The Watch That Changed A Brand Forever - Bel Canto!

[Music] hello and welcome to just one more watch and welcome today to a review that's a bit of a treat from me and therefore hopefully something that you will all enjoy as well I have been itching to get my hands on one of these watches since they were first released almost two years ago the watching question is of course the Bell can now I quite deliberately didn't just say the brand name nor did I put the brand name in the video title today because I don't think I need to when you talk about a Submariner people know it's a Rolex when you talk about a sea Master people know it's an Omega and when you talk about a belcanto people well watch people at least know you're talking about a Christopher Ward I have no wish to denigrate or disparage what Christopher Ward achieved in the first 18 years of their existence prior to the release of this watch but I don't think I'm wrong when I say that this watch changed the brand forever and I'm struggling to think of another single model a single model release that has done more for a brand than the belcanto has done for Christopher Ward now I know it's not exactly scientific evidence but have a look at the Google trends for Christopher Ward for the last 10 years guess when they announced the belcanto that's right November 2022 that's the huge Spike of interest in them as a brand that has continued to gather Pace since then I think that the term Bell Kanto moment is going to slip into the horological Lexicon as a positive before and after point in the history of a watch brand now you did not see a sponsored pop up today this watch is on loan from Christopher Ward and let me assure you it came with no conditions other than the heartbreaking condition that I have to send it back but all is not not lost I did a bit of a deal with them and have placed an order for the Andrew Morgan Watchers collaboration the red one belcanto which I believe is scheduled to ship in December so fingers crossed there may well be a bell Kanto in my state of the collection video early that month so why have people gone Gaga for the belcanto then let me show you why it's because of that and is that actually worth all the hype let's find out well for a watch that is without a doubt a bit special the packaging is uh not it is exactly the same new style compact Christopher packaging they seem to be sending all of their models out in from $600 and upwards I will say one important factor in the purchase of any Christopher Ward but I think especially this Christopher Ward is the warranty it's their 6060 warranty so 60-day returns and a 60-month 5year warranty on the movement the movement of the belcanto is definitely not something you'd want to just throw at your local watch maker so a solid 5year warranty backing it is very well received and there it is you've had a couple of sneak peeks already of course but this is the watch behind the hype in Parts thoroughly conventional in Parts thoroughly unconventional I mean if you caught a side profile of this one initially you would think it was slightly tall but you wouldn't think there was anything out of the ordinary happening until you look at the tial and are like what on Earth is going on here and my friends I will attempt to answer that very question just as soon as we get the basics out of the way those Basics being dimensions and specifications and I'm sure you'll agree there's nothing here that jumps out at you either considering its esoteric nature it's a watch that actually would be a really easy one to wear every day it's 412 mil in diameter 13.1 mil thick with a lug to Lug of 48 all perfectly reasonable lug width is 2 two however the bracelet tapers all the way down to 16 A2 back up to 19 at the clasp it therefore doesn't really look or feel like it's got 22 mil lug width now as sized for me and my 7-in wrist it only weighs 107 G because if you didn't already know the belcanto is made of grade five titanium water resistance is sadly only 30 m and I say sadly despite the fact that I can't actually swim Chrystal was double Dome Sapphire and the movement well the movement requires a bit of an explanation as I said Christopher Ward were kind enough to loan me this unit for review so because it's not mine I'm going to reward that kindness by taking the back off of it to show you the movement I'm sure many of you will recognize it immediately it's a Selita sw200 for three and a half Grand Jodie well yes but it's not the back end that's particularly interesting it's the front end we're more concerned with because this particular sw200 is topped by Christopher Ward's own fs01 module I'm guessing that module has three jewels of its own adding to the 26 of the Selita giving this one 29 jewels in total it has a 38 hour power Reserve but really who gives a about any of that today because the Bell Canto does this yes that's right that's why you pay three and a half Grand and wait 6 months so that your watch can do this on the hour every hour if you want it to we are a strange Bunch as well watch people are we not for well under $20 you can buy a Casio that does this on the hour every hour but for some reason we just don't find that quite as sexy well I grant you the Casio doesn't look nearly as sexy as this does the dial on the belcanto is stunning or should I say dials because we have a sub dial that's actually used for telling the time up there towards the 12 and all of the other plates screws cogs and rubies are to do with making that [Music] in fact if you watch it again you can see the small hammer in the bottom left near the eight moves to strike a twin prong resonator that wraps all the way around the dial from the 11 until the 1 there are no less than 60 different moving parts that make up that fs01 module that is mounted at top the Cela 200 to achieve that hourly hammer strike apparently it's based on a modified jump hour module working on the principles but not to quickly rotate a disc instead to quickly strike a resonator you know my macro lenses do not muck around they readily expose poor manufacturing and Corner cutting but the belcanto looks really good even under serious scrutiny like this this is the Nero black di version undoubtedly the most conservative of all the Bell cantos color options I guess it's a fun watch people want to have fun with it they want to lean into that so other choices include the aforementioned red one as well as purple light blue and salmon even