There was once a time when watches were items of necessity. Anyone and everyone who wanted to conveniently keep track of the unyielding flow of time would need a watch, be it in the pocket or on the wrist. Therefore, with the watch as a tool, people didn’t quite pay too much attention as to how it was made, so as long as the timekeeper was precise and, more importantly, reliable. This basically explains how the quartz era and its more efficient timekeepers nearly decimated the mechanical watch industry, but that is a story for another time. In the current era of watchmaking, however, a timepiece is no longer simply just a tool for keeping track of time (this job has been relegated to the smartphone) but rather a luxury purchase, an item that speaks to emotional appeals instead of practical ones.
This is why the modern watch enthusiast pays far more attention to every detail of a watch. It is no longer just about precision and reliability. The provenance of a brand, its ethos and even its manufacturing processes all play a role in converting a customer when it comes to serious watches. Due to this shift, storied fashion brands, when diversifying their portfolio into the watchmaking market, decided the best way to capture the hearts and minds of watch enthusiasts was to subtly steer their watches away from trendy elements to instead highlight more “watchmaking” inspired collections.
Chanel for example, is a house that since 1910 has been intrinsically linked with the fashion industry, first as a designer of hats and a few years later as a house of couture. And yet, the first “serious” watch it made, the iconic J12, was inspired and named after a class of racing yachts, and even built with ceramic, a material that was considered futuristic when it was launched in 2000.
This year however, Chanel has decided not to beat around the bush and based an entire capsule collection around the maison’s signature element of couture, which it has whimsically named Couture O’clock. And just to put it into perspective, the brand presented this collection to the world at Watches & Wonders Geneva in April. In an exhibition hall surrounded by displays of mechanical and technical prowess, there stood Chanel’s booth designed as the runway of a fashion show, complete with the lights, glitz and glamour that come with it.
Perhaps after building up its watchmaking facilities in La Chaux-de-Fonds; setting up the Watch Creation Studio; buying stakes in both independent stars F.P. Journe and Romain Gauthier; investing in Swiss movement manufacturer, Kenissi; and most recently acquiring 25 percent of the independent watch brand MB&F, headed by Max Busser, Chanel finally feels that it has enough watchmaking gumption to celebrate its couture heritage whilst still keeping their status as a serious player in the industry intact.
On Being Fashionable
True enough, although Chanel’s 2024 Couture O’Clock is based on couture elements, there is no shortage of both technical and historical watchmaking provenance incorporated into this new collection. The pièce de resistance is undoubtedly the Musical Clock Couture Workshop. This fantastic piece of craftsmanship combines horology savoir faire with gem-setting, and a tuned musical mechanism, put together by a large team of highly skilled artisans.
The inspiration for this unique piece was the lively atmosphere in Chanel’s rue Cambon atelier. Hence, a series of five couture busts stand tall on the surface of the base while hanging overhead is a miniature chandelier set with diamond droplets. When activated, these busts dance to the rhythm of “My Woman” by Al Bowlly, a melody that Mademoiselle Coco Chanel reportedly loved to hum while working.
Aside from its whimsical nature, the Musical Clock Couture Workshop has a functional side to it in the form of a clock. The indication of time is cleverly hidden in plain sight through a tape measure at the base. And to wind the timekeeping mechanism, Chanel provides a beautiful key, mounted on a long gold chain necklace dotted with diamonds.
Also scattered throughout this capsule collection is a series of beautiful couture-inspired jewellery that cleverly hides timekeeping devices. These so-called secret watches also played a huge role in watchmaking history, with origins that date back to the early 19th century. Where the pocket watch was a standard accessory for men, women’s fashion at the time rarely incorporated pockets. Thus, timekeeping devices were built into female accessories like bracelets, necklaces, brooches, and chatelaines to accommodate this. And the reason that these clocks are often hidden, is that it was considered rude for women to check the time in a social setting and so by cleverly hiding the clock, women could still do so without risking their social standing.
For the couture capsule collection, there are clocks hidden in pincushion rings, bust necklaces, bobbin cuffs and the like. First and foremost, these are created as jewellery so you can expect a decent amount of precious stones on them, or for the case of the Bobbin Cuff Couture, a massive 17.51ct (approx.) emerald-cut, yellow sapphire contrasting against rows of 1,244 brilliant cut diamonds.
All In A Day’s Work
This brings us then, to the watch in focus in this story, the J12 Couture Workshop Automaton Calibre 6. Even though the theme for the year may be quite fun in nature, in terms of Chanel’s horological know- how, it has made serious leaps forward with the introduction of this particular model and its in-house Calibre 6 movement. The Calibre 6 represents a brand-new movement for Chanel and represents the brand’s very first automaton complication. Just as a comparison as to how much more complex an automaton complication is, the new Calibre 6 registers 355 components which is more than twice the number of components on the retrograde minutes and jumping hours, Monsieur Superleggera or the Calibre 5 movement which is equipped with a tourbillon.
Read More: World of Watches Malaysia Autumn 2024 is Out Now! With Chanel’s latest Automaton on the Cover
It was an obvious choice to debut the new movement on a J12 seeing as how this collection, since its debut in 2000 has become something of an icon not just within the ranks of Chanel’s normal clientele, but in the wider watch industry as well. The J12, as it was created more than two decades ago, proudly embodied a forward-thinking spirit and the J12 Couture Workshop Automaton Calibre 6 was built with the same ethos.
