Sunday Morning Showdown: Christopher Ward C60 Trident Lumière Vs. TAG Heuer Aquaracer Professional 200 Solargraph
It’s that time of the week again, and we are back with a heated Sunday Morning Showdown. This time, Daan and Jorg will battle it out in a clash of lightweight titanium divers that they would love to wear this summer. Daan picked the TAG Heuer Aquaracer Professional 200 Solargraph. Its solar-powered quartz caliber makes it a great worry-free option. Jorg picked the Christopher Ward C60 Trident Lumière, which stands out thanks to its solid Globolight hour markers. It combines sheer fun with over-the-top lume performance, making it a different but equally great pick for the season. Let’s find out which watch will win!
When we asked Daan and Jorg to pick this week’s contestants, Daan mentioned that TAG Heuer had almost silently added a new blue Aquaracer Solargraph that he likes to its lineup. Having experienced the brilliance of TAG Heuer’s lightweight titanium diver with the Aquaracer Solargraph × Time+Tide “Sundowner,” we can confirm that a solar-powered diver makes total sense for a worry-free summer. At €3,200, the latest blue-dial version is Daan’s summer pick. Jorg fairly quickly chose the Christopher Ward C60 Trident Lumière. Just like the Aquaracer, it’s made of Grade 2 titanium. But while it “lacks” the worry-free quartz movement, it does bring the joy of a spectacular dial. The Super-LumiNova-infused ceramic markers made him smile countless times when he was wearing the watch for his hands-on review. At €2,625, this Trident is slightly cheaper than Daan’s pick. Will its price and design give it the edge? We’ll see!
Previously, on Sunday Morning Showdown…
Before we dive into this week’s battle, let’s quickly recap last week’s Sunday Morning Showdown. The results were close, but the Tudor Black Bay 54 “Lagoon Blue” took the win. It earned 54% of the votes, leaving the Breitling SuperOcean Heritage B31 Automatic 40 Kelly Slater Edition with 46%. We could see the same split in the comments section. It was a lively discussion with strong opinions on both watches. Let’s find out if you all are just as passionate about this week’s picks. Over to Daan and Jorg!
Jorg: Christopher Ward C60 Trident Lumière
When Daan mentioned his pick, I completely understood what he was going for. If you want a worry-free, lightweight daily wearer for the long summer days, the Aquaracer is a great pick. I had the pleasure of wearing the aforementioned Aquaracer Solargraph × Time+Tide “Sundowner” and liked it quite a bit. To be honest, it even took me by surprise. My first reaction was a shrug of the shoulders, but I was impressed once I saw the great job the TAG Heuer designers and the guys at Time+Tide did. That feeling was amplified once I put the watch on my wrist. It was an absolute joy to wear. Therefore, the new ice-blue version on a titanium bracelet is a clever pick as a summer watch.
Coming up with my pick didn’t take long, though. When I began looking for a lightweight titanium diver for around €3,000, I was quickly reminded of the Christopher Ward C60 Trident Lumière. It garnered much attention when it debuted in August 2024. One look at the spectacular dial will show you why.
But there is so much more to the watch than its spectacular dial with the Globolight markers. It was the first titanium diver for the English brand as well. Combining the awesome lume and lightweight construction makes this C60 Trident Lumière an absolute joy to wear.
The specs of the C60 Trident Lumière
This watch features a Grade 2 titanium case with a 41mm diameter, a 10.85mm thickness, and a 47.9mm lug-to-lug. It also has a 300m depth rating and features a helium escape valve on the left side of the case for saturation diving.
Topping the case, you’ll find a titanium bezel containing a ceramic insert with luminescent markers. The textured gradient dial works well in blue. This is my favorite of the four available colors (blue, black, orange, and yellow).
The blue dial feels vibrant, and the solid Globolight hour markers make it an interesting and fun composition. Globolight is also used for the hands and the logo on the upper half of the dial. The 3D effect of using ceramic infused with Super-LumiNova is rather stunning. It will have you gawking at the watch during the darker hours, but the 3D effect is equally spectacular during the day.
A serious dive watch that is a ton of fun
Inside the case, you get a COSC-certified Sellita SW300-1 movement. This caliber operates at 28,800vph, offering 54 hours of power reserve and chronometer-level accuracy of -4/+6 seconds per day. It’s a great movement for this capable diver and a step up from the SW200-1 that powers the regular C60 Trident Pro. It shows that the brand went to great lengths to raise the standard with the Lumière.
And it doesn’t end there. The full-titanium Bader bracelet is expertly made and features single-head screws for easy sizing. It measures 22mm wide at the end links and tapers to 15.5mm wide at the folding clasp, making it quite comfortable. But the clasp also offers toolless micro-adjustment so that you can size the watch slightly differently on long, warm summer days when you need a bit of extra room for an ideal fit.
