Disclaimer: this video/review was not sponsored by Christopher Ward or any other entity.

Video

Review

If you also follow me on Instagram, you’ve probably heard me drone on about how this is the perfect Bel Canto for me ever since I got it a little under two months ago… but that is exactly how I feel about this watch. I fell in love with the original Bel Canto and was lucky enough to own one of the early releases right after launch; I wasn’t doing detailed reviews back then, but I do have a video of it with some footage I’m proud of, and I even got to put it next to a friend’s MB&F Legacy Machine 101, which was a fun video to create.

The Bel Canto is probably the most important Christopher Ward watch so far, and one of the most pivotal watch releases of the last decade or two, in my opinion. Somewhere along the way I parted ways with that original Bel Canto, as I often do to chase the next shiny new thing, and I’ve regretted it ever since: I kept telling myself I had to add a Bel Canto back into my collection, but picking the right one became surprisingly difficult with all the limited editions, bespoke runs, and Classic options out there.

If you’ve followed my channel for a while, you’ll know sapphire dials, ceramic lume, titanium, and great value are all things I really appreciate, so when I got news of this release I had to own one immediately. This is the Bel Canto Lumière, based on the Classic style, and it’s offered on the White Aquaflex Lume rubber strap ($4,840), the Bader bracelet ($5,205), or the Consort bracelet ($5,290); I couldn’t decide, so I grabbed all three and I’ll try to include footage on each, and while it isn’t a limited edition it does appear to be standard production with pre-order delivery showing end of February 2026 at the time of writing.

Let’s check it out!

Case

I measured the case at 41.2mm in diameter, 47mm lug-to-lug, and 13.4mm thick overall, with a 22mm lug width, and it all feels very familiar if you’ve spent time with the original Bel Canto. It’s made entirely of Grade 5 titanium, and while this is the Classic variant, the mid-case and case-back are nearly identical to the first Bel Canto, with the big visual shift coming from the tall boxed sapphire and a slightly refined bezel profile.

That crystal is generously treated with anti-reflective coating, and with roughly 4mm of height and those boxed sides, it gives you a clear, almost display-like view into the architectural dial inside. You get a signed 6.05mm push-pull crown at 2 o’clock, plus a button at 4 o’clock that activates or deactivates the hourly chime.

The case also makes smart use of polished accents and bevels, with stepped transitions and a nicely tapering crystal that keep it visually engaging and make it look slimmer than the raw dimensions suggest. It’s a closed case-back with 30m of water resistance, and while I still see people complain about that, I think it’s more than fair here given this really isn’t a sports watch.

Dial

The overall layout here is identical to the other Bel Cantos, so I won’t dwell on every component unless it’s unique to this version, but the core theme is still the same: beautifully executed, architectural elements built around that hourly chime.

Those components have crisp, hand-polished bevels (executed now by APJ Sarl), and if I’m honest the quality control on my Lumière seems a touch nicer than the original Bel Canto I owned… which was already kind of absurd for the money.

What really changes the whole vibe is the base layer or platine, done in a blue-ish teal with painted white line segments radiating out from the sub-dial at 12 o’clock, and those segments are lumed with green around the sub-dial and blue across the rest of the dial. Then you’ve got the smoked sapphire sub-dial itself, completely free of markings or numerals, framed by a thick ring of ceramic-infused Globolight XP lume in a dial-matching teal that glows green.

It’s a two-hander, with lume blocks on the hands that match the rest of the dial perfectly, and I really can’t overstate how impressive the whole thing is… even if I totally get why this color, this design, and this entire concept might be too much for most people. But I’m not most people, and this is ridiculous in the most impressive way possible.

Lume

Even if you weren’t impressed by this dial in its passive daytime persona, it’s hard not to be impressed by how it looks when the lights go off, and the Lumière monicker carried over from the C60 Trident Lumière sets this up with very high expectations… expectations that it certainly met and also surpassed. While people have complained about legibility on the original Bel Canto because of its small sub-dial, this watch is nothing but legible both during the day and especially at night.

