Mike France is the CEO and co-founder of Christopher Ward, the British watch brand established in 2004 with the vision of offering exceptional Swiss-made mechanical watches at accessible prices. With a strong background in marketing and brand management, Mike recognized an opportunity to challenge the traditional luxury watch industry by adopting a direct-to-consumer business model, eliminating unnecessary retail markups while maintaining the highest standards of quality and craftsmanship.

Under his leadership, Christopher Ward has grown from an ambitious startup into one of the world's most respected independent watchmakers. The company has earned international recognition for combining British design with Swiss manufacturing, producing innovative timepieces that appeal to both new enthusiasts and seasoned collectors.

Mike has also overseen significant technical achievements, including the introduction of the in-house Calibre SH21 movement and award-winning creations such as the Bel Canto, which redefined expectations for accessible haute horlogerie. His commitment to innovation, transparency, and value has helped establish Christopher Ward as a benchmark for modern independent watchmaking.

Today, Mike France continues to lead the company with a clear vision: to create beautifully engineered watches that deliver exceptional quality, innovation, and customer value while challenging the conventions of the traditional luxury watch industry.

What gap in the watch industry did you identify in 2004?

During our time selling educational toys at Early Learning Centre, my co-founder Peter and I explored early ecommerce and discovered customers were increasingly comfortable making big-ticket purchases online – even climbing frames, for example. We knew direct-to-consumer ecommerce represented a real opportunity.

Shortly after we'd moved on from ELC, a friend sent us a truckload of industry reports on the watch world. The more we read, the more obvious it became that there was an opportunity to challenge the status quo. If we could source the same Swiss-made components and sell directly to customers, we could deliver watches of comparable quality for a far more accessible price.

What has been the defining factor behind the journey?

Transparency. We never set out to be disruptors; all we wanted to do was strip away some of the barriers to quality Swiss watchmaking and put great watches at unbelievable value in front of the consumer.

Was there a moment Christopher Ward "arrived" on the global stage?

There’s been lots of evidence suggesting we’ve been taking the right steps through our 22 years as a brand, but in the grand scheme of things, we’re still rather small. Awards like the GPHG, our Global Partnerships with organizations like Everton, and our expanding showroom network all help to bolster our improve our accessibility, but I believe we have a long way to go until we can brag about having arrived on the global stage’ at the pub.

Biggest challenges convincing customers to buy luxury watches online?

The biggest challenge is making people believe in what you’re doing. Many people today still won't buy a watch without seeing it in person. This is where building and nurturing a community is vital. Of course, it started online with groups like the Christopher Ward Forum, now with 17,300 members, and the Christopher Ward Enthusiasts Group on Facebook, now with over 18,000 members, allowing us instant feedback to new products and the direction of the brand.

Enabling access to our watches in the metal is essential. Collector meet-ups, whether they are RedBar events for a local chapter or huge shows like the WindUp series in the US, provide an incredible platform to engage with your community in a really special way. Building these communities before we had spaces of our own provided us with the only way of engaging with people face-to-face. We now have seven retail spaces in the US and the UK, and it presents us with the opportunity to meet people who have been customers for well over a decade and have never even received a handshake.

Furthermore, we’ve dedicated lots of time to giving industry experts access to what we do. Independent voices play a crucial role in telling the brand story and highlighting the quality we offer. They also play an important role in keeping us honest and not ‘resting on our laurels,’ so to speak.

How do you balance commercial success with exciting enthusiasts?

We feel that these things go hand in hand. The enthusiasts are, more often than not, an early barometer of what wider consumers would want. Their passion drives us to think creatively about how we can best deliver that to the consumer. A great example of this is our C65 Super Compressor. A customer reached out to us and felt that we were the right brand to take on the challenge of reviving a genuine super compressor case, and thankfully, we were up to the task. Engaging enthusiasts also allows you to surprise them. Watches like the Bel Canto and The C12 Loco offer something typically very rare at the prices we operate at. Continuing to surprise them, while taking the time to appreciate their genuine feedback, helps ensure success.

