When Christopher Ward released the Twelve in 2023, an integrated bracelet sport watch design, I was initially critical of some of the design decisions that felt necessarily derivative, most notably the dial texture and color palette. While I stand by that assessment, the collection has since blossomed into a range of more diverse designs, many of which feel original to the brand. This week, the collection adds another layer to its personality with the release of the Twelve 660, a slim, dateless take on the design using a hand wound movement. This one ditches the cute dial textures, and feels like a big step in the overall maturity of the Twelve. It’s exactly what I was looking for from this watch from the get go.
The newest member of the Twelve family is dubbed the 660, which is a reference to the total thickness of the watch, which is a svelte 6.6(0)mm. As an aside, Christopher Ward has been leaning into a quite literal naming convention (twelve sides of the bezel = the Twelve; 660 = thickness), and I don’t think it’s doing the brand of this particular watch any favors, personally. Celeste, Dune, and Aquataine all feel more evocative in nature, but this points to a broader issue of the Christopher Ward brand feeling scattered in nature, and at times inconsistent. They’ve used a handful of logo iterations over the years (which enthusiasts love to bicker about), and their design language can snap from original and inspired, to clearly derivative quite quickly. This is a story for another day, suffice to say, the brand itself can feel like a work in progress at times, though much of their work is well beyond that stage.
All that said, I do think Christopher Ward is doing some genuinely interesting and even important work. They are an organizing force for the burgeoning British watchmaker scene, and they are wholly transparent about their inspirations, their goals, and even their pricing structure. This is a brand worth cheering for, and this newest watch makes that a bit easier (though I’ve already seen the inevitable complaints about the logo). A Christopher Ward W is a W for us all, I think.
Okay, so the 660 is the latest Twelve, and gets a familiar base design that utilizes the 12 sided bezel within a 38mm case, and an integrated bracelet design. However, here it’s been flattened from 10mm of the original, down to just 6.6mm in thickness. Trimming 3.4mm is no small feat, and the whole structure of the watch has been altered to accommodate. The biggest change is the swap to a Sellita SW210-1 b movement, which is hand wound, and just 3.3mm thick. The trade off is a relatively meager 42 hours of reserve. The movement is visible through an exhibition back, which feels wholly unnecessary here, but a custom made bridge was developed and given a nice finish to enjoy, so the view isn’t entirely industrial in nature.
The Twelve 660 is launching in four iterations, three in plain steel ($1,905) featuring blue, white, and teal dials; and finally a DLC black variation ($2,050) with a black dial, and if I’m being honest, this one goes pretty hard. Each of the dials get a soft uniform texture which works much better with this overall design, and I’d love to see this option come to the full size Twelve references. Overall this is an impressive bit of kit from Christopher Ward, and a wonderful evolution on what has quickly become one of their most popular platforms. Christopher Ward
