Fears Christopher Ward Alliance 01
Five things that make this a mighty special watch
Here’s a plea to all watchmakers: PLEASE stop making good watches for a while. Seriously, pop out a few crappy ones, just for a bit. Please. We need a rest.
I’m looking particularly in the direction of a couple of British makers here. For a start, there’s Christopher Ward. They can’t put a foot wrong at the moment, from the incredible overachiever that is the C60 Graphite, which I bought in January, to the how-the-hell-did-they-do-that-for-the-money Bel Canto, which should be landing on my doorstep in July. (Review there from my good chum,
.) Throw in the hot-off-the-press Dune series and you’ve got a brand that’s just getting everything right. Design. Engineering. Finishing. Pricing. Especially pricing. Everything, spot on.Then there’s Fears. Oh boy… I’m a Fears fanboy. Last year, I added a salmon-dialled Brunswick to my collection, which even my wife loved. (She likes watches but finds my watch chat tedious, so to get a good review suggests it’s a winner.) So when I had lunch in early January with Nicholas Bowman-Scargill, the impeccably dressed raconteur and charming man at the head of Fears, I was hoping he’d say they’d had a change of strategy and were planning a range of ugly and stupid watches. Like these ludicrous monsters. Just so I could rest, relax and calm down.
Unfortunately, what he had on his wrist was the opposite of that. It was something truly special - a pre-production model of the Fears Christopher Ward Alliance 01, a collaboration between the two brands. He let me try it on. It was utterly mesmerising. I fell in love. We said our goodbyes, then he went on a fortnight-long media spree, along with Mike France, promoting the blasted thing. Everybody was talking about it. Everywhere I looked the burgundy beauty was beamed directly into my eyeballs.
Basically, rather than slowing down and giving us a rest, Fears and Christopher Ward formed a supergroup and released their best work yet. Like the Traveling Wilburys, or that time Bryan Adams and Sporty Spice reached the peak of their potential.
Anyway, come launch day, I was one of the very lucky ones who managed to secure an Alliance 01. Last Thursday, it arrived. It’s one of the best watches I’ve ever owned. Here are five reasons why.
1. The instant jump
I’ve got a couple of vintage jump hour watches in my collection - a Yema from the ‘60s and a Sicura from the 70s. They’re both fun pieces with designs that embody their eras. What they aren’t is true ‘jump hours’. Instead, the hour discs wander from one hour to the next - one in a continuous movement, the other through a slow jump over several minutes.
What you get with the Alliance 01 is something much, much more impressive. In fact, the jump from displaying one hour to the next is instantaneous. It’s so quick that, in some cases, I’ve literally blinked and missed it. I’ve just added a new video on Instagram, if you’re interested in seeing it in action…
It also makes a very satisfying ‘click’ as it jumps, a little like the noise of a camera shutter. If the room is quiet it’s an easily audible marker of the passing of another hour. Not quite a Bel Canto, although it’s based on the same movement so attention seeking clearly runs in the family.
Hats off to Christopher Ward, who made the movement. When they do a job they do it properly. (See point 5 for more gushing…)
2. A dial so deep I feel drunk
When I first saw this watch, I instantly fell in love with the colour. It’s such a deep, rich burgundy. Regal and elegant. As somebody who has spent his life writing, it’s odd to find myself in a place where I can’t sufficiently describe the colour. All I can think of is that it looks like it could get you drunk.
Having now lived with the dial for a few days, I’ve seen even more colours and effects. Fears have done this by using lacquer, sunburst and guilloché together. Sometimes it’s pink. Sometimes dark brown. Sometimes plum. I’ve seen light playing off the dial in so many directions, with reflections and light rays dancing across from side to side, top to bottom. I’ve watched C-beams glitter in the dark near the Tannhäuser Gate. It’s remarkable.
3. One hand, two finishes
Little details really make this watch interesting. The Fears ‘pipette’ logo engraved on the crown. The four ‘hallmarks’ on the back of the lugs (the logos for Fears, Christopher Ward and the Alliance of British Watch and Clock Makers, as well as the edition number). The bright white lacquer finish of the hour disc. All lovely touches.
