Sealander Extreme GMT

Over the last few years, Christopher Ward has been wowing the watch world with innovation and elegance: think the C1 Bel Canto Classic, the amazing C12 Loco, and – most recently – the ultra-thin Twelve 660. Incredible pieces, redefining what the company can be, and what it can achieve.

But not, you might think, the foundations upon which Christopher Ward was built: great value, top-performing tool watches that are sporty, durable, water-resistant, and – for most people – entirely wearable anywhere.

Pieces like this remain the backbone of the Christopher Ward collection, but it gets really exciting when one of them does something out of the ordinary – as with, just for instance, the watch you see here, the Sealander Extreme GMT. It’s part of the something-for-everyone Sealander range, an outdoorsy, explorer-style ‘go anywhere, do everything’ companion with specs as high performance as anyone could reasonably wish for in an everyday wearer – 150m of water resistance, a sweet-spot case size of 41mm – but with a number of unexpected extra elements.

For one, it’s a GMT, the bright orange oversized GMT hand and fixed 24-hour bezel allowing you to easily monitor a second time zone. Whether you’re travelling or simply catching up with folk abroad, this is surely one of the most useful of all complications. But the second unusual addition is, if anything, even more exciting…

Last year, the C60 Trident Lumière blind-sided – and near-blinded – just about everyone with its solid Globolight® hands, logo and hour markers, using manufacturer Xenoprint’s ceramic Super-LumiNova blend to create great glowing blocks, and through them one of the most striking dials you’ll ever see. (Xenoprint has only three major customers – one is Christopher Ward, the second IWC and the third Patek Philippe, so you can see the company we’re keeping.)

In the daytime, the Lumière’s solid lume monoliths give it a chunky, almost futuristic 3D feel, and more of a sense of visual depth than almost any other outdoors watch. And at night it’s even more extraordinary, the dial glowing at least twice as brightly as any regular diver.

It’s the ultimate expression of the Sealander’s civilian adventurer ethos

Now that same amazing lume comes to the C63 range, and it’s a revelation: no longer the pure white of the Lumière, but instead a warm, sandy tan – not exactly the classic vintage-referencing ‘fauxtina’, but heading somewhat in that direction. At night, the main hands, indexes and logo burn bright blue, while the GMT hand and 24-hour numerals around the bezel – yes, they’re Super-LumiNova® too – are a contrasting green.

Elsewhere, a low-key ruggedness abounds: think brushed surfaces to the Light-catcher™ case and a non-reflective matte finish on the fixed ceramic bezel (a first for Sealander), combined with a rough, grainy dial texture reminiscent of the non-slip surface you’d find on the deck of a yacht. The end result is even more 3D than on the Lumière, helped by the addition of an applied chapter ring.

“This is a real ‘action hero’ of a watch,” says Mike France, co-founder and CEO of Christopher Ward. “It’s a masculine piece, and the perfect companion for the most rugged outdoor adventure.”

To this end comes a third, hidden but equally unusual component to the Extreme formula: a new rubberised anti-shock holder to keep the movement safe and secure inside the case, no matter how much high-impact bashing around you subject it to. (Hey, if you’re creating an action-man’s watch, it’s got to be able to cope with all that action.) Called a ‘rubberised movement mount’, it suspends the entire movement in a flexible rubberised cage, instead of – as in most watches – fixing it rigidly to the case.

“This cage acts like a shock-absorber between the movement and the outer steel case,” says Jörg Bader Jnr, head of product at Christopher Ward’s atelier in Biel, Switzerland. “In case of impact, the mount absorbs and distributes the energy, rather than letting the force go directly into the movement’s delicate components. This protects against everyday knocks, falls, and even the vibrations and G-forces of aviation.”

No watch is ever completely indestructible, but this one is built to keep ticking through the most traumatic of treatments, to the extent that even its applied indexes and Globolight® lume blocks have been forced to pass strict shock-testing.

It’s the ultimate expression of the Sealander’s civilian adventurer ethos

The result, whether on the steel Sealander bracelet or a new canvas strap (with a ‘twin flags’-engraved buckle and quick-release Velcro closing system) is a real stunner. “Few brands do this sort of quick-release Velcro strap,” says Matthew Sweatman, the junior product designer who worked on this watch alongside senior designer Will Brackfield and design director Adrian Buchmann. “There’s the Swatch/Omega MoonSwatch, but also the rarified likes of Richard Mille. Ours is a no-effort-spared version, enjoying the style’s key virtue – that you can resize your strap for wearing outside a jacket, glove or wet suit, or close to the skin, with no effort at all. But since it’s attached by spring bars, not a NATO strap wrapped around fixed bars, it has advantages in terms of swapping with bracelets and overall thickness too.”

Actually, the watch’s overall thickness should be remarked upon: for a rugged piece like this to come in at only 11.65mm top-to-bottom is unusual, and helps wearability. A glassbox sapphire crystal comes as standard, while the Sellita SW330-2 inside has a solid 56-hour power reserve. In fact, all you have to do is choose between black or khaki-coloured dials, and the bracelet or aforementioned ultra-striking black or orange straps.

“It has a closed case back, the deep-stamped globe referencing its world-trotting utility”

So, what exactly is this piece? No one at Christopher Ward considers it a field watch. “Only the most foolhardy of military personnel would wear one,” Mike says, laughing. “It burns too brightly for that – you’d be spotted a mile off, trying to sneak up on an enemy position with a giant glow worm on your wrist.” Instead, it’s perhaps the ultimate expression of the Sealander’s civilian adventurer ethos, taken to a rugged, well, ‘extreme’.

“When designing it, we found ourselves playing with proportions quite radically, and the end result is very different to the standard Sealander,” Matt says. “The markers are bigger; so is the bezel, and the numbers protrude more. Unlike most Sealanders, it has a closed steel case back too, the deep-stamped globe you’ll find there referencing its world-trotting utility.”

It’s a watch that combines two of the key Christopher Ward themes, being both an efficient and reliable everyday companion, and a technically remarkable ground-breaker, achieving things comparable pieces don’t even try to do. And it’s elevated above the norm by an exceptional standard of finishing throughout.

“I was on a flight recently, and found myself watching the latest Mission: Impossible film,” says Mike. “And it occurred to me that this is perhaps the perfect Mission: Impossible watch. It’s a Tom Cruise of a watch, a Daniel Craig – or perhaps, as its accessible price point makes it the people’s action watch, a Jason Statham. It’s the Sealander – which is a do-everything piece anyway – taken to thrilling extremes.”

The Sealander Extreme GMT is available now; £1,450/ $1,995 on a bracelet or £1,300/ $1,785 on a fabric strap