The DTC Landscape Can Be Unforgiving. That Hasn't Stopped Christopher Ward.
Their commitment to quality and customer connection drives their ongoing expansion
I’m writing about watches all week in honor of Watches and Wonders 2025 (the bi-annual conference that happens each year in Geneva and Shanghai). Publishing a conference recap on Thursday so stay tuned for that!
Because of a host of different factors, DTC companies have struggled over the last several years. This makes watch brands one of the hardest businesses thrive on the internet. Potential customers are normally skeptical of the quality, they’re already already riddled with tons of ads for similar products, and without actually feeling or seeing the watch on wrist, it’s hard to know if people will actually like it. Christopher Ward’s founders haven’t only done the near impossible, they’ve redefined what a successful digitally nave brand looks like and continue to compete for more marketshare in the industry.
The brand was founded by Mike France, Peter Ellis, and Christopher Ward (the company’s namesake). Mike and Peter were executives in the U.K. at an education company that sold for £62m (or roughly $79m USD). When faced with the choice of retiring and relaxing or going into their next endeavor, the two chose the latter. They eventually looped in Christopher, a fellow entrepreneur who was looking for the next thing to work on, and decided to use his name for the company because it was the most “British sounding” of the three (British pride is something they wanted to infuse very early on.) As they put their go-to-market strategy together, they opted for online only. While plenty of digitally native brands do this today to save on overhead costs, this was less common in 2004. Only a handful of companies (Dell, Home Depot, etc) were selling online, and while eBay and Amazon were gaining in popularity, consumers hadn’t reached the tipping point where everyone was comfortable purchasing products on the internet, especially from companies who they hadn’t bought from before in person. The move paid off handsomely over the years but the initial bump came from a popular online watch forum. David Malone, who was a well-known name on TimeZone.com, decided to order one of their first watches and fully expected to have a good laugh and mock them. To his surprise, he actually fell in love with the watch and claimed it had an incredible value for the price. As he raved about it, sales immediately started picking up.
Business Operations Over the Years
Affordability was one of the foundational parts of the company. While other brands had and still have incredibly high priced watches, they wanted to create something that people could actually buy and not just marvel at. Mike France said that the ideal profit ratio was 3:1 and it’s something they’re dedicated to sticking with. In 2014 they merged with a Swiss watchmaking company called Synergies Horlogères. Similar to other industries, there are manufacturers that will produce for several brands under one roof, and thats what Synergies was doing prior to the merger. With them officially under the Christopher Ward umbrella, they were able to make an in-house Swiss movement, something that watch brands around the world dream of. They secured an $8m investment in 2019 when it was time for them to focus on growth. During the pandemic in 2020, they decided to take out a TV ad. This was territory they hadn’t ventured into before, but the leadership team is always down to try something new. They were able to shine through given that CPM prices had dramatically fallen as companies weren’t advertising as much. This was another key moment as they saw a massive boost in sales and brand awareness. Last year they hired their first COO and for this current fiscal year ending in March 2026, they’re on track to hit $60m in revenue. These are all smart moves that companies make when they’re serious about what they’re building.
Watch Quality and Expert Opinions
Watch experts and enthusiasts are all in resounding agreement when it comes to their feelings about Christopher Ward. While the watch community does herald brands such as Rolex, Audemars Piguet, Richard Mille, etc that only a handful of customers can afford, they are very willing to discuss, applaud, and get excited about pieces at much lower price points. Many watch influencers and experts have reviewed different CW timepieces and are impressed by several different features. Usually when watches claim to be the best or luxurious and are under a certain price point, the alarm bells start sounding off. But as I mentioned earlier, not too many companies strive to find this level of balance between price and quality. The accuracy of the movement is incredibly precise and plenty of their watches are COSC certified. This certification states that watches have passed a rigorous month long testing process that has seven different criteria for how well the watch measures time, withstands various temperatures, etc. Watches with this designation are within the top quartile of precision in the world. Many of their pieces have a 40+ inch case size but are also relatively thin, making it much more wearable for different wrist sizes. I’m also a sucker for a beautiful dial color and texture, and they check this box off as well.
Future Outlook
In 2023 Christopher Ward launched the Bel Canto (pictured below), a watch that has quickly turned into a hero product. What’s cool about this watch specifically is that it’s a sonnerie au passage, meaning it chimes at the top of every hour. While this might not sound like a big deal, it is. There are only a handful of microbrands that sell watches with this kind of sophistication and complexity at or under $5k. The rest are pegged at tens of thousands of dollars, and if it’s from a luxury brand, can easily run upwards of six figures. As they’ve introduced several iterations of it, it has started winning global awards and is now in the same conversations as brands like Tudor. With continued ingenuity and genuine excitement about what they’re producing, we should definitely expect to see some beautifully crafted watches from them in the coming years.
With the tariff war raging on at the time of publishing this article and the luxury slowdown still persisting, I’m making a fair assumption that CW will see even deeper market penetration. The household names with sky high mark-ups will become even more unaffordable with even higher prices and/or a decrease in consumer buying power. But Christopher Ward will still be humming along to meet people who want a high quality watch exactly where they are.