Chanel’s 30 years of watchmaking
Last year, Chanel presented its first in-house movement, with instant jumping hour and retrograde, as well as Monsieur de Chanel — its first watch designed specifically for men.
The milestone comes on the verge of the 30th anniversary of the French watchmaking brand, to be celebrated by a new timepiece to be unveiled at the end of the year.
Over three decades, a series of Premiere and J12 watches have established Chanel’s place in the world of haute horology.
In 1987, Premiere was the first-ever women’s watch made by a luxury fashion house. It wasn’t a reworking of a men’s timepiece, and had a uniquely feminine design and an octagonal case that made it stand out against the round watches of that era.
The shape was inspired by the geometric proportions of the Place Vendome in Paris, and the N°5 perfume bottle stopper. Without numerals or markers, the minimalist dial had only the hour and minute hands circling its face.
The space, however, has partly made way for a flying tourbillion and fully revealed a skeleton movement in Premiere reinventions.
Highly-complicated movements are showcased in the J12 family of watches such as the J12 Mysterious Retrograde.
Named after a category of racing yacht, the round and sporty J12 debuted in 2000, housed in a black high-tech ceramic case with lightweight, scratch-resistant and durable properties.
The black colour was embodied in the breakthrough material, not in surface treatment. Chanel later offered watches in white high-tech ceramic. J12’s black-and-white variations carry the brand’s DNA in Gabrielle Chanel’s use of her favourite colours.
The fashion house’s androgynous style inspired Boy. Friend models launched in 2015. The couturier’s use of tweed is reflected in a reinterpretation of the women’s timepiece, whose bracelet is woven from steel thread — a technically demanding task that captures the richness of the fabric on the metal.