Worn & Wound
The Christopher Ward C1 Bel Canto Gets a Wild Lume Treatment with the New Lumiere Edition
The Bel Canto, in its relatively short history, has proven to be a surprisingly versatile watch in the way it can wear different colors and accents. That’s a little surprising when you consider the fixed nature of the exposed chiming mechanism and the way this elements dominates the look of the watch. But color and especially texture can take the Bel Canto completely different directions, conjuring both contemporary “indie” aesthetics as well as something much more classical. The latest version of Christopher Ward’s C1 Bel Canto now dons the “Lumiere” designation that we first saw a year ago in the C60 Trident. Lume was a big part of the story with that C60 Trident, but it wasn’t the whole story as it is with the new Bel Canto, which here sees its most radical reinvention to date. Obviously, this is one for the folks who are never without a high powered flashlight in their EDC. The C1 Bel Canto Lumiere is the most exotic interpretation of the platform yet. It’s built around a platine with a sunray pattern that is intricately coated with two shades of luminescent material. This effectively lights the “dial” of the watch from behind, and below the chiming mechanism. The time-telling ring is now a solid circle of high powered Globolight lume, where the current time is read with lume tipped hands. There are no numerals or indices on this Globolight ring, and I’m sure some will balk at the fact that we now just have an approximation of the time to refere...