Over the past 20 years, Christopher Ward has grown to become Britain’s biggest watch business thanks to the way its direct to consumer sales model cuts out middlemen, which allows it to sell Swiss-made timepieces at considerably lower prices than its competitors.
The strategy was suddenly turbo-charged when demand blew up for its $3,795 Bel Canto chiming watch, which launched at the end of 2022.
The company says it is aiming for sales of £50 million ($65m) in its current financial year, which ends on March 31, 2025. That would be an other huge leap for the company, which saw sales more than double during its latest financial year, ending March 31, 2024, to £30.5 million ($40m).
Pre-tax profits also increased from £222,000 to £3.9m ($288,000 to $5.1m).
Christopher Ward has grown to appreciate the power of getting face-to-face with clients since the pandemic, first through appearances at Wind-Up Watch Fairs all over the United States and then at the first British Watchmakers Day, which took place in London in March this year.
With a new-found desire for getting up close and personal with its customers, Christopher Ward then opened its own showroom as part of its new headquarters in the UK and introduced the same concept at its US office in Dallas.
Now it has overcome its aversion to working with retail partners, at least temporarily, by signing Time+Tide’s Watch Discovery Studio in London as its first authorized dealer in the world.
The agreement is for a three-month pilot, but may be extended.
The Discovery Studio is on the first floor of a nondescript office block in Central London.
It is part office for Time+Tide, part event space (a collaboration watch with TAG Heuer was launched there last week, and sold-out inside 24 hours), and part retail where brands can take up residency for short or lengthy periods of time.
Its footfall is driven by a combination of Time+Tide’s popular social media and by resident brands — mostly direct to consumer players like Christopher Ward — encouraging their customers to use the Studio to see their watches in the metal.
“At Time+Tide, we love stories about watches. And there are few modern stories as compelling as that of Christopher Ward, written by Mike France and his team,” says Andrew McUtchen, founder of Time+Tide.
The two businesses stand out in their respective fields for taking an alternative approach to the mainstream.
“In the same way that CW has evolved the traditional business model of the watch industry by going direct to consumers and retaining them through escalating quality and range, Time+Tide has evolved the media model by extending it into bricks and mortar in the form of our Watch Discovery Studios in Melbourne and London,” Mr McUtchen suggests.
Mike France, co-founder and managing director of Christopher Ward, agrees.
“We’ve always done things a little differently at CW, and stepping into the Time+Tide Discovery Studio is no exception. The reason we haven’t experimented with traditional retail is simple: it requires pricing that would break our direct-to-customer model which is core to our business. Equally, Time+Tide are pioneering something different themselves, with their Studio and business model, which has enabled them to challenge conventional retail,” he tells WatchPro.
“The way they bring exciting brands into the physical watch space Discovery Studio with the customer experience at its core is a refreshing approach to retail, which appeals to us. That’s why we are piloting this partnership for the next three months,” he adds.
Time+Tide’s studio is designed to help watch lovers discover new brands, and operates on a different model to more traditional authorised dealers.
Rather than making money only on the margin from selling new watches, Time+Tide charges brands for taking up residence at its studio in addition to a cut from each sale.
Most brands at the studio have either chosen the direct to consumer route or found themselves there because retailers have been unwilling to take them on.
“When it comes to retail, our [strategy] is to offer rare, limited and exclusive watches sought by enthusiasts and served by enthusiasts. These are primarily — but not limited to — internet and social media-famous brands,” Mr McUtchen explains.
Even if the pilot with Christopher Ward ends after three months, the impact of it choosing to work with Time+Tide will ripple across the world of independent watchmaking, not least because it grabbed the attention of the industry for winning a prestigious GPHG award for its Bel Canto in 2023.
“It is an honour to be Christopher Ward’s first ever retailer. There’s only one group of people happier about this development than me, and that’s the London Studio team. Their level of excitement about this brand will be palpable to existing and future customers who come into the studio to try them on “in the metal”,” Mr McUtchen shares.