C65 Aquitaine Automatic

Ahead of the curve

Cultured yet capable, the C65 Aquitaine is Christopher Ward’s most impressive retro dive watch yet, combining go-anywhere confidence with dressy elegance. Named after the historic French coastal region that gave us celebrated undersea explorer Jacques Cousteau, it combines ’50s glamour with real innovation – and at a price point which makes it one of the best buys in all horology.

Slimmer, more sophisticated and more wearable than most divers, but by no means stinting on such traditional virtues of the breed as legibility and rugged reliability, Aquitaine is built to take everything that’s thrown at it, yet look elegant along the way. It’s cool, well-dressed and ready for action: a bruiser in a dinner jacket, the horological equivalent of 007 stripping off his wetsuit to reveal a white tux beneath.

In every way, Aquitaine is a significant step up from the original C65 range. It dives deeper: water resistance is up significantly, from 150m to 200m. It suits more people: the reduced lug-to-lug length of this latest 41mm iteration of the Light Catcher case makes it comfortable on nearly every wrist. And it will bewitch more eyes: the bezel insert is now made of curved and highly polished sapphire, a first for Christopher Ward. This all makes Aquitaine more refined, perhaps even more feline, than any dive watch we’ve offered before – but there’s real muscle to it too. The sapphire insert plays with light wonderfully, but it’s also 50% harder than even ceramic, making this our most difficult-to-scratch bezel ever.

Aquitaine also boasts the superior bezel movement mechanism previously seen on the C60 Trident Pro; incredibly bright Super-LumiNova® Grade X1 lume; and such fresh innovations as our new Dry Marshal safety feature, reminding you to make sure the screw-down crown is secure before venturing into the water.

It boasts the best selection of straps and bracelets we’ve ever offered too, including a brand new steel bracelet that tapers from 22mm at the lugs down to 16.5mm, making it our most elegant yet. And it’s supremely secure, with each link now held together by screws rather than pins – another first for Christopher Ward.

C65 Aquitaine is not only a beautifully timeless piece that effortlessly references the earliest modern dive watches, it also embraces the very best of 21st century design, technology and finishing. Striking yet understated, tough yet curvaceous, it’s glamorous, well-dressed and always ready for action.

Christopher Ward will donate five percent of the sales value of every C65 Aquitaine watch sold to Blue Marine Foundation (BLUE) – a charity working to protect our ocean and addressing the issue of overfishing. Over the next few years we aim to raise over half a million pounds for BLUE.