Christopher Ward: How Maidenhead is the centre of a watchmaking renaissance

“Maidenhead is arguably at the centre of the renaissance of British watchmaking, and it probably doesn’t know.”

These are the words of Mike France, CEO of Christopher Ward, who says the British watch sector is ‘having a moment’ and the town is part of that.

His premium brand, co-founded with Peter Ellis and Christopher Ward, was the first online-only luxury watch retailer selling directly to customers when it launched in 2004.

Operating out of a ‘converted chicken shed’ in Cookham Dean, the founders saw early signs of ‘something here with unusual potential’, following the initial reaction to their brand.

Twenty years later, Mike told the Advertiser: “There are 500 Swiss brands alone, so you’ve got to be doing something different to the norm to have a chance of success.

“This is a very busy marketplace.”

Christopher Ward specialises in mechanical and quartz watches designed in its Maidenhead head office and manufactured in Biel, Switzerland.

The watchmaker operated from a small Park Street office with an iconic yellow door for 12 years before moving into a two-floor modern, 10,800 sqft space – more than double the size – on Bell Street last month.

“Because of the circumstances, you had to become incredibly efficient, and we were getting 30,000 watches out of a solicitor’s office. This is genuinely a new world,” said Mike.

An open-plan logistics space occupies the first floor where watch parts are quality-controlled, assembled and shipped, while the second floor comprises a creative hub, podcast studio, multiple customer-facing showrooms and desk space.

The relocation coincides with the company’s rapid growth and financial success spurred on by what it calls the ‘Bel Canto’ effect – key to doubling its revenue from 2023 to 2024.

Last year, Christopher Ward scooped the ‘Petite Aiguille’ prize at the Grand Prix d’Horlogerie de Genève (GPHG) – the first award win for a British brand at the ‘Oscars of the watch industry’.

This was awarded to the C1 Bel Canto – a watch that chimes every hour – which had ‘created a sensation at its debut’ in November 2022 and ‘transformed the business’.

An initial series of 300 blue timepieces sold out in eight hours and a second limited green series vanished in under two hours.

Christopher Ward responded to this demand by creating a permanent series with four colourways and increasing production from 50 pieces a month in November 2022 to 500 by September 2024.

Last week the company launched a new iteration of the C1 Bel Canto Classic with the new dial texture, retailing from £3,500.

“We mark up [our watches] by three times in an industry that marks up anything from six to…lots,” said Mike.

“People have begun to understand ours is a unique model, but it doesn’t mean the quality is lower.

“Being online allowed us to create a position in the marketplace where the quality of our watches is equivalent to people selling it for many times more.

“For the last 20 years, we’ve been consistent. We’re very transparent.

“People who were perhaps suspicious to begin with, because it almost sounds too good to be true, have learned the quality of our products does stand up to, and often is better than brands selling it at a more expensive price.”

Early retirement wasn't an option after Mike sold the children's toy company, Early Learning Centre for £63m in 2004, and 'something about the watch industry just grabbed' the horology enthusiasts, keen for a new venture.

“There was a subterranean world of people interested in talking about watches online, so we knew there was a decent-sized business,” said Mike.

They set out to ‘democratise’ the premium watch industry by making ‘high-quality watches accessible to everyone’.

Christopher Ward is now nominated in the ‘Challenge’ class at next week’s GPHG awards in Geneva for Moonphase – a watch that tracks the moon for 128 years.

“There’s no question that the British watch sector is absolutely having a moment and we’re part of that and that’s fantastic,” said Mike.

“It’s wonderful that we’re able to reignite, to some extent, what’s going on in the British watch sector.

“We were able to punch way above our weight for a while and, hopefully, still do. We’ll never lose the challenger mentality.

“No matter how big we become, I think it’s important we always retain this underdog mentality.

“We’ve been very lucky as well – timing is everything, no pun intended.”

This comes down to ‘thinking outside the box’, said Mike.

Christopher Ward was among the first watch brands to feature in British Airways Highlife magazine, making them ‘famous in the world of magazine advertising’.

They also switched to TV advertisements to ‘avoid the brand going dark’ during the COVID pandemic, which grew the company’s market share significantly.

“In April 2020, just two people were making new TV ads in the UK. There was us, and Her Majesty’s government,” added Mike.

Finding a new UK headquarters for 78 staff members was ‘a bit like buying a house’, said Mike.

“We drew concentric circles and the ideal place was always going to be the centre of Maidenhead, as opposed to being in a field somewhere.

“Maidenhead is our spiritual home.

“But still, there are a lot of people in Maidenhead who possibly don’t know there’s the UK's largest watch brand actually in their midst.”

Mike said the new head office is ‘beautifully located’ and the ‘more local talent we can find, the better’.

Unlike their previous single showroom, the new premises comprise three showrooms – named Malone, Hoogstraten and McEwen – offering customers a ‘personal tailoring’ service for watches by appointment only.

Tasmanian watch expert Dave Malone wrote about ‘the best value mechanical watch the world has ever known’ on the TimeZone forum which led to Christopher Ward being talked about more than Rolex in Christmas 2005, explained Mike.

Hans van Hoogstraten from the Netherlands voluntarily launched and ran the independent Christopher Ward forum for 10 years before handing the reins to Kip McEwen from the USA, who has been senior moderator for the past 12 years.

“Being first is always an important thing if you can be,” said Mike.

“I don’t think Peter and I saw it as a risk at the time – it just seemed obvious to us. It was a gap in the market.

“There’s a lot of noise in this marketplace. Even when we were tiny, our voice was being heard across the world.”