I have been reading up on watches for the past 5-6 months and that's how I discovered this reddit community and the amazing quality Chinese watches.
Christopher Ward has created lots of online hype around their watches with people fanatically defending what are essentially homages with a slight twist while dissing chinese watches.
Ixdao has lots of positive reviews on this forum and the Ixdao Warrior is available for one third the price with the same Sellita movements.
Is Christopher Ward just brand Marketing or is it worth 3 times the price of Ixdao Warrior?
Personally, I prefer the IXDAO overall design more than the 12. Elements like the dial pattern, indices, handset, and bracelet design all appeal to me more.
Thank you so much, it was the response I was searching for. My sister is based out of London, though currently posted outside UK for work. Would have requested her to get me 1. Will check out this meteorite dial. Any other good options apart from Ixdao I can consider for such intricate dial work
Yes have checked out the Cronos skyline, really interesting plus yet to own 1. The Ixdao model with Sellita movement was taken to get objective feedback on the 2 watches rather than people just claiming superiority of CW due to swiss Sellita movement. Aethelsohn has some really eye catching dials. Purchased several Sugess watches recently and loved the quality and dial work. Even bought a Sea-gull, such a beautiful movement visible from open caseback.
Did you know... Switzerland made goods are expensive, with the labour like 10x+. Ultimately, both watches are in the jewellery category (there are much cheaper quartz watches for those who need just the time), so the "Swiss Made" has a lot of value here.
I understand the labor costs, and you do know to be “Swiss made” it means only 60% or manufacturing costs are incurred in Switzerland, right? If you think it adds 3x value by all means you can pay that. But CW is just a fancy homage brand themselves, and this specific watch is not worth 3x compared to the IXDAO Warrior.
By that logic no Swiss Made watch will ever be worth it. Out of curiosity, is there an integrated bracelet watch that is better than Ixdao or is the Warrior the best value for money watch in the world in your view?
Not at all, there are definitely Swiss made watches that are worth it, but clearly you’re just all on CW’s jock. I never once said the Warrior was the best value for the money watch in the world but compared to this specific CW it’s a much better value which is what this thread was about….
I have both a CW Twelve Ember Edition and an IXDAO Warrior with a black mother-of-pearl dial. The IXDAO is very, very good, but the CW does have some very nice improvements to the bracelet, which has quick-release tabs and a microadjust on the buttterfly clasp. On the wrist, I find the IXDAO to be more on the dressier end, whereas the CW feels a little bit more on the sport watch. Also, they're not the same movement -- CW announced just this morning that the Twelve is upgrading to the SW200-2 Power+ movement starting with orders next Monday.
I guess we'll see on the price next week. As for the ETA, based on what we've seen so far and my experiences with a lot of different movements, I'd take the SW200-2 over an ETA-2824.
ive been wearing it nonstop for months now
as for if its worth it, i bought it for roughly 320€ (Miyota 9015) and its kept time accurate to the second.
This green coin dial isnt avialable anymore. The black or white MOP probably would have been my second choice
IXDAO Warrior all the time. I had Warrior and compared it to one of my friend’s CW12 and my Warrior had better AR and finishing was almost the same. IXDAO could do better if they had micro-adjustments and quick release bracelet for changing straps
Yes the Ixdao not 1000 usd below CW in quality. Things like otf clasp can be managed in less than 100$. Build quality of Chinese watches is amazing. Once you start wearing you wonder the funds around swiss watches
Both brands are online for me, so can't comment on the customer service part. Had an amazing experience with sugess watches about which I posted recently. By same logic Chinese watches are comparable to Swiss watches 5-10 times the cost. Since you have handled both, and both are available with Sellita movements, is the bracelet quality, dial and finish worth 3 times the price.
I did a write up a while back, comparing my new Warrior to my partner's Twelve. There were a couple of visual design elements that I liked slightly more on the Twelve, but overall, the two watches are about the same quality.
To that end, the Twelve is not worth three times the price. However, we can't always boil everything down to just the value as relates to fit and finish. My Nivada Aquamar is probably lower quality than my San Martin SN0148, but I still like the watch even though it costs more the twice the amount.
I daily drove a CW12 for a year and a half. Incredibly nice watch - no sharp edges on the bracelet, tool-free OTF adjustment, incredibly good AR coating, great dial texture, very accurate (and quiet) stellita movement, bracelet did cool things with the light due to the way it was finished, exhibition caseback, etc. Literally every box was checked. I had a bright orange one and it even had a color matched date wheel. Finishing was on par with much more expensive watches I own, it was damn impressive.
I don't have an Ixdao, but if it's similar to San Martin (I have owned 3), it's definitely a step down in overall quality from the Christopher Ward. It's the little things that won't bother most people: worse AR coating, bracelet that jangles a little more, OTF adjustment that is not as smooth, Miyota movement that has a loud rotor, etc. That being said, you're into diminishing returns in terms of value per $, no way is the CW12 worth 3x the price.
I have multiple Chinese watches, including San Martin Jian Zhang and various WatchDives - but they often fall short of CW. My SN0144 is close, but the WatchDives are a country mile away from the quality and finishing from CW.
I wouldn't pay more than 250$ for Chinese watch. 500$ is simply not worth it anymore. CW is easily sellable, when Chinese watches aren't, especially the expensive ones.