And while some may criticize the lack of minute or seconds gradations, being a fan of minimalist watches like those from MING has made me comfortable reading time on watches like this, so legibility isn’t an issue for me at all.

Like the Trident, the large ceramic-infused lumed elements here are made by Xenoprint, and they’re exceptionally potent with terrific brightness and longevity. The line markings on the dial are applied more traditionally and don’t have much mass, so they fade out sooner, but that’s entirely okay… this lume is here to make a statement, and it does that perfectly.

I compared it against other watches in my collection, including my other Christopher Ward pieces (which happen to be the best-lumed watches I own), and the Bel Canto still performs exceptionally well, surpassing most of my watches that have more lume and more surface area, and it should satisfy even the pickiest lume enthusiasts.

Movement

At the heart of this watch is Christopher Ward’s Calibre FS01, which pairs a pretty standard Sellita SW200 base with their proprietary chiming module, and that module traces its roots back to Johannes Jahnke’s JJ01 jumping-hour module. In other words, the “clever bit” here isn’t the base calibre (which I’ll be honest isn’t my favorite), it’s what Christopher Ward has built on top of it to create that hourly sonnerie au passage chime.

What I love is how much of the mechanism is presented on the dial side… those architectural components and bridges make you feel like you’re taking part in the complication, because you can actually see the system armed and ready to do its thing. The interaction helps too: you can deactivate the chime when you want, but when it’s on, that little hourly ritual becomes the whole point of wearing the watch. And despite the humble base, the end result feels elevated and genuinely high-end in a way that’s hard to convey until you’ve lived with it for a while. And while I don’t have the original Bel Canto to compare with, I’m certain that this one is now a lot louder than that watch, and it looks like Christopher Ward have refined the tone of their chime slightly too.

On The Wrist

On wrist, the 41.2mm diameter and 47mm lug-to-lug make it fit comfortably on my 6.75″ wrist, and while those proportions might sound a bit large if you’re thinking “classic dress watch,” this really isn’t that. It’s more of an avant-garde statement piece, so the slightly bigger footprint feels justified in the same way an MB&F LM101 is perfect exactly as it is.

The 13.4mm thickness also wears much slimmer than it sounds, and between the titanium case and titanium bracelets it kind of disappears once it’s on. Sized for my wrist, I measured 51g for the head alone, plus 36g on the Consort bracelet or 49g on the Bader bracelet, which helps explain why it wears so effortlessly.

The Bader is probably the safest and most muted option, with a familiar design and an excellent adjustable clasp, but if you’re feeling a bit adventurous I’d recommend the Consort: its design and execution are genuinely excellent, with beautifully polished bevels on the inner links, a soft fabric-like feel, and a much slimmer butterfly clasp that somehow still has on-the-fly micro-extension and a fantastic twin-trigger release system built into the links without adding height.

If you’re feeling even more adventurous, the lumed FKM rubber strap is an impressive and striking choice and puts on a terrific show in the dark, and even though the bracelets and strap hardware are Grade 2 titanium, I don’t really notice any awkward discontinuity in hue against the Grade 5 case. Overall, Christopher Ward’s bracelets are some of the best you’ll find in this price range, and the Consort in particular has really impressed me… it may be one of the best butterfly clasps I’ve handled, with extremely clever design and solid execution.

Wrapping Up

The Bel Canto Lumière feels like the version of this concept that was made specifically for my tastes… titanium, sapphire, ceramic lume, and that unapologetically architectural dial that makes the hourly chime feel like something you’re actively participating in rather than just observing. It isn’t subtle, and I completely understand why the color, the lume theatrics, and the minimalist time display might be too much for some people, but for me that’s the whole point. After living with it for the past month, it’s a watch that still feels special every time I put it on, and it’s also the watch that finally scratched the “I need a Bel Canto back in my collection” itch in the best way possible.