With this watch, worn as a necklace and complemented by a pair of headphones, the Parisian maison reverses the ubiquitous “wireless” trend and reinvents the art of disconnection/reconnection.

A jackhammer piercing the sidewalk. A group of friends laughing out loud on a café terrace. A woman so engrossed in her animated telephone conversation that she forgets the rest of the passengers on the bus. In this urban jungle, submerged by its shattering noise and deafening fauna, the only way to keep your footing is to cling to your Première Sound in the hollow of your ears, to find, thanks to Chanel, inner peace through the gentleness of music. With this watch, worn as a necklace to which a pair of headphones is attached, the Parisian maison reinvents the art of disconnection/reconnection and provides a means of being literally connected to oneself, far from the “wireless” trend.

Faithful to the silhouette of the original Première, created in 1987 after the geometry of a N°5 bottle stopper, itself inspired by the design of Place Vendôme as seen from the sky, the watch features an octagonal steel case (26.1x20x7.65mm) clad in yellow gold, whose winding mechanism is punctuated by an onyx cabochon. It sits on a long chain to be wrapped around the neck, made of golden links and a black leather lace, modeled on the braided handles of a Chanel bag. Two studs are used to plug in the removable earphones stamped with the double C, while a standard jack plug, supplemented by an adapter if required, can be inserted into the phone or any audio device. Through the silicone ear-tips, the chosen melody spreads its benefits, and by manipulating the on-board remote control on the cable, it’s possible to skip to the next track, return to the previous one, adjust the volume, or take a call through the included microphone. While the high-quality sound insulation immerses the ears in sounds and voices, the small stick-shaped hour and minute hands scroll across the black-lacquered dial, stirred by a quartz movement.

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The highly exclusive Interstellar series awakens the stars by projecting the Parisian brand’s watch collections, including its famous sporty watch, into a “spatio-poetic” dimension.

The charm of the cosmos, the infinite lyricism of the stars and the sphere of science fiction are the inspiration behind the Interstellar capsule, a series of exclusive editions of watches imagined by Chanel and drawn from its emblematic collections, including the J12. Following the “spatio-poetic” symphony orchestrated by the Parisian house’s Studio de Création Horlogerie, the famous model designed in 2000 by then Artistic Director Jaques Helleu, sports a diaphanous gown like the lactescent glow of a star and light as a feather delicately carried through the air by the breeze. Its name says it all: J12 X-Ray Star.

Frosty as a winter’s morning, the sapphire crystal that shapes the 38mm-diameter case is accompanied by a few touches of white gold. The immobile bezel is covered with a precious band of 46 baguette-cut diamonds (approx. 5.46 carats), while the crown is adorned with a brilliant. On the dial’s transparent disk, also in sapphire, the hour-markers set with 12 baguette-cut diamonds draw a solar silhouette, radiating from the silvered central ring on which the minute track is engraved. They seem to open the doors to a mechanical universe of cogs and wheels.

The beauty of the caliber 3.1, a hand-wound movement manufactured by Chanel, shines through the face of this J12 X-Ray Star. Graphic lace, punctuated by machined sapphire elements, it brings to life the hours and minutes indicated by two rhodium-plated baton-style hands and delivers around 55 hours of power reserve. Like the case, the bracelet links also feature the same frosty spirit, with a cap lined with 138 baguette-cut diamonds (approx. 10.15 carats).

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Resulting from the marriage of symbols imagined by Gabrielle “Coco” Chanel in the last century, the watch that propelled the Parisian house into the world of watchmaking more than three decades ago returns to the forefront with its legendary silhouette.

In 1987, Jacques Helleu (1938-2007), Chanel‘s artistic director, propelled the Parisian house into the world of watchmaking with the creation of the Première watch, a graceful object that tells the time while embracing the signatures imagined by founder Gabrielle “Coco” Chanel (1883-1971). This refined timepiece features several elements borrowed from the brand’s aesthetic vocabulary: the octagonal silhouettes of the case and the beveled crystal that echo the shape of the bottle cap of the legendary N°5 perfume (created in 1921), the black lacquer of the dial that evokes the Coromandel screens that Coco loved, and the bracelet made of a chain intertwined with a black leather lace inspired by the famous 2.55 quilted bag (launched in 1955). 35 years after the arrival of this legendary model, Chanel revives it in 2022 by presenting its Première Édition Originale.

