Christopher Ward’s C1 Bel Canto Lucia turns the chiming mechanism’s bird-shaped hammer and bridge into an actual songbird, pad-printed in 19 colors across six stamped brass components on the dial. The bird works for a living. Blue flowers and green leaves fill every corner the bird leaves open.
Its beak opens and closes to show whether the chime is on, its tail strikes the signature D note on the hour, and the whole scene sits inside a 41mm Grade 5 titanium case. Christopher Ward builds it with Mr Jones Watches, whose London workshop pad-prints the dial parts before final assembly in Biel. Preorders are open at $5,550.
Christopher Ward COO Sarah Baumann says the first Mr Jones collaboration earned this second one: “After the joy our first Mr Jones collaboration brought, it became clear that this partnership had much more potential.”
Christopher Ward C1 Bel Canto Lucia
FS01-2 chiming movement · 41mm Grade 5 titanium case · 65-hour power reserve
Price: $5,550 at Christopher Ward (preorder, checked 12:42 PM CT)
Where to buy: Buy at Christopher Ward
A beak that reports, a tail that strikes
Press the pusher at four o’clock and a rotating ladybird mounted on the column wheel prompts the beak to open or close, so the dial itself tells you whether the next hour gets its chime. No subdial hides it, and no menu buries the setting you picked.
The tail does the louder job. It’s the hammer, swinging into the strike that sounds the FS01-2’s single D note as each hour arrives, a sonnerie au passage that performs once and then goes quiet again.
Under the crystal, the layered parts sit millimeters apart.
Nineteen colors, six pieces of brass
Illustrator Andy Wilx designed the scene, and his brief for it fits in one line: “I wanted to create a world you could peer into.” Nineteen plates back him up.
Each of the 19 colors went onto the stamped brass parts as its own plate and its own printing pass at the London workshop. The bird’s framing elements came back gold-plated, and the finished parts then traveled to Biel for final assembly onto the movement in Christopher Ward’s Atelier.
The garden takes most of the dial, so the time shrinks to one small subdial and quick glances cost effort, though the crowding puts the chime’s working parts on show. One dial can’t serve both masters equally. You pay for the bird with your glances.
The movement underneath grew up
Lucia runs Christopher Ward’s FS01-2 chiming movement on Sellita’s SW200-2 Power+ base, a pairing the maker puts in an Atelier watch for the first time, and the reserve climbs to 65 hours. That reserve is the quiet headline.
The chime keeps a 4Hz frequency and a tolerance of -5/+12 seconds per day. Nothing about the strike slows down.
Titanium case, closed back
The case is the 41mm Light-catcher in Grade 5 titanium, measuring 48mm lug-to-lug and 14.31mm tall, and those numbers keep a chiming watch wearable in a way thicker striking watches aren’t. The proportions stay wearable. A new box sapphire crystal sits over the scene, cut to keep the layered dial unobstructed from above.
Around the back, a closed caseback carries a dedicated Christopher Ward x Mr Jones Watches engraving. The name traces to Donizetti’s Lucia di Lammermoor, whose mad scene sets a soprano trading phrases with a solo flute until the exchange turns into birdsong.
Christopher Ward C1 Bel Canto Lucia
Sonnerie au passage chime · Floating fumé time-telling dial · Closed engraved caseback
Price: $5,550
Where to buy: More details at Christopher Ward
Preorder the Lucia at $5,550 if you want a chiming watch that performs on the hour and wears its artwork across the whole dial. Skip it if you read the time in quick glances all day, because this one spends its dial space on a garden, a songbird and a single orange subdial. The alternative at this money is a quieter dial and a movement you can’t watch work, at a similar price with a plainer story to tell.
