Christopher Ward today reveals a brand new look that is the product of a “root and branch look at every aspect of what we’ve done” according to co-founder Mike France.
The direct-to-consumer watch brand has undergone huge changes since launching 11 years ago and the founding trio of France, Peter Ellis and Christopher Ward felt the company’s branding no longer reflected what the company had become.
“In July 2014 we merged with Synergies Horlogères,” explains France. “Creating one of the most direct-to-consumer business models in the industry, where we even have the ability to make our own movements. Having two parts of the business, the UK part and the Swiss, we thought it was an appropriate time to relook at the branding of the business and the brand proposition, because it now had its own atelier and manufacturing arm in Switzerland and we needed to represent that.”
The new stripped back, sans serif logo has been designed to be printed in the minute dimensions necessary for a watch dial rather than designed large and then reduced. It also now sits by default at the nine o’clock position.
The company is also beginning to reveal a new signature style that it felt was missing from its designs. Senior designer Adrian Buchmann, who joined the company last year, has introduced a new design language with a renewed focus on fine finishing, including bevelled edge cases. The first watch to illustrate this new approach is the C65 Trident, which is presented in two Classic and Vintage variants.
A yet-to-be-revealed Anglo-Swiss motif will also play a major part in the company’s branding including being used for movement decoration and even more intriguingly, watch design.
“The logos and the devices associated with the logos are now becoming integrated to the design of the watches,” France explains. “Which we think is quite revolutionary in some ways. It’s becoming part of the way in which we think about designing watches.
The rebranding will permeate all aspects of the business including its website, consumer magazine and, by next year, even the packaging that its watches are presented in.
“Many people change logos, it’s not about a logo change, this is a fundamental revisiting of our values, what we’re about, how we design things, how we do business; reasserting the core values of our business and then representing those in all aspects of how the customer sees our business.”
The full, exclusive interview with Mike France appears in the May issue of WatchPro.
