Hands-On With The New CWC 6BB-WR Chronograph

Cabot Watch Company (CWC) has a strong and loyal following, including among some of the writers here at Fratello. The British-based brand is known for its military-issued timepieces. Today, we take a closer look at the new CWC 6BB-WR Chronograph.

For a small and relatively young brand, CWC has quite a lot of history. It was founded in the 1970s by Ray Mellor, who had been the representative for Hamilton in the United Kingdom until the brand shuttered its business there. Undeterred, Mellor decided to establish a company of his own and maintain the military contracts that Hamilton once had with the British Ministry of Defence (MoD) for rugged, hardy watches. In addition to military contracts, CWC also provided watches to civilian organizations. These included the BBC. At least one CWC Chronograph is still in active use by a well-known BBC Foreign Correspondent.

Image: Jonathan Hughes (CWC Addict)

The founding of CWC 

The explorer John Cabot inspired Mr. Mellor to call his brand the Cabot Watch Company, but it quickly became known simply as CWC. Today, under the helm of the military surplus supplier Silvermans, CWC is still a no-nonsense British brand focused on tool watches, just as it has been since its founding in the early 1970s. As I have said when writing about CWC before, something about its design ethos reminds me of the golden epoch of 20th-century mechanical watchmaking.

Today, we’re looking at a watch from CWC’s chronograph family. You see, CWC specializes in dive watches, field watches, and aviation watches, with chronographs mostly sitting in the third category. Specifically, we’re looking at the new CWC 6BB-WR chronograph. The 6BB-WR is an updated rendition of CWC’s classic pilot’s chronographs of the 1970s, which had relatively long production runs. This period covered the RAF deployment in the Falklands War.

Watches with military heritage 

I have reviewed a few CWC watches for Fratello already. These include the W10 Navigator, which is a handsome field watch, and the Royal Navy Spec Auto Diver MK2, one of my recommendations in an imaginary €25,000 shopping list. I’ve always been somewhat impressed by how honest and true to the original brief these CWC watches are. This new chronograph is no different.

According to CWC Addict, this watch’s vintage counterparts had a production run of almost a decade from 1973 to 1982. These were asymmetrical chronographs that clearly followed the design brief specified by the British MoD and first used by Hamilton in its version introduced a few years earlier in 1970. You can see an example of that original watch here.

Image: @robsterling007

The original CWC Chronograph

The CWC versions from that era utilized a 39mm case with a Valjoux 7733 caliber inside. The watches came with 20mm fixed bars and a Plexiglass crystal. According to CWC Addict, around 3,700 of these chronographs were produced over those nine years. They served in the RAF, including during the Falklands War. Now, regardless of your views on Argentine claims to the Falklands, that conflict was a very intense, albeit brief, war.

For those unfamiliar with the conflict, in 1982, the United Kingdom and Argentina went to war following the latter’s invasion of the Falkland Islands and Argentine claims that they formed part of the country’s territory. The conflict, like all wars, was brutal. In footage that you can still find online, you can see strafing runs as well as aerial dogfights between the RAF and the Argentine Air Force.

The new CWC 6BB-WR

CWC’s new take on the original chronograph is a beefed-up version that is significantly larger and more rugged. The brand already sells a chronograph for the heritage purists. This new watch is designed to bridge the gap between honoring the past and looking forward. The handsome broad arrow on the watch dial, sitting above the luminous 6, is a reference to the original watches being the property of the Ministry of Defence.

The watch features a larger 42mm case (43.50mm if you include the crown). Just like the original, this stainless steel case comes with fixed strap bars. It also maintains a 20mm lug spacing, meaning there will be no shortage of NATO straps to choose from. For this review, I used a 20mm Bonetto Cinturini rubber NATO from Holben’s Watch Bands in the United States. The reason I went with a rubber NATO is that I like to test these watches beneath as well as above the waves. This one performed admirably.

Updated specs and a modern movement

On the CWC 6BB-WR, sapphire glass replaces the original Plexi. The watch is equipped with a screw-down crown and a screw-in case back, helping provide generous water resistance to 10 ATM (100 meters). This means the CWC 6BB-WR is good to go swimming as long as you don’t mess around with the chronograph pushers underwater. The dial features the pre-1982 CWC logo, which aficionados of the brand will love. It’s a simple logo and follows the “less is more” design brief. Luminescent material covers the 12 and 6 numerals entirely, while the remainder of the dial is only luminescent at medium-sized plots for each hour. This design is effective and straightforward.

Inside beats an automatic Sellita SW510 BH b. This modern movement has between 58 to 63 hours of power reserve when fully wound. It also comes with a Nivaflex mainspring and beats at 28,800 vibrations per hour. This is a thoroughly capable movement known for its reliability. CWC says the caliber is regulated but not to what specification. My review unit was keeping time within COSC’s chronometer range (+6/-4 seconds per day) over my few weeks with the watch.

What is it like to wear? 

The wearing experience is quite enjoyable. The 42mm case does wear large due to the 14.9mm thickness and 80g weight. But it simply feels substantial, not oversized. The 49mm lug-to-lug helps in this regard. For those who would like a different dial color, CWC also offers a white-dial version. However, I much prefer the black.

Also, for those of you perhaps turned off by the slightly larger dimensions, CWC has you covered. The brand offers a very genuine reissue with a smaller 40mm case and Valjoux 7733 movement. However, it sits in a higher price bracket and does not have the same level of water resistance. I found that the crown of the 6BB-WR is nicely proportioned and doesn’t dig into the wrist while wearing the watch. Also, the blue circles on the crown and pushers are protective stickers applied to this new review unit, and they’re supposed to come off.

Further impressions of the CWC 6BB-WR Chronograph

Operating the screw-down crown and the chronograph pushers provides a high degree of confidence. This feels like a premium, well-built watch that can withstand a lot. The chronograph operation is crisp. The closest thing that I can recall is something like a Longines BigEye or my recent time with the Hanhart 417 ES. These watches featured different chronograph movements, but both felt similar in quality (in a good way).

The price of the CWC 6BB-WR chronograph is £1,875, which, as of today, equals about €2,230 (excluding taxes). The €2K–3K price bracket is hotly contested. The biggest competitor, though, is probably Hamilton’s take on its version of the original, the Hamilton Khaki Pilot Pioneer Mechanical Chronograph. The Hamilton has a smaller 40mm case, a hand-wound caliber, and the same level of water resistance. But I must say I feel like this CWC is very competitively priced for several reasons. The first is the genuine military heritage of the design, and the second is the cool factor of buying a watch from an “IYKYK” brand. Third, by buying the CWC, you get to support one of the little guys, which appeals to my tendency to root for the underdog.

Closing thoughts 

I have been impressed with the CWC 6BB-WR Chronograph. It has handled my ocean adventures very well, and it represents a modern take on a handsome military watch. CWC has done a great job of honoring the past while providing us potential customers with thoroughly modern specifications. Bravo, CWC. As you might guess, I would go for this over the Hamilton version because it feels “fresher”; there isn’t an overdose of faux patina here. In a sense, the lack of faux patina, to me, feels a bit more honest from a design-brief perspective, but you may feel differently.

Nevertheless, the design is slightly too large for my tastes, which have always erred on the smaller side. For reference, I find that the Tudor Black Bay 58 is on the larger end of what I like to wear every day. But that doesn’t mean the CWC is objectively too large, and if you’re someone with an appetite for a 42mm chronograph with military heritage, I think this watch has you covered. But what do you think, Fratelli? Does the new CWC 6BB-WR pique your interest? Let me know in the comments.