E2E 100 International: Sarah Baumann on Christopher Ward’s Visionary Leadership and Global Expansion in the Luxury Watch Industry
As COO, how do you balance operational efficiency with the company’s mission to create exceptional, affordable luxury watches while supporting global expansion?
The unique thing about Christopher Ward is that the business was built from day one on operational efficiency and creating exceptional, affordable watches. It’s at the core of our business model and the reason why, in 2004, Mike France and Peter Ellis launched the brand as a DTC business (when nobody else thought this was an opportunity). We’ve also always had a different approach to people and partnerships. This has driven our approach to innovation and enabled our value model of transparently charging a 3x markup.
Our teams thrive on the challenge of taking on the most complex watch-design challenges within the cost parameters we set for ourselves. We’re not just making watches for the fun of it – we’re making watches that stretch and challenge us because that’s what motivates everyone here. “What are we going to do next?’, ‘How can we improve this?’, ‘How can we do something new?’. The Bel Canto (launched in 2022 – a sonnerie au passage complication or chiming watch) epitomised this. It also forced (and allowed) us to think differently about our supply chain. It proved that if you have a great product, it is the catalyst for global expansion.
Innovation has been central to Christopher Ward’s. Can you share how the company approaches product innovation, and how this has contributed to its international growth?
We do not stay in any tram lanes with the kind of watch we are limited to, and our independence drives this. Very few companies of our size and origin would even contemplate creating their own movements due to the complexity and cost. We’ve always had the fundamental drive that we should make incredible mechanical watches and add our ‘Christopher Ward’ twist.
We have a vision to create quality watches (both from an engineering and design perspective) that astonish people and allow people to enjoy and appreciate wearing a mechanical watch. This is what drives us and our New Product Development team. They love that challenge and the ethos of the company. It’s much harder to think about how to design a watch like The C12 Loco with a free-sprung balance wheel. How we will redesign the movement architecture and dial to sell for £4,000? This takes precedent over ‘making a free sprung balance wheel for whatever it costs’. As ever, necessity creates invention and we have brilliant people who think about nothing else.
People all over the world understand and love our approach and our watches. The quality, beauty and ingenuity of our watches speak for themselves, and our community of watch enthusiasts and collectors get this. They are such a tight-knit global community, but transparency, integrity and quality is everything. They also really appreciate the freshness of our approach and that we are doing things differently. We are the antithesis of the traditional Swiss watch industry or traditional luxury brands – we are welcoming, down-to-earth and openly share our passion for watches. No judgement, no opacity, no mystique – we love our community and involve them and talk to them.
Looking ahead, how do you plan to continue expanding Christopher Ward’s global presence?Are there any specific regions or markets that are a focus for the company in the near future?
We are very much led by our community and how our ‘Ward’ of mouth spreads. One of the early adopters of Christopher Ward, responsible for revealing the quality of our watches, was in Tasmania. We’ve also had to deliver a watch to Antarctica! So our growth has always been organic. The US is now our biggest market, so that continues to be a big focus for us. We opened a US showroom in September in Dallas, which has been doing phenomenally well under the leadership of our North American Brand Director, Mike Pearson, who is incredibly well-respected within the watch industry.
There are countries and regions that are very important for a watch brand, so we follow our customers and watch enthusiast communities very closely. They don’t automatically have to be the largest markets – for example, we’ve recently partnered with Time+Tide Australia, where people can get ‘hands-on’ with the watches. We also regularly attend big watch fairs around the world and are constantly looking for new regions to bring watches and brand stories.
Sustainability and ethical business practices are increasingly important in today’s global market. How does Christopher Ward incorporate sustainability and responsibility in its international operations?
Sustainability has been at the heart of Christopher Ward since day one. We have always donated 2% of sales to charity partners (even before we were making a profit). We have long-standing relationships with the Blue Marine Foundation, David Shepherd Wildlife Foundation and Maidenhead’s Alexander Devine Foundation. Our partnership with Everton FC is heavily linked to Everton in the Community, and there are a host of other small charities, who struggle for funding and grants, that we help get off the ground. We are always looking for new opportunities to give back, as we believe it is the right thing to do.
Our Supply Chain Director is passionate about ESG (Environmental, Social, and Governance), visiting our suppliers regularly to ensure that they are as sustainable and ethical as we expect, seizing opportunities to do things better, where possible. For example, we don’t sell alligator straps any more as there are better, kinder alternatives that wear just as well and look just as good. There is always a lot more to do, and as a small business, it’s obviously harder from a resource perspective, but there are always ways we feel we can make a small difference.
Mike France also co-founded the Alliance of British Watch and Clock-makers to help support and boost the many smaller and new micro-brands we are seeing develop. The resurgence of the watch-making industry in Britain is very exciting. Watch design and watchmaking in the UK is incredible, but we need talent and funding – the Alliance helps support young people getting into the industry with bursaries and job opportunities.
What drives you personally as COO of Christopher Ward, and how do you stay inspired and motivated as the company continues to grow globally?
It’s not hard to stay motivated as you see the impact of our watches and the community we have! Our customers are incredible, and the watch enthusiast community is unlike any other I’ve been part of, despite working across many different brand sectors previously. We’re very close to our customers, and that feeds the excitement and energy. We will never get blasé about people’s reactions when they discover us as a brand, or see a watch for the first time! The best days are when we get to meet and talk to them.
From a personal perspective, I made a decision ten years ago that I only wanted to work in high-growth, creative businesses. I love the buzz and energy of the team in a business that is on the rise – and from the vision and entrepreneurialism of a founder-led business, because everyone is doing what they believe in and love, and that is the foundation and environment for success.
The critical thing is for us to continue making watches that surprise us, stretch us, astonish us and to get them in the hands of more people. That drive runs throughout everyone in the business. I will always recall meeting our Design Director, Adrian Buchmann, for the first time. I asked him what his favourite Christopher Ward watch was. His response: “the next one”. I think that sums up my motivation and inspiration now, too, especially knowing our NPD pipeline and all the opportunities that lie ahead to grow the business. We believe we have the potential to be a sizeable player in the watch industry, and that is very motivating.
You introduced the in-house movement, Calibre SH21, which is rare for a young brand. What did that decision represent in terms of the company’s identity and long-term ambitions?
This was back in 2015, and it was indeed extremely rare for a brand of our size and youth to embark on something that takes years and significant sums of money. As ever, these innovations and investments aren’t planned out years in advance, but we saw an opportunity. Our technical director at the time had an idea that he wanted to realise and had some very lateral ways about how we could reduce development time and cost to make it viable. SH21 was born and was a statement of intent from the brand. It showed we were serious about watch-making and horology, not just a brand that could design and source watches. It set us on a more ambitious path.
From a long-term business perspective, it was a key moment that has unleashed what we call internally, call our ‘Atelier collection’ – or our creative playground! A number of different watches, new movements, modules and calibres have followed – all developed and designed by our in-house team. Over the last 5 years, this has led to the Bel Canto (our iconic chiming watch), the Moonphase (a perpetual moonphase with accuracy for 128 years), The Twelve X (a phenomenal skeletonised watch) and our latest launch – The C12 Loco. We created the CW-003, an entirely new movement for The C12 Loco, which again, is very rare. This in-house calibre, with a free sprung balance wheel, a power reserve of 144 hours and an accuracy of -0/+7 seconds per day is a remarkable achievement. We will always create beautifully designed, high-quality watches like the Trident range, Twelve or Sealander at high volume, but creating more pieces that showcase our imagination and technical ability is a core part of our identity too.
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