A new collection of watches takes inspiration from the founder’s history as a dressmaker.
The trappings of dressmaking — including thimbles, thread, scissors and measuring tapes — feature in a new 20-piece Couture O’Clock watch collection by Chanel, inspired by the house’s couture workshops on Rue Cambon in Paris.
Arnaud Chastaingt, director of Chanel’s Watchmaking Creation Studio, wrote in an email that he had chosen to focus on the “roots of the House” by reimagining the brand’s core watch designs, including the J12, the Première and the Boy.Friend.
The collection, available in Chanel boutiques in June, includes seven limited-edition versions of the J12, in varying combinations of steel, 18-karat gold, black and white ceramic and diamonds (starting at $7,000 for the 33 millimeter in white ceramic).
On three of these, the time is indicated by a pair of scissors and a sewing needle. Three others feature a cartoon depiction of Gabrielle “Coco” Chanel wearing a suit and pearls. The seventh has a plainer, diamond-set dial.
The J12 Couture Workshop Automaton watch (price on application) is powered by the Caliber 6, Chanel’s newest in-house caliber and the first automaton complication to be created at the brand’s watchmaking facility in La Chaux-de-Fonds, Switzerland. When the automaton is activated, the cartoon couturier appears to dance, scissors in hand, next to her dressmaking dummy.
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