Revolutions in time are difficult to engineer but, with the launch of the new C900 Worldtimer, English watchmaker Christopher Ward have created an extraordinary new interpretation of the classic GMT timepiece – and have filed the patents to prove it…
The C900 Worldtimer combines innovation with unprecedented clarity, creating a dual time-zone watch that sets a completely new standard of readability and ease of use. Historically, the worldtimer genre is notoriously difficult to read and interpret – but the skill of celebrated watchmaker Johannes Jahnke has transformed the experience.
His Calibre JJ03 is based on an ETA 2893 base movement with a complication that, by engineering the gearing system to enable both the ‘local’ hand and the GMT hand to rotate at the same speed, makes the dial extremely easy to read. The two hands use the same 24-hour scale instead of the traditional approach (whereby one using the 12-hour scale and the other the 24-hour one) and this innovation combines the C900 Worldtimer’s unique design with unrivalled clarity of use.
In a further innovation, the C900 Worldtimer uses a window at 12 O’clock as a ‘location reminder’ – displaying the selected 3-letter airport code appropriate to the chosen timezone. By simply setting one hand to local time and, via the central crown, setting the second to the chosen global destination, the two times are easily read. By using the window to display the selected location, the C900 Worldtimer neatly avoids the often-confusing clutter caused by the squeezing of 24 locations onto the face of traditional worldtimers. Instead, the watch’s 24 timezone locations are listed in time sequence on the back-plate, using the zone-appropriate 3-letter airport code and city name, while the beautifully modified ETA 2893 can be observed through the 25.6mm crystal window.
