The Christopher Ward C1 Bel Canto C01-41APT0-T00A0-MT is the Rosa-dial version of the British brand’s chiming watch, which won the “Petite Aiguille” prize at the 2023 Grand Prix d’Horlogerie de Genève. Its grade 5 titanium case is brushed and polished, measures 41 mm in diameter, 13 mm in height and 48 mm lug to lug, and weighs 53 g on its own or 78 g on the strap. Christopher Ward chose titanium to improve the resonance and tone of the chime as well as for lightness. The intricately polished, stacked dial shows the hammer, the mirror-polished gong and the chiming mechanism, with the time read on a floating sub-dial with raised, brushed and polished indexes and Super-LumiNova C1 X1 BL. It sits under a domed, anti-reflective sapphire crystal. The movement is a Swiss Sellita SW200-1 with Christopher Ward’s in-house FS01 chiming module: 29 jewels, 4 Hz, 41 hours of power reserve and a timing tolerance of -5/+12 seconds per day. Water resistance is 3 ATM (30 meters).

Every 60 minutes a hammer strikes the gong to mark the hour, a complication the Swiss call “sonnerie au passage”. A pusher at 4 o’clock turns the chime on or off, with a red on/off indicator on the dial. The module’s bridges, spring and hammer are hand-finished in three dimensions and the module plate has a sunray finish. The push-down crown carries a twin-flags motif and the deep-stamped caseback a soundwave motif. This reference comes on a tobacco fine Italian leather strap with a Bader deployant clasp; the same watch is offered on the Bader and Consort bracelets and on other leather straps. Christopher Ward lists it at EUR 4,480 on its official store.

The Bel Canto is widely seen as a landmark for an independent brand: when it won its GPHG category, it beat watches from much larger houses in a class covering roughly CHF 2,000 to 8,000, and it was launched as the most affordable Swiss-made mechanical chiming watch. Reviewers praise the theatre of the open, stacked dial and the sound of the titanium-cased chime, built on a heavily modified Sellita base. Some early buyers reported production delays after the two launch editions of 300 pieces each sold out within hours. The C01-41APT0-T00A0-MT is part of the current collection and shown as in stock on Christopher Ward’s official store.