New CW owner confused

Discuss Christopher Ward watches
albionphoto
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Re: New CW owner confused

Post by albionphoto »

Jcalder68 made some good points. My experience with CW has also been uniformly positive. I continue to buy CW watches if they make something that I like. I think that CW offer good quality at fair prices. Many of their designs leave me cold but there are usually some that I want. I have yet to be convinced by the hands on the Trident Mk III and am waiting to see them in the flesh before making up my mind. I also. like the SH21 and JJ movements.
As you'll see from my signature I own watches from a few brands and am well aware that I have many choices in my own collection, and in the broader market place and will buy what I like. Until CW stops making watches that I like or if I ever have a bad customer service experience then my opinion may change but for right now I've never been disappointed by CW or its watches.
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Amor Vincit Omnia
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Re: New CW owner confused

Post by Amor Vincit Omnia »

Gasman wrote: Tue Sep 17, 2019 10:27 pm Well from the responses on this thread it appears it’s not all bad. I suppose it’s more people moaning rather than sharing their good experiences.
I have owned (I think) about 14 CWs over 8 years and still have 8 of them.

I have had to send two back for repair, both dealt with promptly and under warranty. One long-termer has had a service, again carried out within a reasonable time frame.

Sorry, I know that doesn't help people who have experienced / are experiencing issues, but it's only fair to paint a complete picture.
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Re: New CW owner confused

Post by Viognier »

Jcalder68 wrote: Tue Sep 17, 2019 8:38 pm I have had nothing but positive experiences with them. This is from visits to their showroom, prompt replies to emails and polite, well-informed and efficient telephone calls to them.

I think that the reason you “see” so many negative comments is that people, in general, are too happy to post negative comments rather than positive. In fact, many of the negative posts seem to be from new(ish) forum members who seem to have registered with the primary intention of venting their frustrations.

Just my opinion though.

C
^^ I echo Jcalder 68’s post above. I’ve been here for 7 years and have owned well over 20 CW watches. No issues with performance or customer service. While it doesn’t appear to be the Wera style amazing Service many of us enjoyed, Scott C. was fantastic in my dealings with him whilst he was here.

We were all New to our current work roles at one time. I’m taking a balanced approach to watching the CW customer service return to it’s not so distant past of excellence.

My experience and opinion.
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Re: New CW owner confused

Post by nauf »

Jcalder68 wrote: Tue Sep 17, 2019 8:38 pm I continue to buy their watches, and fully support the brand, because I have had nothing but positive experiences with them. This is from visits to their showroom, prompt replies to emails and polite, well-informed and efficient telephone calls to them.
Same for me too. I had, in the past issue with my C9 Harrison GMT. But the CS led by Wera was very excellent in getting it resolved. That’s the only issue I had and was handled effectively. My other experience with new CS team led by Scott are all ended in happy and positive ways.
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|C20 Lido|C65 GMT|C7 Auto|C60 MKII Bronze|C65 Auto|C60 MKIII GMT|C65 SH21 LE|C65 AM GT LE
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Re: New CW owner confused

Post by TigerChris »

Ok, I’ll chip in with my experiences. I’ve had several dealings over the course of the last few years. All have been dealt with to my satisfaction, eventually. The key word there is ‘eventually’. From my personal experiences there is one big difference since Wera departed. When Wera was there my issues were dealt with without the need for any chasing up and she/her team kept me informed. In the ‘post Wera’ era, I’ve had to make contact on several occasions to get updates on a watch that was there and got mixed and/or contradicting information given by staff resulting in me having to go straight to Scott to get things clarified and dealt with. I’m not saying things were perfect when Wera was there but the CS team seemed to act as one unit. Since she left the CS team has seemed a little disjointed. I can’t comment too much on QC as I have only ever had one issue which was very minor with an incorrect strap fitted to a watch (tang buckle rather than bader) - Wera sent me the correct strap straight away and told me to keep the incorrect one.
So, as I try and only go from personal experience, I shall continue to purchase CW watches if there is one that takes my fancy.
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Re: New CW owner confused

Post by 0uatiOW »

I have bought 5 CW watches since 2017, and my experience has been mostly good, in fact I’d say very good.

2 watches (my 1st & 3rd purchases) went back - 1 for replacement and 1 for refund, and both times the experience was perfect. I was very impressed by the way they were handled at the time by Andrew. I hope I can mention his name as I am praising him.

My 4th CW went back 3 times - while it took longer than I had expected, the logistics and communications were fine (nothing special, but duration aside, I had no complaints). Clearly 3 returns for any watch is a concern, but these things do happen.

I’ve had no other interactions with CW customer service, but as a fan of the brand, I have afforded them a little latitude. That is to say, their prior good service over the years have built some goodwill on my side, so the issues I experienced set them back a few points in my estimation, but they still remain in the black as it were. If I compare that to the many posts I have read, which reveal much worse experiences than mine, many of those have come from first time owners, who haven’t had prior good experience, and therefore, starting from zero, have reported far more extreme reactions.

