The millionaire soccer star — who apparently plays for a top London club — was short of the required cash for a big night out in the city.

So to gain the money quickly he used an online pawnbroker to gain the cash using his very expensive diamond-encrusted Breitling Crosswind timepiece. The online pawnbroker’s staff who regularly pawn watches said they were surprised when they were contacted by the player.

The player apparently admitted he was short of cash due to a financially heavier than normal month. Paul Aitken, boss of online pawn brokers www.borro.com, said “We were amazed when we received the call as this gentleman is a well-known player for a top club and it is well known he earns thousands of pounds every week.”

Mr Aitken refused to actually name the player but said the footballer was among a long-line of well known people who have been utilised the pawn service to gain cash on their items such as Rolex watches, Breitling and Tag Heuer watches.

I currently have a Tag Heuer and was thinking about getting another, probably one of the ‘Link’ series. However, this is basically going to be a ‘day watch’ so it seemed silly spending that sort of money.

Doing some investigation work I was told about the British Watchmaker, ‘Christopher Ward‘. I’d not heard of him before, but he makes some really nice watches. Borrowing heavily from his website, he says:

Christopher Ward of London is the English watchmaker with the simple aim of wanting to make luxury watches available to everyone.

The watches use high quality Swiss movements and some of the watch designs are simply stunning, with some really elegant, quality looking timepieces. I was tempted by a few of them, but finally plumped for a C4 Peregrine Chronograph with a black face and silver bracelet. It’s not dissimilar to my Citizen Skyhawk (spares anyone?!) but has a lovely weight and feel about it. Its certainly an equal to my Tag, but for much, much less money. It’s doesn’t have the badge prestige of course, but when you’re saving up to a £1000, things like that don’t matter! Looking on their forum, loads of owners seem to own more than one Christopher Ward watch, and now I’m an owner myself, it’s not hard to see why – this could become addictive!

This article was originally published on the ‘Nearly Home Time’ blog in 2007 and has been permanently moved here with permission of the author.

The W6 Kingfisher Splash has a much bolder and brighter design than the mens version, and comes in a total of seven colours with matching silicon rubber straps. The red one shown here is one of the boldest, but there is also purple, blue, orange, pink and green to choose from, or if you want something a littler subtler, a clean white version for the iPod generation.

The Kingfisher Splash features a Swiss quartz movement and all come with a colour co-ordinated mother of pearl dial with day and date display behind the crystal with anti-reflective coating. The uni-directional bezel and screw in crown are chunky enought to be easily used, but not so big as to spoil the overall looks. The serious diving credentials that this watch has are underline by the water resistance to 300m (30 Atmospheres) and the 316L marine grade stanless steel case. The back of the watch even has a ‘No Decompression Limit’ table on the back!

The W6 Kingfisher Splash is a really good looking watch that manages to be serious yet fun looking at the same time. In fact despie being aimed at women, we think that men could also easily wear some of the colour variations of this watch.

The watch price of the watch is £175 but some colour variations such as the orange and green have been available for as low as £90, but these have sold out quite quickly.

Whether you are an occassional swimmer, and enhusiastic snorkler, or a serious scuba diver, the Christopher Ward C6 Kingfisher Diver-Pro is a watch that will suit your requirements. With a 4.5mm Sapphire crystal the Diver-Pro is a serious piece of precision engineering and has been built to withstand a pressure of 30 atmospheres, or 1000 feet – it even has a ‘No Decompression Limit’ table engraved on the back of the watch.

The watch itself is Swiss made with a five Jewel Ronda quartz movement and the face itself is clear with highly luminescent indices, bezel marker and hands so that the time can be read even in the darkest underwater situations. The watch face is a sensible size at 42mm in diamater and is available in blue, orange, yellow, black and white and each colour features a day indicator. The bezel is a two piece uni-directional affair with a screw-in crown and back plate. As well as the colour options, the C6 Kingfisher Diver-Pro is available with either an adjustable steel bracelet or silicon rubber strap both with a butterfly clasp for ease of opening. The overall weight is 140g.

The Christopher Ward C6 Kingfisher Diver-Pro is actually quite a rare thing these days – not only it is a stylish divers style watch, but it also has the genuine credentials to be actually used as a such, and with prices at around £150 to £180 you won’t mind using it and wearing it all the time.

The watch itself is a large chunky watch befitting its price tag, but serious and expensive looking at the same time. Water resistant up to 200 metres, the watch is desgined to be used. The non reflective crystal protects the face which has multiple dials for the world time and chronograph features, and two LCD screens for the date and time zone settings. To the side there is a single crown that pulls out to help set the watch and control the functions in conjunction with the two push buttons either side. The bracelet perfectly matches the watch and features a foldover clasp with two hidden release buttons.

Designed for pilots and other world travellers, the Citizen Skyhawk range has a choice of 43 time zones as well as a rotating slide rule bezel. For the rest of us, the more useful day to day features include two alarms, a 1/100 second chronograph and a 99 minute countdown timer and perpetual calendar. Some of the models also include the ‘AT’ (Atomic Time) radio controlled time setting function for consistent and accurate time wherever you are in the world.

Being an Eco-drive watch it is powered by light so does not need winding or a battery, and unless you keep the watch hidden away in a dark place for long periods of time you should not ever see an interruption in normal service. This is one of the reasons that the Citizen Skyhawk range of watches remain so popular – they are designed for everyday use, and they positively relish it.

Christopher Ward are currently offering a massive 50% off selected Diamond Watches until the 18th January 2009. If you buy the beautifully elegant L’Ovale Diamond then you will save nearly £400! Opt for the more modest Divine Carre Diamond shown here and you will still save £210.

With plenty of occassions coming up such as St Valentine’s Day, Mother’s Day and Father’s Day, now is a very good time to buy a Christopher Ward Diamond watch before the prices increase.

Take the Oris TT3 Grand Prix Limited Edition for example, normally retailing for £870 this automatic, titanium cased watch is now only £435, which is a fantastic deal for such a well built watch.

There is no date on when this promotion will end, but if you see a watch you like, and with savings like these, make sure you don’t leave it too long!

To use the code, visit the website, add your chosen items to your basket and proceed to the checkout. You will need to enter the code on the ‘confirm order’ screen as you place your order. The discount will be taken off before you pay.

Voucher Code: OCT10
Discount: 10% Off The C4 Peregrine Chronograph and the W7 Rapide Chronograph
Valid From: 07/10/09
Expires: 31/10/09

The Yachtimer range also features a selection of chronographs retailing at prices from £325 to £375, with a stainless steel version of this non-chronograph watch retailing at £425. But at £162 this leather strap version of the watch represents fantastic value for money for a Nautica Swiss Movement watch. The deal is currently due to run out at the end of June but these will be very popular so will probably sell out before this time.

That equates to a rather nice saving of up tp £95 on the C15 Henley Automatic and a fairly hefty discount of £55 on the rather lovely Rose Gold Malvern and a massive £75 on one of our favourites, the Rose Gold C1 Russell.

This promotion will finish at the end of May so if you’re looking to get ahead of the game and get an early gift for Fathers Day in June, or even a treat for yourself, make sure you take advantage soon!