How do British design and Swiss craftsmanship complement each other?

Christopher Ward has always been British-led. The company was founded in England, our design direction remains anchored here, and our first collection - the Malvern - took its inspiration from the Malvern Hills. Our technical expertise, meanwhile, now sits in Biel, following our merger with Synergies Horlogères in 2014. That dual presence - offices in both England and Switzerland - is our superpower. It allows us to combine British creative leadership with Swiss mechanical depth in a way few others can.

What did the SH21 (now CW-001) movement achievement mean for the company?

SH21 (now CW-001) was our first in-house movement, and it mattered because we always felt that if you want to be a true watch brand, you need real horological expertise. I remember showing it to the then-CEO of a major Swiss brand and being asked, "What gives you the license to do that?" - it was a moment of real validation.

How do you ensure genuine value rather than following trends?

Trends are inevitable in the industry, but the approach you take to make them your own is what’s important. Firstly, we ensure value through our 3x product markup, regardless of the cost of production, or which pillar it sits in. Secondly, we carefully manage our supply chain relationships to ensure that our build cost is reflective of the quality of product the customer will receive.

How has your design philosophy evolved?

As we’ve grown, we’ve been better able to understand and create our own design philosophy. More detailed cases, how bracelets and straps are constructed, dials and bezels, and the techniques used to create them. It’s built on learning and expertise. That technical growth needs to be married to strong creative direction. You can make something technically brilliant, but if it doesn’t look right, people won't be interested.

This is why we have invested in what I believe to be one of the best New Product Development teams in the world. Our technical team may come to us with a new movement or complication idea, and our designers, Adrian Buchmann and his team, will think outside the box to make it feel truly like a Christopher Ward. It will then fall back to our Technical Director, Frank Stelzer, who will need to figure out the best way of bringing it to life. This ‘ping-pong’ is an essential step in improving our designs, and it pushed the boundaries of what was initially thought possible.

What did the C1 Bel Canto's GPHG win mean personally and to the team?

I was initially shocked and incredibly grateful. We’re watch fans at Christopher Ward, and being in a room with the likes of Max Büsser and Rexhep Rexhepi was a real honor. We never expected to win. To receive recognition from the academy for something we’d done was incredible. It really validated all the hard work that went into that moment, and galvanised us for what was to follow. 

Did winning at GPHG change how the industry perceives Christopher Ward?

It’s hard for us to say. It definitely brought us to the attention of collectors who would had either never heard of us or not considered us. However, the fundamentals of the brand never changed.

How has Bel Canto's success influenced future product development?

The Bel Canto gave us the license to explore what the brand can offer at different price points. The expansion of our Atelier Collection is a direct response to the demand that Bel Canto created. We found that people were interested in different complications, and it gave us the springboard to platform them. It also enabled us to reinvest in quality and different techniques for our core range.

Do independent brands have greater opportunities to compete with traditional Swiss luxury manufacturers?

Being independent means we're not tied to third-party distribution or a traditional retail model that commands larger margins. We can move quickly and, utilizing our supply chain network, innovate quickly. With our Trident Lumiere, building our custom-made Globolight XP© lume blocks for the dial, hands, and logo represented not just an exciting new technology, but, because of the standards we expect, a new challenge for our supplier, Xenoprint, who had never had to add facets to their Globolight blocks in the way we’d asked before.

Any exciting projects, complications, or innovations currently in development?

We've got some complications in development that Christopher Ward hasn't shown before - I can't say more than that, because these things take time, but there's real ambition in the pipeline.

What opportunities do you see for British watchmaking over the next decade?

The Alliance of British Watch and Clockmakers, which I set up with Roger Smith, exists to shine a light on the sector and to lobby for better trading terms abroad. The 3rd British Watchmakers' Day in March, with more than 30 British brands exhibiting, showed just how much appetite and talent there is. There is real growth in the sector, and that brings opportunities in a variety of areas. Inspiring younger people to become watchmakers and encouraging marketing and design talent from other industries will be pivotal to the sector’s strength.