For me, one of the most hotly anticipated Christopher Ward watches of this year was the C60 Trident and its brother the C60 Trident GMT. Priced well, this family of watches offered a rich classic style, Swiss automatic movement, and intriguing range of styles. I finally got my hands on one so here is the resulting review.

A diver’s watch in style, the C60 Trident offers the durability of 300 meters of water resistance with a sapphire crystal and nicely made steel case. The case is 42mm wide and feels properly sized in the medium-large class. Additional heft is ensured by the widely spaced lugs. The water resistance rating provides that the AR coated sapphire crystal is 4mm thick and the case itself is 13mm thick. Nevertheless, the C60 Trident feels like a svelte watch on the wrist due to its wide base. Comfort on the wrist is certainly a hallmark of this watch.

For inspiration Christopher Ward called on two other timepieces (mainly). These are the fellow Brit brand Bremont, and Rolex (started as a Brit). The C60 Trident line resembles the Bremont Supermarine (which I reviewed here) on the dial (among other areas), while Rolex’s GMT Master collection of watches helped guide the GMT elements of the piece. You can see a little bit of Omega for example in the wave textured dial. Is it bad that Christopher Ward is mixing and matching ideas and concepts from other brands? It really depends on how you look at it.

For me what is important is the final product. The C60 Trident watches are hardly 1:1 copies of anything. They are merely inspired by some of these other fantastic timepieces. Each of them should be flattered at the attention. At the same time, the Christopher Ward C60 Trident is much less expensive than many of the pieces it borrows influence from. Those seeking an absolutely unique design might take issue, but everyone else should be more than satisfied.

The watch comes with either a metal bracelet or alligator printed leather strap. It looks good on either, though dive watch fans will probably opt for the bracelet. Design of the bracelet feel inspired by the Bremont Supermarine, among other watches. It isn’t the world’s most exciting bracelet in terms of visual design but looks attractive enough. I would have preferred it to be a bit more simple with an entirely polished center link… I think. The bracelet comes with a push-button butterfly clasp. It helps give the bracelet a clean look from the bottom, but I feel that as a more serious dive watch, Christopher Ward should have supplied the C60 Trident GMT with a more traditional fold-over deployment clasp (which would have also potentially allowed for more precise sizing).

The case itself is attractively finished with brushed steel on the sides and polished areas on the tops of the lugs. The bezel is bold, and offers a handsome sense of color contrast to all the steel. For this GMT watch you have a 24 hour scale on the uni-directional bezel, but the lume pip remains at the top. I do however prefer that GMT bezels are bi-directional when they rotate. That little feature simply may have been an unnecessary cost as Christopher Ward needs only to replace the bezel on the GMT version versus the standard C60 Trident that has a diver’s bezel (which is always uni-directional).

Most of the magic is in the dial with those great Supermarine inspired hands and hour markers. Christopher Ward offers its own interpretation on the hands design, and they result in something that is both highly legible and elegant to look at. The icing on the cake is the Christopher Ward trident logo counterweight on the seconds hand. Hands are the right size and for the GMT version there is a GMT hand in red. While the GMT hand is the right length, it is a bit skinny.

For those who really want an easy to read second timezone, this GMT hand may be too small. For those who like having a dual time watch but don’t want to be inundated with a fourth hand on the dial, this GMT design is a good option. I further like the placement of the date window (and the little frame around it). On the dial is a fair amount of SuperLumiNova (in blue) for excellent darkness viewing.

Inside the C60 Trident GMT is a Swiss ETA 2893 automatic GMT movement. For those new to the game, this movement offers an independently adjustable 24 hour hand that allows you either to track your local time in a 24 hour format, or allows you to track a second timezone. Using the rotating bezel, you can technically track a third time zone as well. This is one of the most affordable watches that I know of that contains this movement. By the way, this C60 Trident GMT reference number is C60-GMT-SKWS. When visiting Christopher Ward’s website you’ll find eleven versions of the watch so far. This includes both GMT and non-GMT models, as well as those with straps or bracelets. You can even get one with a red and blue “Pan Am Pepsi” dial.

Prices for this value rich collection start at just $430 (for the non GMT versions). Prices go up and are varied, but this specific C60 Trident GMT model retails for a very fair $740. A good prices for what you get in terms of quality, movement, and design. You can learn more about the C60 Trident watch collection or get one here.

Thanks to Christopher Ward for the review unit. Opinions are 100% independent.