It seems clear to me that CW has recently been far more focused on winning new customers than looking after old ones, and the extreme reactions we’ve seen is the price to pay for a) a large increase in sales volume to a new customer demographic (itself an objective explicit stated by Chris), b) holes in the QC process and c) these together generating a far larger than expected volume of returns which overwhelmed the CS team.
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Re: New CW owner confused

Post by johnnysharp2 »

Never had any direct problems with CW, I know others have.

Really like the brand overall and the originality of the collections they have had over the years, kinds suits me as I like to be a bit different.

The forum is great, I have a membership on another but rarely post because whenever I have the posters come across as a bit snobby. I can post a photo of any of my watches on here and know whilst it may not be to most people's tastes it won't get mocked or commented upon in a negative way....though there was that one time.... :D
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Re: New CW owner confused

Post by DanielDZ »

I’ve never had any issues personally speaking.

One delayed delivery due to it being a very busy period for them, but nothing major at all.

I won’t hesitate to buy
Current watches: Tudor Black bay 36 Black dial, C65 Trident GMT Black/Orange, C30 Malvern Chronometer LTD

Previously owned CW: C65 automatic blue, C9 5-day 40mm
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Re: New CW owner confused

Post by PaulJS »

Out of 8 watches (6 still with me) I have had one repaired under warranty. The process was slow but painless (assuming you are not a single watch person awaiting it's return!) and the watch came back working properly and in the same condition as it went away.

I think that the quality / service / reliability issues are a product of the watches getting more expensive but the initial quality & aftersales not rising commensurately.

When I started buying in 2015 you could pick up sale autos & quartz COSCs for less than £300 (and I mean new watches, not nearly new). The bedrock of my collection included a Trident Pro 600 MK I I for £299, a C20 for £225 and a C70 for £298.

At those prices one tends to be far more forgiving if the back up service is a little tardy. Once you get into £1000+ territory customer expectations rise accordingly, and rightly so. I think that this is where the real and perceived problems lie.

Low expectations are easily met and exceeded but CW have priced themselves out of the low expectations bracket.

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Re: New CW owner confused

Post by H0rati0 »

PaulJS wrote: Sat Sep 21, 2019 10:30 am
Low expectations are easily met and exceeded but CW have priced themselves out of the low expectations bracket.

Cheers,

Paul
Good observation. If they want to play with the big boys, their game has to rise accordingly.
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Re: New CW owner confused

Post by Victor88 »

I own a C9 Single Pusher Chronograph; for me the uniqueness of the movement was the primary driver. I had bought several Tridents as gifts for others before I bought the C9 and as those experiences were largely positive I felt confident enough to purchase a watch circa 4x the price of the Tridents, sight unseen.
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Re: New CW owner confused

Post by gaf1958 »

I currently own ~30 CW watches and I’ve previously owned and sold at least the same number on top of that. My immediate family own another dozen or more CWs. As a result, I’ve had occasion to use their after sales service a number of times and while it’s changed since Saint Wera left, they’ve not given me any cause for concern - with one exception. That exception resulted from me arranging for some work to be done outside the proper channels, so it was to some extent understandable... I certainly wasn’t overjoyed that it happened, but it was at least sorted correctly.

Every other interaction with their CS staff has been great. Admittedly, having St Wera answer emails 15 hours a day, seven days a week, even when she and Chris were on holidays had spoiled many of us, but those days are gone and we live within the constraints of normal business hours and days. When you’re on the other side of the globe, as I am, that can mean delays, unless I choose to phone the UK from Australia, but mostly I live with that.

My dealings with them run the gamut of finding old or unusual parts for my watches (something that Wera simply excelled at) through to servicing and occasional repairs. I can only speak for my own personal interactions with the company, but they have been overwhelmingly positive. I think it’s true that good service is rarely heard of afterwards, whereas poor service gains the lion’s share of attention. It’s true almost everywhere; it’s simply human nature. After all, no-one other than a potential employer is interested to learn that someone has done their job well, but screw it up and oh boy... everyone wants to hear about it...
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New CW owner confused

Post by gatehealing »

I bought mine before the problems started. The logo changes also chased me off. I have sold most of my CW’s at this point but kept my original C1 (NOT the new thing they call a c1) and my c7 brgle.

I used to have more than 12 cw’s, so I’m no troll from Rolex etc. CW just has not shown an interest or ability to properly address issues, which to me signals a potential problem with the effort they put into their watches, so I still look around, but buy other brands now. If I see something in the sales corner or in a clearance sale, I might purchase, but far less likely than some years back.
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Re: New CW owner confused

Post by Gasman »

I think CW watches could stand next to any other brand including Rolex and Omega on looks but I still don’t know how good they are mechanically.
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Re: New CW owner confused

Post by Bungle-ator »

Gasman wrote: Mon Sep 30, 2019 12:02 am I think CW watches could stand next to any other brand including Rolex and Omega on looks but I still don’t know how good they are mechanically.
Absolutely. No argument there.

They just don't seem to be managing to put them together nearly as well. Then they seem to be following that up by making a monkey out of fixing them. They're going to have to show a remarkable change for me to ever consider another purchase.