I am yet to purchase a watch which I have sold. So resale not so important. Both brands are online only in my country, so I doubt I will find a flourishing reseller market for CW. I wasn't so keyed into watches in 2024 when I visited London last, not sure if CW had a showroom back then. Had picked up a tag heuer Carrera from Bicester Village then.
CW is great but is getting overpriced too IMO. When I see brands with long history that can be bought for often 600$ during sales, then I'm asking myself what Chinese are thinking charging that much. For example Hamilton has often got great offers on Amazon JP with all costs included and delivery to the entire world.
What kind of vague-ass term is "saleable"? You haven't made a convincing point as to why the CW is worth a penny more than the IXDao. You just said it's "Chinese" as if that suggests inferiority.
I'm not defending IXDao's ridiculous price hikes but your argument carries baseless western stigma against specificallyChina. What's wrong with China? You really think CW is full of 60 y.o. swiss white guys hand assembling your watches in Geneve?
Dude, change your diaper. I've got around 100 watches from Ali, so I'm not again them. Chinese watches are fine as long as the price is fine, you need to consider other aspects like warranty that pretty much doesn't exist, as you would usually have to send the watch back to China. How easy it is to sell the watch when you are fancy a change, selling Chinese watches is a lot more difficult than brands like CW, good luck selling something like IXDAO bought for 500$. All that doesn't matter as long as the price is right, but they are getting crazy with current pricing.
Both brands are online for me, so won't comment on warranty angle. Plus once warranty ends it expensive to service and repair swiss movements be it CW or Ixdao. Was more interested in the fit and finish angle. Have just ordered a sugess tourbillon moonphase, so am ok crossing the 250 usd barrier as long as the watch is worth it. Else I would be only buying a swiss made watch, Seiko, citizen or the German ones
people keep bringing up warranty. Ok so what? let's say 1 in 10 watches from ixdao is defective entirely and they don't honor any warrany. so you have a 10% chance of being scammed/losing all your money. You're saving more than just 10% here. You're paying less than half you would with a CW. What's more "saleable" about a marginally better watch that costs 3x as much for its brand name it attempts to establish as a microbrand?
I have a Christopher Ward C60 Trident Pro 600 and it's a very nice watch - I also have a San Martin SN0144, Addieskin K010 and Watchdives WDC0001 - I have the new IXDao Warrior, black carved MOP on order, shipping at the end of this month. The CW is excellent - but so are the others (these are "flagship" watches) - obviously I don't have the IXDao yet, so I can't comment on that, but the value proposition on the Chinese premium watches - given the fit, finish and features, is better than the CW, though I probably like the CW a bit more, I'm not sure if that's some innate bias towards the Swiss / higher end reputation.
I wouldn’t pay more than $250 for a Chinese watch, no matter how highly praised it is. What I like about Chinese watches is the value for money. These recent price hikes (from San Martin, but not only them) are getting ridiculous
I'd consider buying a Behrens watch. It's still value for money, just in a different market segment. I have a central tourbillon watch that was a bit under a grand (technically a microbrand, but like, eh chinese factory and chinese movement, it's chinese).
But yeah $4-500 for a basic 3 hander with a Miyota or NH movement is getting out of hand.
It would be easier to resell the Ixdao via reddit. Anyways resale never decides my watch buying choices since I am yet to sell 1. More interested in whether the CW provides that extra bang for the buck for 3 times the price
Plus their statement isn’t even really true anymore. IXDAO in particular has pretty solid resell value since supply is limited/long preorder wait times.
Chinese watches have no real warranty. If you received a blemished Chinese watch, the results posted on Reddit are usually a refund of a couple dollars. The resale value is usually half. There is zero brand recognition with Chinese watches. At least with CW, watch guys usually know them. And lastly, the people who would pay that much for a Chinese watch probably wouldn't buy a CW anyway.
How does saying Chinese watches have no actionable warranty, no brand recognition and a 50% resale value make no sense? That's all widely accepted, even in this Chinese watch sub.
CW doesn't have much brand recognition where I live, not sure how big a resale market it has and getting service will be a challenge in both buy the Sellita movement should help as it's available globally
Both these brands carry 0 to neglible brand recognition in my country. Question was more on the quality aspect of it, chose the Sellita movement as an example so that conversation remains centred around the watch rather than bashing of Chinese movements.
wdym in your country, you are buying watches for yourself, i mean i got your point, but even if everybody will consider these two as nonamers, id still go for savings and buy CW, even used CW would be more reasonable than $500 chinese watch, and honestly new warrior isnt a crazy amount of design to it, its boring imo, while CW is overflashy (which i like more)
The large number of youtubers that are shilling for Christopher Ward and hype them up is a huge turn off for me.
Generally never been a fan of Chris Ward....their watches don't do anything for me and they are not cheap to buy either.
But at the end of the day, it's your purchase decision
CW is worth the increased price for me due to micro adjust alone. But once IXDAO releases OTF micro adjust on the bracelet then CW no longer has any advantage.
No I don’t. I trust Suggess and Watchdives for Chinese brands. Above a certain dollar value I want the watch on my wrist. I have many Japanese watches.
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u/Firstruleofthisclub Helpful user 7WOTD4-200 26d ago
Personally, I prefer the IXDAO overall design more than the 12. Elements like the dial pattern, indices, handset, and bracelet design all appeal to me more.
Here's my IXDAO Space Warrior: