Big deal!

If you’re under the age of 40, the concept of ‘trouser wars’ won’t be one you’re familiar with. But they were all too real, as anyone who fought in their trenches will tell you. From the late 1960s to 1977, everyone – from nightclub singers to trade union bosses – wore flared trousers. Usually made of nylon. Often brown. Always flammable.

Then punk-rock happened and flares were, over what seemed like the space of weekend, ‘out’. One minute, it was perfectly acceptable to dress like the Bee Gees when you went to school, the next, even the slimmest trousers were dismissed as ‘flares’ by the local psychopath, the ridicule compounded by a punch to the stomach. Ah, the joys of youth!

It doesn’t work like that any more. Trouser width no longer defines you: you can dress like you’re going to Woodstock on a Wednesday and playing with The Ramones the day after.

The same, thankfully, is also true of watches. For years, having a watch the size of a satellite dish was a measure of success – especially if you were a professional sportsman. In recent times, there’s been a move toward smaller sizes such as the 36mm version of Christopher Ward’s Sealander and Twelve watches. What’s clear is when it comes to watches – though sadly not other things – size doesn’t matter.

Which leads us to the release of the new 44mm version of the Trident Pro 300, Christopher Ward’s bestselling dive watch. 
“I think people are more independent-minded when it comes to watch size,” says CW CEO Mike France. “This time last year it was all about smaller watches – and it still is – but customers are more eclectic in their tastes: they’re braver and more curious about wearing new things. Small or large – it’s about what works on the day.”

The 44mm Trident Pro is easy to love. As with the original version, the watch is powered by Sellita’s SW200-1 automatic movement, which can be viewed through the sapphire case back. Despite the increased size, the Light-catcher™ case is still just 11.5mm thick – so it feels wide rather than deep. And thanks to the extra real estate on the dial, the lume-filled indexes and Trident handset have more room to breathe. It’s a bestseller for a reason.

“The reaction to the Trident Reef was so phenomenal, it gave us permission to create a 44mm Trident”

Ever since the release of the original Trident Pro 300 in 2022, there’s been requests from fans for a bigger remix. But it was the success of last year’s 44mm Trident Reef that persuaded the company to pull the trigger on a plus-size Trident. “While the watch industry has gone all-in on smaller watches recently, they forgot that there’s always a demand for bigger pieces,” says product director, Jörg Bader Junior. “The reaction to the 44mm Trident Reef was so phenomenal, it gave us permission to create a 44mm Trident.”

Much, but certainly not all, of the demand for a larger Trident has come from the USA, where bigger watches – like bigger cars – seem to fit with the American mindset, as our North America brand director Mike Pearson explains.

“When I hold the 44mm Trident, it captures that balance of presence and comfort that our fans appreciate,” he says. “As in the rest of the world, the success of the 44mm Trident Reef here was a sign that there was a market for a bigger watch, especially as it felt so light on the wrist. The new Trident feels the same.”

The expansion into 44mm takes in most of the Trident range, from the steel Pro 300 to the Bronze Chronometer with only the Trident Lumière and Sapphire Edge not joining the party. The result is a range of incredible variety and choice.

“Trident is the most obvious choice to expand into 44mm,” says Jörg. “Classic dress watches shouldn’t be too big, whereas dive watches, with their focus on visibility in low light, justifies the bigger size. Look at Audemars Piguet’s Royal Oak Offshore – the big size magnifies the watch’s masculine look and construction. We’re seeing the same with Trident.”

For Mike, the launch of the plus-size Trident represents a loosening of the rules about what people wear, though he’s curious about the ‘why’ as much as the ‘what’.

“Often, the popularity of larger watches is put down to wrist size, but I don’t know if that’s always the case,” says Mike. “It’s not clear, but I’d love to understand why people choose the size of watches they do, so we’ll be commissioning a survey to do just that. In the meantime, I’m enjoying wearing a 44mm Trident one day and a 38mm Dune the next. As The Kinks said in Lola – and which I first heard in my 32in loon flares – ‘It's a mixed up, muddled-up, shook-up world!’”