Seiko Champion

My, what big hands you have Grandma.

All the better to see you with, my dear.


(all images from Christoper Ward)


Yes, another fine model from Christopher Ward (for sale now for mid-October shipping) to tempt me into adding to the C6 diver and C8 pilot watches from them that I already have. This time, with tritium.



Yes, tritium as in the luminescence source used in Traser, Luminox, or a number of lesser “pretend to be special forces for a day” watch brands, but this time in a good looking dive watch.

The C600 does give an obligatory bow to this genre of watches by being PVD coated, but that’s an existing aesthetic option for some CW watches already. I’m happy to say there is nary a camouflage color scheme or other silliness in sight. Although as you can see on their promo picture above there seems to be a mix of blue phosphor on the hour markers and outer sections of the hands, and green phosphor on the inner serctions of the hands .. I personally prefer not having this dual colour luminescence on the hands, but it would be interesting to wear for a while and see what I think of it in real life.



Tritium is a low level radioisotope, and the amount used on a watch actually has a legislated maximum limit. Think radium dials but vastly lower levels, low enough to not be unfriendly to your health. The tritium is mixed with phosphor in small vials which are then used as hour markers and dial inserts. The advantage? It They just keep glowing at night for years, without need for any light source to charge it up. Here is a nicely summarized explanation from a TimeZone post about tritium paint which is the same principle for these vials.

Tritium paint on watches is a mixture of tritium and phosphor. Tritium is naturally radio-active and needs no external source of light or charge to work. Tritium does not glow. As it decays, tritium emits beta radiation, which is a bunch of excited electrons that in turns excite the electron in the phosphor atoms making them emit photons, or light, as they return to their ground (non-excited) state: the phosphor GLOWS. Phosphor can also be excited by UV light from the sun or other light sources. Thus, the tritium paint relies on tritium radioactivity to make the phosphor glow in the dark, not any charge from external light source.

The price on these is 343 GBP if you live outside of the EU, or roughly about US$500. For that you get:

• Sellita SW200-1 automatic movement (unfortunately not a higher grade ETA but still manageable).
• 500 m water resistance
• Helium release valve
• PVD stainless case with screw-down crown, and black rubber strap
• Unidirectional ratcheting bezel
• 4.5 mm convex sapphire crystal
• well above average packaging for this price level watch
• CW’s normal (and great) 60 day / 60 month warranty

Although my favorite of these three is the yellow (it’s a wonderful golden yellow shade that reminds me of early 1970s Seiko sushi roll divers), I have to admit I like what CW did on the third model here, switching the color scheme and putting the accent color on the outside of the (large) hands for the black dialed version. Making it just the slight bit less subtle (okay, I admit it’s not an under the radar watch to begin with, but it’s not a Vianney Halter either) I find actually resonates with the PVD and bi-colored phosphor. And the green has that “in” retro vibe.



Thanks Christopher, another watch on my want list!