One little detail that really stands out, though, is the finishing on the minute hand. Given that there’s only one hand on this watch, I guess it makes sense to make it an interesting one. And what they’ve done is given it two different finishes: half the hand is mirror polished and half is frosted. This makes it incredibly legible. I think you could probably read it from the moon.
Look under a loupe and you’ll see the division between the two finishes is so crisp and sharp you could slice bread with it. I can’t stress enough how good the finishing is on this watch. Which leads me on to my next point…
4. Polishing that would worry Grand Seiko
I’ve long been in love with my Fears Brunswick Salmon, simply because of how intricately crafted and finished it is. Where the Alliance 01 steps things up a level is in the polishing. In particular, the hour window is surrounded by a silver ring that’s hand-polished to a very high level. Catch it at the right angle and it reflects the hour incredibly clearly.
The way that the light sparkles off the various polished and brushed surfaces reminds me of the indices on my Grand Seiko Snowflake. And that’s praise indeed.
5. Hidden ingenuity
The Christopher Ward name may not be plastered all over this watch (in fact, their logo only makes an appearance in one tiny area on the back) but the brains behind the operation is all theirs. I talked above about how quick the jump is. And it’s all down to a very impressive movement.
I love watch movements that find ingenious solutions to difficult problems. I’m not actually talking about the highest-end horology here - Patek Philippe and A. Lange & Söhne make some incredibly complicated watches, made using hundreds of components, finished to the highest levels. And they have price tags to match. No, what I’m talking about is the makers who find ways to bring these exalted and rare functions to more people, reliably, at more affordable prices.
For example, last year I bought the IWC Ceratanium Double Chronograph. When it comes to split-seconds chronos, you’re usually looking at phenomenal complexity. What made the IWC so interesting to me was that it was the brainchild of Richard Habring, a watchmaker known for inventing robust and commercially viable versions of high-end complications. For the IWC Double Chronograph, he designed a module to sit on top of a workhorse Valjoux 7750 movement - and the result was an incredible piece of solid engineering. Not fancy like Lange or Patek, but proper creative thinking. With a bit of saving, I could actually afford one.
This kind of thinking is also why I love Ochs and Junior, from the brain of Ludwig Oechslin. Oechslin is a watchmaker in pursuit of simplification - rather than building massively complex movements, his approach is to look for the simplest solution to the problem. Take his Annual Calendar - usually, these kinds of watches are made up of hundreds of components and terrific complexity. Oechslin made his using a Sellita movement and just four extra parts. FOUR.
Why am I telling you all this? Because the movement inside the Alliance 01 reminds me a bit of the Habring and Oechslin approaches. It was invented by Johannes Jahnke while he was at Christopher Ward. Named the JJ01 (after its inventor) it’s a Sellita SW200 with a module on top. It was designed to perform the same task as expensive, specialist jump-hour movements, but in an affordable and commercially viable form. And it doesn’t “sort of” do the job, or work “a bit like a jump hour” - it does the job PERFECTLY. An instant jump with a satisfying click. Precisely the same effect, but you don’t have to be a Geneva fund manager to afford it.
To have this movement inside such a beautiful watch feels really special. Brains and beauty in one package.
So there we have it, folks. Five reasons why I think the Fears Christopher Ward Alliance 01 is one of the finest watches I own. Each reason individually makes it good, but together they make it remarkable and truly special.
I’d love to know what other Alliance 01 owners think of theirs. And what everybody else thinks in general. It’s perhaps one of those watches that might be hard to understand until you get hands-on. But hopefully what I’ve shared here brings across a sense of just how much Fears and Christopher Ward have achieved. Let me know what you think…
An informative and passionate review of a fantastic timepiece! I enjoyed reading it very much and learned new things. Fears will do well in the US market with the Collective becoming an AD.
Fantastic read
You nailed it
It’s a really special watch ❤️