CW |THE CAMPBELL DYNASTY


“Ultimately it is a family with a passion for speed, one that has hit a record every decade since the 1910s. It represents a glorious heritage”


The fruits of this collaboration will be a series of Christopher


Ward Bluebird watches, the first of which will be released in 2013. Development work for the inaugural design is already underway and will be dedicated to Sir Malcolm Campbell’s feats. It is likely to feature the remarkably innovative Jumping Hour movement first introduced by the brand in 2011. The drivers all will wear the watches on their runs and Rees hopes that a Christopher Ward timepiece will also be incorporated in the dashboard of the new-generation electric racing car. Part of the proceeds from the sale of the watches will pass to the Bluebird team to assist with the development of their projects. “It is not easy to describe why the Campbell dynasty do what they do,“ concedes Rees, “but ultimately it is a family with a passion for speed, one that has hit a record every decade since the 1910s. It represents a glorious heritage.


26 www.christopherward.co.uk


“One aspect of the role of the Bluebird team is to develop new technologies, to turn an idea into a product that is a commercial certainty. Geographically our team is split between south-east England, which is the design and engineering base, and west Wales, where we have a testing centre. Our permanent team numbers only eight or nine, but that grows to 150 when we are out breaking records. What we do costs money.”


BACKING ELECTRIC POWER Realism and an acceptance that things now are not as they were 50 years ago have encouraged team principal Don Wales to embrace electric power. “Don needs to be applauded for his early adoption of the technology,” says Rees. “Back in the mid-1990s, when we first got into it,


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