely £50 to £75 with a superb design and high quality materials would be a very tempting offer. Of course, there's the question of margins, which only CW can answer - but it seems to me, that at current prices, the battery powered watches do not offer value to the ordinary punter. What do you think?
Terminator

Re: Does CW still offer value for money?

Post by Terminator »

charlesdidi wrote:However, what about the battery powered watches? Are they good value? On the face of it, it seems not. In fact, I would guess/I know, that at £125/£150 there are a multitude of well known branded watches that can be bought on the high street. How is the ordinary punter to know the difference between CW and a well known brand.
Well I will help you liven it up. In fact I just joined the forum to actually reply to your post.

:wink: :lol: :lol:

I just took delivery of a C4 Peregrine C4SSS this week. If I am honest there is no comparison to a £100 " high street watch ". I eat watches personally. If I am lucky I get 2 years tops out of my regular daily watch. No matter how much or little I spend that is the life expectancy. I do of course have one " cracker " for those special occasions but other than that I grind them into dust.

The funny thing is my day job requires a suit but they never last the course. For instance in the summer I bought a £150 Seiko to replace my Automatic Kinetic Seiko. The new Seiko is a Quartz battery operated model. I have gone down the Automatic route many a time but the last Seiko really annoyed me with its time loss ( Daily -30 secs plus). Every few days I was having to alter it and trivial it may seem it annoyed the " pants " off of me. So I replaced it with a Quartz battery operated Seiko. Its been fine over the last 6 months and apart from date changes I dont recall having to alter it. Timekeeping is spot on and it has so far lasted quite well with no major damage although that is just a matter of time.

However and here is the big " However ".

Well for starters the Seiko came in a cheap crappy box. I got an ineffective manual that was not for my watch. In fact it came with a manual that never really covered any particular model at all. The guarantee card ???? What guarantee card. Oh it was there but did the jeweller bother to fill it in ??? Nope " you have your reciept sir ".

Now okay packaging might not be the main thing but the CWL certainly has that. Very nice presentation indeed.

Now lets get to the watch. Yes it uses the ISA 8154-220 movement. Okay maybe not outstanding. In fact I can pick up a replacement movement for pennies under £20 so its not that special. But is a £150 Seiko really that special ?

Time to move on to the C4 watch itself. I had to take three links out to get the strap to fit me. Now that normally presents me with no problems as I have a tool. Well lets put it this way ( CW will squirm at this ) I had to bring out a hammer. Those pins were as tight as a drum and high quality steel to boot and they were not keen on budging. Of course the hammer finally put paid to that but the force required was scaring even me lmao. So the bracelet is certainly high quality.

Now onto the case etc. Well what can I say. This watch is how I like my watches. I am an "Alpha Male " and this is a mans watch. Modern watches like Seiko's are girly things. They weigh nothing and easily fit under your shirt cuff. That is not a mans watch lmao. A watch should stick out and say " oh look at me ". Well the CWL C4 is not going to fit under my shirt cuff.

Okay all joking aside I have not had the watch long. However I myself judge a watch as to how much abuse it can take and only time will really tell but first impressions are certainly favorable. If the Bracelet , Case and Glass can survive relatively unscathed against all but the heaviest abuse then I will judge it as a good watch. My Kinetic Seiko actually survived quite well. What killed it was that the face started spinning around with wrist movement. It still worked fine but midday would suddenly spin around around to 5 o'clock lmao. Yes I suppose I could have got it fixed but why bother. A jeweller would have charged me £50 just to open up the case. I bought my Peregrine for £135.

A couple of people at work commented on my watch asking about it and who made it. They never asked me about the Seiko's.

Nuff Said. :wink:

P.S. Now okay I did say I am not a lover of automatics but only for a heavily used watch. That is not to say I do not like them. What CWL really should consider is to actually do a C4 Peregrine Atomatic with the glass back. Now that would actually look quite an impressive timepiece to impress the girls. I dont know. Although I havent seen one in the flesh the Malvern's just dont look quite macho enough at least to me.

:lol: :lol: :lol:
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Hans
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Post by Hans »

Thanks for joining Terminator, your story is enjoyable!
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