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The new CWArchive

Posted: Thu Aug 15, 2019 1:42 pm
by Kip
Many years ago, as a collector, I found it difficult, in many instances, to find historical information on watches I was interested in or had purchased. Whilst it is true that one can locate information on the larger brands, it is usually scattered about the internet and in books, it is rarely complete or in one place.

Not long after my introduction to Christopher Ward, it struck me that this would be good information to maintain on a company I liked and which seemed to have a future. As a result, I started collecting as much information as I could find. Initially I had the intent of putting all this information into book form, but in today's world this doesn’t seem quite practical.

Late in 2009, I had some discussions with the CW Forum founder, Hans, about developing a historical reference for Christopher Ward. These talks developed, thanks to Hans, into the Archives being added to the Forum in Mid-2010. The Archives that we had were very cumbersome to work with and difficult to put into an efficient viewable format, but it was a beginning. However, as time passed, it quickly became outdated and it still was far from what I was after.

I never gave up collecting information and badgering those at CW for details, nor my vision for creating a true historical archive. Around February of 2017 I approached “downer” about researching appropriate software to develop a new archive. Downer had helped and supported me in revising my spreadsheets and is an expert at Excel development. We did a bit more legwork, but still never really got going.

Then it happened…… At the second Admin Team meeting at CW Towers, in October 2018, support was finally garnered from CW for the development of an all new Archive.

Now with the full support of CW, the Admin Team immediately got to work in discussions, searching and organizing all the information we had and deciding how to best utilize it. Software was found, formats tried, and information entered.

After 10 months of intensive work we are launching the CWArchive!!

Gone is the cumbersome format of the old Archive. Gone is the detailed spreadsheet that I used to update twice per year.

The all new CWArchive allows you to search for details by collection model and/or variant. Information included is everything that you used to get from my spreadsheet. Also included is resale information that I have been tracking from worldwide sales since 2005 on CW watches.

Other new additions include the watch manuals, magazine and catalog links, movement information, a CW Timeline, press links to reviews and much, much more……..and it is in all one place….The CWArchive!

My vision has come to life!!

I cannot say Thank You enough to the members of my Admin Team for their hard work and dedication to this project. I would like to offer an Extra Special Thank You to “downer” for doing the leg work regarding the formatting and detailed input of information. Thanks to our “Wordsmith” “AVO” for his writing of all the descriptions. Thanks to “Bahnstormer_vRS” and “ianblyth” for all their input and work proofing. A shout to “MiniMpi” for assisting us through the proofing process. Not to be forgotten is the support we have received from CW on this project, especially Sammy, Olivia and Fraser. A mention goes to Andrew Henry whose ideas also contributed early on.

In the end, we think we have created a reference site like no other brand has. A single place where you can find all relative information, or at least most of it, that is available regarding a Christopher Ward watch and information about the company, both present and historical, that built it.

Due to the massive amount of information we have been working with, we have undoubtedly missed a few things or made some errors that we failed to pick up in the proofing process. You will note that on the home page there is a “Suggest an Edit” place where you can make us aware of any errors or omissions you might see.

The CWArchive is a continual work in process as new models, information, magazines etc. will be updated regularly.

Please have a look around the CW Archives. We hope that you will find it an enjoyable and useful tool.

Also keep in mind that this is a preview and we will get this attached to the Forum Archive link on the Portal and Board Index page. For now you can compare the old with the new. We will also be adding other categories such as CW Founders biographies and the evolution of the logo etc. as they are completed.

You may preview the new CWArchive here

Re: The new CWArchive

Posted: Thu Aug 15, 2019 1:45 pm
by Amor Vincit Omnia
And since he can’t really thank himself, let’s do it for him. Incredible effort, Kip.

Re: The new CWArchive

Posted: Thu Aug 15, 2019 2:00 pm
by gaf1958
Good stuff. Thank you Kip and team. There’s info on models there, that I’d thought had been long lost... :thumbup:

Re: The new CWArchive

Posted: Thu Aug 15, 2019 2:08 pm
by FullFat
Fantastic effort!

Re: The new CWArchive

Posted: Thu Aug 15, 2019 2:17 pm
by TheBeatles
Pretty impressive stuff guys.

Congratulations on a job very well done. Even if not looking for a particular model, it’s extremely interesting just perusing through the pages.

The presentation of each model is very easy on the eye. I bet not many people knew they had produced so many, I know it’s an eye opener for me.

Once again, :clap: :clap: :clap:

Re: The new CWArchive

Posted: Thu Aug 15, 2019 2:27 pm
by what-time-is-it
Seems a good step up - I never used the old setup as it was so clunky,

Only observation which should be a simple fix for the site admin, is when you hover over a sub-menu option in the top navigation the background of the hover goes from blue with white text to grey with white text which for some will be difficult to read.

Re: The new CWArchive

Posted: Thu Aug 15, 2019 2:52 pm
by downer
what-time-is-it wrote: Thu Aug 15, 2019 2:27 pm Seems a good step up - I never used the old setup as it was so clunky,

Only observation which should be a simple fix for the site admin, is when you hover over a sub-menu option in the top navigation the background of the hover goes from blue with white text to grey with white text which for some will be difficult to read.
Let me have a look at that. On the face of it, there's no obvious way to change that setting. We are using a standard colour scheme provided by the software supplier. There is a way to alter a few things, but no obvious setting for the colour of menu selections. I will experiment.

Re: The new CWArchive

Posted: Thu Aug 15, 2019 4:24 pm
by mvlow
Just took a quick look around. Very well done Kip and the rest of the members that helped. There are many tools that will be helpful in researching particular models and their history.

Re: The new CWArchive

Posted: Thu Aug 15, 2019 4:32 pm
by StrappedUp
Fantastic work gents! There is a fair whack of info there. Credit where it's due :clap:

Re: The new CWArchive

Posted: Thu Aug 15, 2019 5:09 pm
by Bident
What a Herculean effort! Many thanks to Kip and the team for creating an invaluable resource.

What's That Watch Dad?

Posted: Thu Aug 15, 2019 5:36 pm
by scooter
A superb effort by all concerned.

Well worth all the hard work involved.

scooter

Re: The new CWArchive

Posted: Thu Aug 15, 2019 5:40 pm
by downer
downer wrote: Thu Aug 15, 2019 2:52 pm
what-time-is-it wrote: Thu Aug 15, 2019 2:27 pm Seems a good step up - I never used the old setup as it was so clunky,

Only observation which should be a simple fix for the site admin, is when you hover over a sub-menu option in the top navigation the background of the hover goes from blue with white text to grey with white text which for some will be difficult to read.
Let me have a look at that. On the face of it, there's no obvious way to change that setting. We are using a standard colour scheme provided by the software supplier. There is a way to alter a few things, but no obvious setting for the colour of menu selections. I will experiment.
This is fixed now. Thanks for pointing it out. :thumbup:

Re: The new CWArchive

Posted: Thu Aug 15, 2019 6:34 pm
by MiniMpi
Congratulations on getting this finally launched Kip :clap:
Huge credit has to go to YOU my friend for cataloging everything along the way so that the information wasn't lost.
I was glad to help in a small way and you should be very proud of it.
Well done to all the admin team who assisted and to all at CW who helped also.

Re: The new CWArchive

Posted: Thu Aug 15, 2019 6:40 pm
by H0rati0
Seriously impressive. I think this is a fabulous resource and hopefully it will boost worldwide CW credibility.

Many, many thanks to all involved.

Re: The new CWArchive

Posted: Thu Aug 15, 2019 6:46 pm
by Thermexman
Great job by all those involved. Thank you! :clap: :clap: