CW |AUTOMATICALLY FOR WOMEN
DESIGNED FOR A
goddess FEW COMPANIES PRODUCE AUTOMATIC WATCHES FOR WOMEN, BUT
ONCE AGAIN CHRISTOPHER WARD INNOVATES WITH THE LAUNCH OF BELISAMA, CW’S MOST LUXURIOUS WATCH YET
C
eltic goddesses from the Dark Ages are rarely mentioned in features about watches. For its latest innovation, however, Christopher Ward has selected the name Belisama to encapsulate the properties of its most startling women’s watch yet. With a name said to mean “summer bright”, Belisama was worshipped in Britain and Gaul during and after the last days of the Roman Empire. She was connected with fire, crafts and light, including sunlight and moonlight. Some interpretations also have this mysterious figure as a goddess of wisdom. So Belisama seemed a most appropriate designation for Christopher Ward’s first women’s automatic models, which confirm the company’s confidence in its female offer. Few manufacturers bother to make women’s automatic or self-winding watches in which the mainspring is wound automatically by the natural motion of the wearer’s arm. While there are some fine examples of automatic watches (most notably, perhaps, Omega’s Ladymatic series) they are few and far between and, like the Ladymatics, which start at around £4000, they are generally out of most people’s financial reach. There is also a view among the male-dominated watch industry
that women are only interested in the aesthetic appeal of a watch rather than the mechanism within. This is not a view to which Christopher Ward subscribes.
CREATING SOMETHING SPECIAL “Judging by the volume of requests I have received from women (and men, it should also be said) for us to introduce a women’s automatic watch, there is no doubt whatsoever that women are as fascinated in the same way as men by the workings of a fine mechanical watch. We would have introduced an automatic earlier but I was never happy that we had the right combination of design and movement. When we started working on the Belisama, however, it was clear from the beginning that this was something special and would be the perfect way to launch our women’s automatic offer,” says Chris Ward. In the year since the company relaunched its women’s collection, it has been encouraged by the reaction to its elegant, timeless styles. So for the Belisama Automatic the inspiration is that ultimate classic, the Cartier Tank, which has achieved iconic status over the past 100 years. Powered by the smallest of ETA’s automatic movements, the 17.2mm calibre 2671-1, which can be viewed through the exhibition back, the watch features an
➸ opposite; W900 BELISAMA DIAMOND GSKR £1250 30 Orderline 0844 875 1515
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