If based purely on aesthetics alone, the watch looks like just another fun addition to the Couture O’Clock collection with its cartoonish rendition of Chanel’s founder and, really, the muse for the entire collection – Gabrielle “Coco” Chanel. However, the moment the Automaton is engaged, it becomes clear just how special this watch is. The additional components within the Calibre 6 all go towards animating Mademoiselle. Her head, torso and legs all swivel independently of each other, while her arm flails around as she grasps her pair of scissors. Opposite her, even the bust moves up and down.
To complement such a special movement, the watch was also created, for the first time with a matte finish on the ceramic bracelet. This may seem like not that big a deal considering stainless steel offers a variety of polished, matte, brushed, and even engraved surfaces with ease, but in reality, ceramic was, in essence, conceived for watchmaking to be an unscratchable alternative to steel. It is this intense level of hardness that makes working with this material incredibly difficult. To celebrate Chanel’s watchmakers even more, they managed not only to give the links a matte finish but also, the bevels of the links were polished so that there was an interplay between matte and glossy black.
Adding to the finesse of the timepiece, Chanel also decided to give the traditional J12 bezel a touch of sparkle. Well, we say a touch, but really it is 48 baguette-cut diamonds, with a combined weight of approximately 3.34ct. To set these stones into the watch, however, the bezel had to be crafted out of stainless steel, a material which is malleable enough to hold the stones in place. In the same vein, the crown is also made of steel as it holds a singular brilliant-cut diamond of 0.15ct. Unfortunately, or should we say fortunately for the collectors that manage to procure one of these watches, the J12 Couture Workshop Automaton Calibre 6 is limited to only 100 pieces worldwide, making it as collectable as it is quirky.
Behind The Runway
At this point in the article, one might be wondering how a house so synonymous with couture and of course, the Chanel No. 5 perfume, has the watchmaking talent to create something like the Calibre 6. The short answer to this question lies in the heavy investments the brand has made in its watchmaking division over the years. For the long answer, one has to look further to La Chaux-de-Fonds where, since the launch of the very first Première in 1987, every Chanel watch has been made. As the watchmaking industry evolved, so did Chanel’s watch manufacture and by 2015, it was finally ready to claim the coveted title of having fully realised in-house movements with the Calibre 1.
As a testament to how masculine-skewed the watch industry can sometimes be, Chanel, a brand so loved by female clientele worldwide, launched its first in-house calibre in the Monsieur de Chanel. This was the brand’s first men’s timepiece. Of course, the calibre still exists today, powering the Monsieur Superleggera Intense Black Edition and comes with the same two complications: the jumping hour and retrograde minutes hand.
Since 2015, Chanel has continuously upped its game in terms of movements. It released the Calibre 2 for the Première case and the Calibre 3 for the Boy.Friend collection, both of which were designed to be skeletonised movements. The big jump for Chanel however, arguably came in 2022 when it made one of the most sought-after technical features in enthusiasts’ circles, the tourbillon. Today, the Calibre 5 can be seen in a brand-new interpretation of the original J12 Diamond Tourbillon, available in both white and black ceramic.
Read More: Chanel Dazzles with the J12 Calibre 12.1
Through each iteration of its in-house calibres, Chanel has grown in terms of its watchmaking savoir-faire, which is how it can make such a complex automaton in the form of the Calibre 6 movement without having to rely on outside assistance. Perhaps what also makes Chanel’s watches unique is that even though their manufacture is based within the watchmaking cradle of Switzerland, the creative brain is located nearly 500km away at Place Vendôme in Paris where Arnaud Chastaingt heads the Watch Creation Studio.
As much as they have achieved in the last decade or so, Chanel is still demonstrating year upon year its commitment to serious watchmaking. Yeah, having complicated in-house movements is all well and good but its recent moves are more telling in terms of dedication to bringing serious watchmaking to the entire line of timepieces. A case in point is the firm’s stake in the movement manufacture Kenissi. The first mention of Kenissi was in 2019 when Chanel launched the J12 with the Calibre 12.1 movement. This marked a significant step for the J12 collection to transition from its status as a fashion icon into a market where the more technical points of watchmaking are valued equally to aesthetics.
Kenissi gets its provenance from Tudor, the sister company to Rolex, by producing its manufacture movements. In 2016, Kenissi would be formally set up as a manufacture and start offering its services to other brands, beginning with Breitling. Today, Kenissi still makes Tudor’s movements along with movements for household names such as TAG Heuer, Bell & Ross, Norqain and of course Chanel. In 2019, Chanel bought a 20 percent stake in Kenissi and in the same breath announced investment into F.P. Journe. This effectively acts as a signal that the brand is serious about its place in the horology food chain as it were.
Through this partnership with Kenissi, not only was Chanel able to place a manufacture movement, both precise and reliable, within the J12 collection but in 2022 it even announced the Calibre 12.2, which is a smaller-sized mechanical movement made by the same people. This smaller version of the Calibre 12.1 fit into their 33mm J12 models which before were powered by a quartz calibre. If 38mm is nowadays considered a unisex model, 33mm would undoubtedly fit only women. And yet, Chanel decided it was time to have a manufacture movement for this size as well.
With all that has been said, yes Chanel is still a brand with its roots and clientele deeply entrenched in the world of fashion. However, despite the fun and couture-inspired aesthetics that the 2024 collection offers, knowing the amount of technical prowess that runs just beneath its surface, can you still call Chanel’s timepieces, fashion watches?
This article first appeared on WOW Malaysia’s Autumn Issue #67
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