Priced at under $2,000 USD but also boasting a wealth of features, expectations around the 2023-released Christopher Ward The Twelve watches were very high in the timepiece enthusiast community. When the English brand’s integrated bracelet watch came on the market, brand devotees were keen to see how well the spirited Christopher Ward company would approach its answer to a popular wristwatch style archetype. Most hailed it as a success. The Twelve was released in steel and titanium forms (they are actually distinct watches rather than being the same case in two different metal choices), and later as a smaller 36mm wide model. In 2023, when Christopher Ward originally released The Twelve I spent a little bit of time with it when reviewing the blue titanium model, and today, I want to take a look at the sister “Nebula Purple” dial version of The Twelve Titanium after a longer-term review.
Over the course of many months, I ended up giving the Christopher Ward The Twelve Titanium a lot of wrist time. It ended up being a sort of Toyota Camry of watches in my collection; while it doesn’t do any one thing better than any other watch, it has a lot of overall value because it neatly mixes a few important virtues that wristwatch fans seek out. The Twelve Titanium succeeds in being high-value (not too expensive), comfortable (easy to forget it is on your wrist and easy to read), and versatile (it has a mature, fashionable look that lends itself to many wearing situations and outfits). Being lightweight (thanks to the titanium) and thin (the case is just under 9mm thick) further makes the wearing experience positive and gives the watch a competitive angle. We currently exist in a market where certain brands feel entirely comfortable charging $20,000 (and way up) for similar all-titanium watches. So, for Christopher Ward to offer all this in a package under $2,000 feels very aggressive in a good way.
When Christopher Ward released The Twelve watch it was the brand’s answer to the “integrated bracelet” timepiece trend. Generally speaking, this trend is where the aesthetic composition isn’t a watch case with a strap or bracelet holding it to your wrist, but rather a more cohesive composition where the watch and bracelet combine together into a single artistic composition. At least that is the idea. The concept has been loosely applied to any watch where the bracelet appears to flow with the lines of the case, whether or not the bracelet is truly integrated into the case, or not. Christopher Ward, for example, puts the metal bracelet on quick-release spring bars to easily detach it from the case and includes a black rubber strap that you can wear The Twelve on if you like. I don’t know how “integrated” that makes the bracelet. For what it is worth, the bracelet is nice enough that I never did actually wear The Twelve on the strap very much, even though it was entirely pleasant to wear that way. I did, however, find the black strap’s color and matte texture to be on the more boring side compared to wearing The Twelve with its intended bracelet.
It is important to note that even though The Twelve (either in steel or titanium) is budget-priced, it is not the least-expensive watch of its type on the market. This is a higher-end entry-level watch, meaning that it is good enough for people to “reach down” to wear it. That implies in addition to people who are “reaching up” to spend a slightly more expensive watch, The Twelve is fun enough for someone who typically wears a more expensive watch to choose to wear The Twelve given its casual good looks and a slick mixture of features. Accordingly, the Christopher The Twelve isn’t trying to be the lowest-price watch of its type on the market but rather stresses value-for-money as part of the overall buying proposition.
At the heart of The Twelve Titanium is a Swiss Made Sellita SW300-1 automatic movement which you can view through the sapphire crystal caseback. The decoration isn’t “haute,” but I’ve seen more expensive watches with similar movements that have much more “industrial” finishing on them. So it is nice that there is a bit of polish and gleam in this relatively thin 3.6mm tall automatic movement. The SW300 operates at 4Hz with 56 hours of power reserve and indicates the time with date. One nice enthusiast feature of The Twelve Titanium watches is that the movements are all COSC Chronometer-certified (for accuracy), and that fact is marked on the dial. It is actually pretty much the only text on the dial.
The Twelve Titanium (grade 2 titanium, but it really feels like grade 5 when you examine the finishing) watch itself is 40mm wide and 8.95mm thick. The modest 44.5mm long lug-to-lug distance means that it fits even smaller wrists. Over the dial is a flat AR-coated sapphire crystal, and The Twelve Titanium case is water-resistant to 100 meters. I didn’t go swimming with it, but I also didn’t worry too much about taking The Twelve into sportier situations given the durability and robustness of the case. Being very light on the wrist (93 grams with the bracelet) helps a lot because heavier watches tend to be more fatiguing when being active or moving your hand around a lot. Despite the dressier decoration and design of The Twelve, the bold dial and masculine edges make this product feel like a sports watch at heart. The large hands and hour markers mixed with nice finishing and fancy colors neatly blend sport and glamour. This reminds me a lot of the H. Moser & Cie Pioneer sports watch collection, which was probably part of the inspiration for the dial. Christopher Ward even outwardly thanks Gerald Genta and his body of work as a larger inspiration for the poise and style of The Twelve watch collection.
I am rather convinced that purple as a watch color is here to stay for men. It isn’t a matter of purple being better or worse than any other color, but more accurate is the fact that most serious watch wearers will probably want to have a few purple options in their collection. So, if you don’t have a purple watch yet, what are you waiting for? If the Christopher Ward The Twelve Titanium’s Nebula Purple dial isn’t the one for you, do find something else out there with a purple hue you like, and then let me know how you are enjoying it. More conservative folks will probably opt for one of the more sober colors available in The Twelve steel or titanium models, but I think the purple dial is currently the perfect one for me, probably because as a seasoned watch-wearer, the novelty of the color mixed with easy-wearing of The Twelve are what draws me to it.
The Twelve Titanium dials are a bit fancier than those found on the steel models. They are textured and colored with a gradient that starts with black on the periphery and lights into a deep purple in the middle. The textured dial has large applied hour markers and hands with decent amounts of luminant applied to them. Mirror polishing is just on the edges and the bulk of surfaces are brushed. This has the outcome of minimizing unwanted dial glare/reflectivity. As I said before, I liked the boldness and legibility of the dial a lot, but I never felt that it spoke too deeply of Christopher Ward DNA. There is also the matter of the graphical logo as opposed to “Christopher Ward” text. This detail polarizes some. I probably am in the camp of wanting text-only logos on the dial (no graphics), but I don’t think the graphical logo-only approach is inherently wrong and I think it has merit to exist.
For future versions of The Twelve, I would like to see more Christopher Ward design originality in the dial. The personality of the dial and the details (such as the matching purple date disc in the window at 6 o’clock) are great, but I think there is more work that can be done to make them distinctive from the competition. I would have also liked to see a micro-adjust system for the bracelet. Perhaps that would have been challenging at this price point, but being able to offer that functionality in a pretty bracelet design such as this would only make Christopher Ward’s The Twelve just that much more compelling when compared to the competition.
Brands like Christopher Ward are important in the watch industry because they serve as a check on the actions of major luxury brands. Christopher Ward challenges their pricing and competes with similarly packaged items that offer a lot of the same for less. In recent years Christopher Ward has upped their level of originality as well as integration with Swiss design and manufacturing (even though they very much remain an English-run brand), but that hasn’t seem to shake their basic relationship with consumers or their pricing models. That’s great news and a sign that Christopher Ward is a great brand for the people. More and more, they are becoming a great brand for enthusiasts and collectors. I imagine that I will probably give The Twelve Titanium even more wrist time, and I encourage Christopher Ward to consider purple as an option for more watches. Price for the Christopher Ward The Twelve Titanium Nebula Purple watch is $1,895 USD. Learn more at the Christopher Ward watches website.