So, is everything about this watch brilliant? Well, no, because I was disappointed to see that the end links are slightly longer than the lugs. I had a tough time understanding this visual detail at first. Having said that, it didn’t get in the way of having a ton of fun while wearing the C60 Trident Lumière.
Wearing the Christopher Ward C60 Trident Lumière
In the end, fun is what matters during summer days. I want a watch that I love wearing every day — one that shines when I want it to, does a fantastic job in the water, and goes unnoticed in moments when I don’t want a heavy and potentially sweaty nuisance. The Trident Lumière does all of that perfectly.
In its essence, the Lumière is a hardcore diver, but the elements that make it an outstanding dive watch also make it fun to wear. If you see how the dial lights up like a Christmas tree every time, you will be in awe. The low weight and slender profile make it a joy on the wrist as well.
Lastly, the solid set of specs means this watch is almost as worry-free as the Aquaracer. But add the pure fun factor, and it makes the Christopher Ward C60 Trident Lumière the winner for me in today’s battle. But let the Fratelli know why you think your choice is better, Daan.
Daan: TAG Heuer Aquaracer Professional 200 Solargraph
Damn, Jorg, when you chose the Trident Lumière, I immediately knew I was going to have a tough job today. Of course, I still think the all-new ice blue Aquaracer is a winner, especially for the upcoming summer months. But I remember that when we had the Trident Lumière in the office, I thought to myself, “This is a watch I would happily own.” The Globolight markers and hands are beautiful sculptures, the matte dial is acceptable even with the fumé effect, and the matte bezel insert is phenomenal. Like every Christopher Ward watch, it offers so much value for your money.
But, again, as with almost every Christopher Ward watch, there’s something off for me. You already mentioned the protruding end links, which are a bit awkward, especially on my smaller wrist. But the biggest issue, in my eyes, is the two triangles on the dial. The one at 12 is typical of a dive watch, but it somehow stands out too much among the other stick markers. Then, there’s the hour hand, which is almost one big, elongated triangle. I don’t know exactly why, but it looks weird next to the straight minute hand. Finally, the trident counterweight on the seconds hand and the CW logo always bother me a bit, but I could get over those quirks.
The ice-blue “Summergraph”
I was already a fan of the black TAG Heuer Aquaracer Professional 200 Solargraph. I think a casual, lightweight, and solar-powered diver makes perfect sense. Maybe it doesn’t need to be your primary watch, but it’s especially good for days when you just want to sling something on and don’t want to think too much about it. In particular, I think this is a great watch for the summer. TAG Heuer should’ve called it the Summergraph! Its titanium case never gets in the way, and even if you lay it aside for a few days or even months (a maximum of 10 without light), you won’t have to worry about resetting it.
As mentioned, the black version was already a good-looking diver, but the new ice-blue dial turns it into the perfect summer piece. What I also like about this version is that you get to see the multilayered dial construction a bit better. There’s just something magical about turning sun rays into energy to power a watch, and I like that the technology behind it is visible like that. It’s almost like having a display case back on a mechanical watch.
A pricey option
Aren’t there any negatives? Well, yes, there are. I like the Aquaracer’s dodecagonal bezel, but it does look a bit awkward when it isn’t centered. Another thing is the 21mm lug spacing. That’s just there to annoy all of us out here with a collection full of 20mm straps. However, the things that bother me the most about the TAG Heuer Aquaracer Professional 200 Solargraph are its elevated price and the features it doesn’t offer for the money.
This titanium watch costs €3,200. That’s completely in line with the rest of the Aquaracer collection. It’s less expensive than its mechanical counterparts and costs a bit more than the stainless steel variants. However, when you start searching for a solar-powered diver, it’s hard to find any competitors at that price point. That’s also exactly the reason we put it up against the mechanical Trident.
The thing is, though, I’d be happy to pay that price if the feature set offered were on par with it. Unfortunately, it isn’t. The Solargraph’s clasp doesn’t allow for toolless micro-adjustment. That’s simply unacceptable to me. But what also bothers me is that it doesn’t have a perpetual calendar. This means you still have to reset the date every other month. That’s annoying on such a worry-free watch, to say the least.
Despite these annoyances, I still think the new TAG Heuer Aquaracer Professional 200 Solargraph in ice blue is an absolute beauty of a summer watch. It’s lightweight and almost carefree, and the new light blue dial with polar-blue accents will make you and everyone around you smile.
Get ready to vote!
There you have it — another Sunday Morning Showdown. Now it’s time to vote! Have you already made up your mind between the Christopher Ward C60 Trident Lumière and the TAG Heuer Aquaracer Professional 200 Solargraph? Will you go for a bang-for-buck automatic option, or will you choose the nearly carefree solar-powered one? Cast your vote below, and let us know why you voted the way you did down in the comments. We’ll catch you next week for another installment of Sunday Morning Showdown!