A carbon copy of its big sister, this delicate watch has a rectangular case (26.1x20mm for a thickness of 7.65mm), with “cut” angles, in steel coated with yellow gold. Made of the same material, the time setting crown is topped with a black onyx cabochon perfectly matching the dark brilliance of the dial. The essence of time is embodied by a duo of central gold baton hands topped by the Chanel inscription in a powdered silver hue. The Swiss inscription at 6 o’clock certifies the origin of the very precise quartz movement that drives the hours and minutes. The Première Édition Originale is fastened to the wrist with an elegant steel link bracelet in yellow gold with two black leather ribbons and a clasp.

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When two highly-distinctive colors, as contrasting as night and day, come face to face on the J12’s body, it’s not a question of fusion or of even thinking of making a choice: but more-so a tale of harmonious cohabitation.

20, an age where everything is possible, an age where life rolls out the red carpet for a future which looks promising. Chanel’s J12, created in 2000, is celebrating its 20^th anniversary this year, after having been redesigned – the famous “change everything without changing” – in 2019. The first versions of this young icon adorned black ceramic, the second ones featured white but, to celebrate this 2^nd decade, the watch asserts its distinctive character with the J12 Paradoxe, a savvy balance between two fundamentally-opposed colors which, nevertheless, the Parisian house unites with delicate harmony.

On the 38 mm-diameter ceramic and steel case equipped with a two-tone fixed bezel, a straight-line boundary has been traced. Literally. The entire right-hand side of this immaculate piece – lugs, flank, bezel and dial included – conjures ups a pitch-black night, like the hidden side of a face, the dark and discreet part of the J12. The hour chapter displays black-coated applique-style Arabic numerals, except for the 3 which offers a contrast like a moon in a night-time sky. The black baton-style hour and minute hands and the arrow-tipped direct-drive, encircled by a railway-style minute tracker, taper off with white luminescent striations. The black date on white backdrop, between 4 and 5 o’clock, is hardly noticeable.

The basic time features are driven by the 12.1 caliber, a COSC-chronometer-certified manufacture-made automatic movement set at the standard frequency of 4 Hz. This mechanical movement offers a power reserve of 70 hours.

The J12 Paradoxe is worn on a bracelet fashioned with three rows of white-ceramic links attached by a steel folding clasp.

Price not indicated

By Sharmila Bertin

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With its simple name – a capital letter coupled with a number – the J12 has symbolised the modern sports-style watch since its launch in 2000. The ceramic model is made for both men and women and has taken on a new lease of life with a redesigned shape and a new automatic mechanism.

There is nothing harder for a designer than to work on an existing piece, and the task becomes even more perilous when it is an icon like the J12, first launched in 2000 in a black version, then released in white three years later. And yet, Arnaud Chastaingt, the director at Chanel’s watch design studio, has risen to the challenge with panache, since the aesthetic changes made to the new J12 are very discreet. Discreet, but wonderfully apt. You just need to place the two watches side by side to notice the differences.

Elegance is not something flashy or tawdry. It is subtle and harmonious, while imposing its own character, just like the J12, with its remodelled ceramic case, feeling so soft against the skin. With an androgynous diameter of 38mm, the monobloc body is topped with a rotating steel bezel featuring fewer notches. The typeface for the figures (now made of ceramic) on the hour rim is also different, and there are new hour and minute hands, coated in white or black Super-LumiNova®, while the second hand is slimmer. The date is still at 4.30. The strap has seen a few changes, too, and now has more rounded and longer links.

And with a new body comes a new heart: the J12 is now powered by the calibre 12.1, an automatic movement developed by Kenissi, a new manufacturer in the Chanel stable. This sparkling mechanism features a distinctive, open-work rotor providing an impressive power reserve of 70 hours.

The J12 is available in a Phantom version, where the time elements blend in with the white or black ceramics, and a version with indices set with 12 diamonds.

Price: 5,300 EUR (classic version) – 5,500 EUR (“Phantom“ version) – 6,500 EUR (version with diamond indices)

By Sharmila Bertin

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