CHRISTOPHER WARD C65 TRIDENT DIVER GMT WORLDTIMER

When Christopher Ward launched the retro style C65 Trident Diver in 2018 they will have hoped it was a success, but I doubt even they were expecting it to be quite as successful as it has been. It’s been a fantastic seller and has already spawned many different iterations and special editions. It’s retro good looks and 41mm case size mean it looks great on almost any wrist and with any clothing.

The watch for sale here is one of, if not the very last C65 GMT Worldtimers to leave CW, having done so in February 2022 - almost two years after it was first introduced in March 2020. As a result, it’s still covered by almost the full CW movement warranty. When available from CW they cost £995 on leather/rubber/canvas and £1,095 on a bracelet.

If you believe what’s printed in the user manual, you’ll think that all C65 WTs have a Sellita SW330 heart with its GMT complication and 42h power reserve. But what they didn’t print in the book is that in late 2021 and early 2022, CW started fitting SW330-2 movements to their GMT watches, which happen to have a 56 hour reserve… In the grand scheme of things, anyone with an SW330-powered watch should certainly not be disappointed - it’s a fantastic and very reliable movement. But in a world where small margins can make a big difference (ask Lewis Hamilton how important the last lap of the last race of a GP season can be*), an extra 30% of reserve before the watch runs out of time is a pretty big deal…

If you’re not familiar with GMT watches, they feature an additional hour hand which takes 24 hours to complete one rotation of the dial - making it a perfect international travel partner. This is because you can set the regular hands to your local time and the 24h GMT hand to ‘home’ with 12 midnight at 12 o’clock and 12 noon at 6 o’clock, so you can instantly see the time at home and avoid accidentally calling your partner at 3 in the morning to say “hi”! By rotating the bezel, and therefore moving ‘midnight’ to elsewhere on the dial, you can create a third time zone.

Movement
How can you tell the difference between an SW330 (aka SW330-1) and an SW33-2? Aside from just waiting to see if yours stops after 42 hours or 56 hours following a full charge, the easy tell is to adjust the GMT hand. The GMT hand on the SW330 clicks forward one hour per twist of the crown, the SW330-2 moves 3-4 hours per twist.

Condition:
It’s in brand new, never worn condition - only having come out of the case for the photographs in this listing..

It’s keeping a very respectable -3sec per day on the timegrapher (CW state +/-20sec per day and a COSC certified watch (which this isn’t) should be running between -4 to +6sec).

It’s a full set box and papers watch. It comes in the original CW bamboo case with user guide, polishing cloth and warranty card.

Specs:

• Diameter: 41mm

• Height: 12mm

• Calibre: Sellita SW330-2

• Water resistance: 150m

• Strap: 22mm

Owner’s Book:
A PDF version of the owner manual is available on the CW website: https://www.christopherward.com/on/demandware.static/-/Library-Sites-cw-library/default/dwaefe385f/pdfs/RetroDive/c65-gmt-worldtimer-manual.pdf

Final Notes:
The first two pictures are library photos, the rest show the actual watch and package.

*regarding the 2021 F1 season, I know many people, especially Lewis, feel he was robbed by Masi’s handling of the final race. But allow me to offer a quick reality check: Max lead 651 laps of the 2021 F1 season. Lewis lead 246 (with Valtori in third with 79 laps). Lewis smashed Max out of the British GT (which he later went on to win after his team mate Bottas moved over to let him by - again). Was Lewis really robbed or did the best man win?