Introducing the Christopher Ward C1 Grand Malvern Jumping Hour

The Malvern Massacre continues, and this time it’s personal.

No watch will be spared in Christopher Ward’s march to modernity; their jumping hour timepiece is the next to undergo a makeover inspired by the C1 Grand Malvern Power Reserve. The old C9 Jumping Hour MKIII is one of my personal favorites (which I’m coincidentally wearing today) so I’m excited to see what amounts to a mash-up of two favorite Christopher Ward watches.

We see design elements typical of the new Malvern line in the new C1 Grand Malvern Jumping Hour—the dished hour window, the swooping case, the tapered minute hand, the flattened crown, and, of course, the new logo. But the facelift here is more than skin deep and it corrects two of the major faults with the C9.

First, the crown is much better. The C9’s was fat but hard to turn. A small thing, but critical on a piece like this that isn’t necessarily your daily driver. I always need to set and wind this one when it comes out of the watch drawer.

Second, and more important, the case is on a diet. It looks and measures like it was lifted directly from the C1 and it cuts 0.65 mm off the old C9. That is huge, because the C9 is huge. It seems to sit higher on the wrist than any dive watch in my collection and is oddly proportioned for how elegant the face is. The new C1 Grand Malvern Jumping Hour seems to fix all that, but keeps basically the same customized JJ01 movement. What once was a modified ETA 2824 is now a functionally similar Sellita SW 200-1, modified the same way by Johannes Jahnke (hence the JJ designation) to kill the hour hand and make it half-digital.

There is more to say about both the old C9 and the new C1 Grand Malvern Jumping Hour. We’ll go hands-on with my C9 soon, maybe head-to-head with its new brother if the stars align. christopherward.com

Christopher Ward C1 Grand Malvern Jumping Hour

Price:£1,395 (~$1,780 USD) (cordovan/Bader deployant)
Who’s it for? You never figured out the whole big hand, little hand thing.
Would I wear it? It’s a mash-up of two favorite Christopher Ward watches.
What I’d change? Thinner still on the case, and much thinner on the price.
Standout features? That big, jumping arabic numeral at the top.

Tech specs from Christopher Ward