the case back plays a part in the noise making process today it screw on rather than screwed down and it's as big as possible allowing that chime to resonate further within the case and those etchings are designed to look like sound waves radiating from their Locus the crown at the 130 functions as normal it isn't screwed down so winding It Forward winds the movement pull it out to the first position the movement hacks and the tiny hour and minute hand can now be adjust adjusted the beautifully sculpted and curved grade F titanium case also features a pusher at the 4:00 that essentially switches that chiming hourly function on and off with a tiny red triangular indicator letting you know whether you're going to be met with a on the hour or not and believe it or not those tiny hands and indices feature Loom but be warned if you do wake up in the middle of the night and have to check the time get ready for a bit of a head wrecker because you're wearing a fulls siiz watch but the loom display is Tiny it looks like bgw9 and actually it does okay for itself in fact there's an argument that the belcanto is that it's most legible after dark more on that later but first let's get it on wrist it's lovely it's a really nice watch to wear now I do enjoy titanium watches in general at 41 and a half mil in diameter the Bell cantle would probably be on the upper edges of my personal envelope if it were made of steel but the fact that it weighs just over 100 gram and not just over 150 gam completely changes the wearing experience the end links are quick release by the way and the clasp is adjustable giving you around a centimeter of movement on the Fly and Christopher Warden know how to make a great case this one doesn't have quite as much going on as their light catcher case does but it just doesn't need to because of the movement and because of the dial but it's lovely to look at and it's very comfortable on wrist the whole thing is pretty spectacular looking to be honest the fact that the case and bracelet are both made of grade five Titanium with that signature dull gray color it just enhances the Sunburst on the dial it just enhances that small dial at the 12:00 and enhances the large parallel resonator running from 1 until 11: the Bell cantle has been such a raging success because it may cost $35,000 but that's still incredible value for a swissmade mechanical watch with this style of movement there is just nothing else coming from Switzerland that gets anywhere near its price and residuals on this model are Rock Solid if that type of thing concerns you because there are still far far more demand and Supply people are selling Bell cantos for at least what they paid for them all right moons and niggles the bell Canto may have brought hot horology to the masses kind of but nothing escapes the moans and niggle section I've got a couple of material moans and then one more philosophical moan which I'll save for the end let's start with the material moans and I kind of alluded to this earlier on with the packaging this is not a cheap watch this is going to cost you nearly $4,000 3,000 British pound or over 55,000 Aussie dollars and the packaging is one of several elements here pretty much carried over from much further down the Christopher Ward range that perhaps should have been bespoke to this model one other of those things is the bracelet it's not bad but it's pretty much the same bracelet comes with the $800 C63 Valor but just made of titanium rather than of stainless steel it is nowhere near as good for example as the titanium bracelet that comes with these similarly priced T pagos there is no doubt therefore that your money today goes on the complication rather than being evenly spread across the watch and do bear in mind it has all the legibility of perhaps a 24 mm watch despite the fact that it is a 41 and a half MIM watch that upper chapter ring with those applied hour markers is 172 mil across the middle so you will need sharp eyes to read the time on a belcanto and there is a chance that after paying your deposit and waiting 6 months to take delivery of your banto that you will take it out of the slightly underwhelming box peel off the stickers for the first time give the movement a wind excitedly roll the hands around to 59 minutes past the hour wait with baited breath to be met with and find yourself just slightly underwhelmed so if you're going to order one of these if you're going to pay the big bucks for a Christopher Ward allbe it one that undercuts the competition by many many thousands of dollars just be sure you know exactly what it is you're buying and why you're buying it and this model may have changed the global image of Christopher Ward it may have opened up new markets and got people interested in the brand who simply weren't interested in it before but it also has undoubtedly enabled Christopher Ward to push their prices up one or two brackets I have been saying for years that Christopher ward make the best watches around the $1,000 Mark but nowadays they don't actually make many watches around around the $1,000 mark their new stuff is fantastic but it is increasingly aimed at taking sales away from orus from line from tag and from Tudor rather than encouraging people who otherwise would have bought a SEO perhaps to spend a bit more money if you have been a fan of Christopher Ward for 5 years for 10 years perhaps even longer than that you will know exactly what I mean and you will also be hanging on to your early CWS knowing just what Great Value they actually were but but if you put your money down for one of these and you know what you're buying you are unlikely to be disappointed you're buying a beautifully made gorgeous looking piece of horological art that you simply cannot get at this level at this price from any other Big Brand it won't make you a cup of tea it won't fold your laundry but it will go on the hour every hour if you want it to so there you have it I'm fine with that I can make my own tea and I'm really excited to get my my red one later this year it's a proper statement of intent by the brand and it will be a proper statement piece in my collection when it comes I can't wait well done for making it all the way to the back end of the video while you're here why not check out another couple of Christopher War's new releases the C63 Valor chronograph at one end of the scale and the 12x at the other thanks for watching this one I'll see you again in the next one