CHRISTOPHER WARD C7 RAPIDE AUTOMATIC Chronograph

Introduction

With the exception of a few military specials, the Christopher Ward C7 (and C70) range has always been home to their sport/motorsport inspired watches. The C7 Rapide first arrived in 2008 as a quartz chronograph and that battery chrono theme continued with the launch of the Mk2 in 2012, which was essentially a Mk1 case with some new face designs.

It wasn’t until 2017, when the C7 Rapide range got a complete overhaul, that an automatic movement became available in a C7 for the first time.

The C7 you see here is the watch that ticked the ‘auto chrono’ and ‘flagship model’ boxes in that new range.

It uses the tried and trusted ETA 7750 Valjoux, as also found inside inside many premium watch brands such as Breitling, TAG Heuer, Panerai, Omega, IWC etc.

It was launched in 2017 at a cost of £1,500 and was the first watch to feature just the ‘twin flags’ icon on the face instead of the CW logo. It was only around for a year between 2017 and 2018

Like any watch with a 7750 heart, it’s on the taller side at 14.3mm, but certainly not as tall as some. Many buyers are attracted by nice details like the scalloped lugs with their polished edges and the contrasting black ring around the case. With its innovative multi-part case assembly and sporty good looks, it makes quite a statement on your wrist.

Both those made it a pretty expensive watch to manufacture and pretty unique to look at.

I’m a huge fan of this design, the applied indices and textured dial means that it is an absolute winner for me - such a shame that they discontinued it. It’s an awful lot of watch for the money.

Condition

Good condition. The bezel often gets marked up on the C7s, but this one is perfect. There are a couple of marks to the side of the case as shown in the photographs.

It’s running at +10spd on the timegrapher, so keeping decent time.

Comes complete with box, manual, certrificate of authenticity (non-matching serial number) and cleaning cloth.

Strap options

It comes on a brand new CW vintage oak leather strap. If you’d rather, I’ll swap it out for either a CW black hybrid or brown vintage oak leather strap at no cost difference, or do it head only for a discount of £40.

Warranty

It comes with a Ward Hoard six month warranty..

Specs:

• Diameter: 42mm

• Height: 11.15mm

• Calibre: Sellita SW200

• Water resistance: 10ATM (100m)

• Strap lugs: 22mm

• Lug-to-lug: 48mm

Final Notes:
Note the first pic is a library shot. The rest show the actual watch and package.