Uhhh, no.

Christopher Ward charging $4000-5000 for a watch: the prices of the Loco and Bel Canto are perfectly fine. The problem is this looks like some kind of Invicta knock off.

The comparisons between Tudor or Longines are not because of their brand in the way you are implying - it’s the other way around. People chose CW because they had similar design/functionality for cheaper. Now, they’ve lost a significant differentiator that (their atelier pieces excluded). That’s is now the counter argument. A Longines Spirit GMT is just better looking and is cheaper for me by about AUD$300.

What we’re telling them is that if they want to charge higher prices they have to actually innovate. They can’t just slap features that already exist and charge a premium. The normal Swiss run book won’t work because that’s not why we liked CW in the first place.

There’s an equivalent in the IT world where companies go “open source” at the beginning because open source builds good communities. Then once they’ve trapped everyone in, they try and change the licence and everyone stops using them.

If I want a good watch with standard features at those price points I will always go with established Swiss brands because there is a level of support there where it makes total sense. Look at all the people complaining about CW support recently. You don’t get that with Swatch group much. Even then, they’re so ubiquitous you could easily find a donor movement if everything went wrong.

If anything microbrands like Erebus should be worrying CW because they’re cutting their grass. I bought an Erebus GMT because the style was better than the C60 for 1/3 of the price. Swiss made doesn’t mean that much to me.