The Christopher Ward C1 Bel Canto has always carried a quiet operatic reference in its name, but the new C1 Bel Canto Lucia finally leans into it fully.
Created with Mr Jones Watches, the watch takes its cue from Donizetti’s bel canto opera Lucia di Lammermoor and turns the Bel Canto’s exposed chiming mechanism into a richly coloured bird.
It’s a clever meeting of mechanics and theatre, with the watch’s hourly chime becoming more than a complication and closer to a character on the dial.
At a glance
- Christopher Ward and Mr Jones Watches have introduced the C1 Bel Canto Lucia, their second collaboration.
- The watch reimagines the Bel Canto’s 6 o’clock chiming mechanism as a bird inspired by Donizetti’s opera Lucia di Lammermoor.
- It uses the Sellita SW200-2 Power+ calibre with FS01 chiming module, is open-series production and is priced at £3,995 on a leather strap.
A tragic opera becomes a playful dial
The Bel Canto name refers to the Italian operatic singing style, but earlier versions of the watch didn’t make that link especially literal.
The Lucia changes that by drawing from one of the best-known bel canto tragedies.
In Lucia di Lammermoor, Lucia secretly marries Edgardo, is forced into another marriage, kills her new husband on their wedding day and descends into madness.
The opera’s famous mad scene is associated with delicate, birdlike vocal runs, which gives this watch its central image.
At 6 o’clock, where the Bel Canto’s striking mechanism sits in full view, Mr Jones Watches has turned the architecture into a bird.
The on/off indicator reads like a beak, while the hammer suggests a spread of tail feathers.
That resemblance was not part of the original Bel Canto design, but it has become part of the watch’s surrounding culture, with previous bespoke pieces leaning into phoenix-like interpretations.
The Lucia is the first known production version to apply bird artwork directly to the mechanism itself.
Mr Jones colour meets Bel Canto mechanics
The bird is not simply printed over the dial as a flat illustration.
The process begins with stamped brass plates, which are then sent to the Mr Jones Watches workshop for colour application using pad printing.
The framework is gold-plated afterward, creating a faux-cloisonné effect that gives the bird definition and a more jewel-like presence.
The components are then aligned and laminated before returning to Christopher Ward’s workshop in Biel for final assembly.
The rest of the display builds the scene around the bird, with a lush bush, white-petalled flowers and a small rotating bug connected to the 4 o’clock pusher and the on/off function.
At 12 o’clock, the timekeeping dial is rendered in a rich orange tone based on the setting sun.
It’s an unusually narrative choice for a chiming sports-adjacent watch, and the warmth of the dial sits in contrast with the opera’s grim emotional arc.
That tension is what makes the Lucia more interesting than a simple decorative edition.
The upgraded Bel Canto underneath
Inside the watch is the Sellita SW200-2 Power+ calibre paired with Christopher Ward’s FS01 chiming module.
When activated, the module allows the watch to chime on the hour.
The use of the Power+ movement marks a practical upgrade over earlier Bel Canto versions, raising the power reserve from 38 hours to 65 hours.
The case is titanium and measures 41mm across and 14.31mm thick, with a box sapphire crystal and custom caseback engraving.
That keeps the Lucia within the established Bel Canto format, while the dial treatment gives it a far more theatrical identity.
Open-series production, not a 300-piece follow-up
This is the second collaboration between Christopher Ward and Mr Jones Watches.
Their first, the Celestial, was limited to 300 pieces, but the C1 Bel Canto Lucia is being produced as an open-series model.
That distinction matters because the Bel Canto has built a following around both its accessible chiming complication and its increasingly varied dial language.
The Lucia speaks to the collector who likes the engineering proposition, but wants something more expressive than a conventional skeletonised mechanical display.
Details & Specifications
| Brand | Christopher Ward x Mr Jones Watches |
|---|---|
| Model | C1 Bel Canto Lucia |
| Case size | 41mm x 14.31mm |
| Case material | Titanium |
| Crystal | Box sapphire crystal |
| Dial | Bird-themed chiming mechanism with floral scene and orange timekeeping dial |
| Movement | Sellita SW200-2 Power+ calibre with FS01 chiming module |
| Complication | Hourly chime when activated |
| Power reserve | 65 hours |
| Caseback | Custom engraving |
| Strap | Leather strap |
| Production | Open series |
| Price | £3,995 on leather strap |
The C1 Bel Canto Lucia works because it doesn’t treat the opera reference as surface decoration.
It uses the watch’s most distinctive mechanical feature as the storytelling device, turning a chiming module into something that feels theatrical, melancholy and unmistakably Mr Jones.
