Chanel's watchmaking follows a clearly defined path from the Watchmaking Creation Studio in Paris, surprising each year with creations that break free from the shackles of traditional watchmaking.
The creative territory of Chanel is a blank canvas where designers can express themselves freely by combining the many skills the Maison masters, as Arnaud Chastaingt, director of the Maison's Watchmaking Creation studio, explained.
A graduate in art and design from the Strate School of Design in Paris, he has been at the helm of Chanel watchmaking since May 2013, after ten years at Cartier. His projects include the Boy-Friend, Code Coco and Monsieur collections, as well as the new versions of the J12 and Première lines. Every year, Chastaingt offers his vision of watchmaking through capsule collections that combine modernity and traditional craftsmanship, offering a very personal interpretation of the watch object.
On the technical side, since his arrival at Chanel, he has developed five in-house calibres, produced in his own manufacture in Switzerland: Calibre 1 of the Monsieur watch in 2016, Calibre 2 of the Première Camélia Skeleton in 2017, Calibre 3 of the Boy-Friend Skeleton in 2018, Calibre 3.1 of the J12 X-Ray in 2020 and Calibre 5 of the J12 Tourbillon Diamond in 2022. Qhis year it is the turn of Chanel's first manual mechanical movement with an automaton: a gem belonging to the 2024 capsule collection, Couture O'Clock, which is entirely dedicated to Gabrielle Chanel couturière and the tailoring tools that could be found in her atelier in Rue Cambon, Paris. In which stylistic and technical aspects work in unison.
Chanel's traditional capsule collection explores the link between haute couture and haute horlogerie
For Chanel, watchmaking is just one of the many savoirs-faire it can use in all the territories it explores.
"There is a strong connection between haute couture and haute horlogerie at Chanel. Chanel has a very personal definition of haute horlogerie, which goes beyond the mere creation of movements. It is an area of creation where I can draw on multiple skills, such as that of jewellers, embroiderers and glove makers', stated Chastaingt.
The J12 Couture Workshop Automaton Caliber 6 was a special project Arnaud Chastaingt: 'The process of creating a new calibre, like the Caliber 6 with an automaton, requires years of work and collaboration with our Swiss manufacture. The J12 Couture Workshop Automaton is the perfect expression of this balance between excellence and contemporary approach, and it was a project I dreamt about for a long time. Between the first sketches and the final creation, five years passed'.
The first movement with automaton designed and assembled in the Chanel manufacture in La Chaux-de-Fonds
The Chanel Haute Couture atelier comes to life, along with Mademoiselle Coco, the scissors she holds and the test dummy.
An amusing but mechanically refined animation reproduces the silhouette of Mademoiselle with scissors in hand and the dressmaker's mannequin of her Parisian atelier, which come alive on the dial of the iconic J12. The 355 components of the movement animate the scene by simply pressing a dedicated pusher located at 8 o'clock on the case middle. The 38 mm case and bracelet of the J12 Couture Workshop Automaton Caliber 6 are in matt black ceramic.
The back with glass 18-carat white gold sapphire bezel is marked 'Limited to 100', as many as there are pieces available. The black-coated steel bezel is set with 48 baguette-cut diamonds; A brilliant-cut diamond embellishes the crown instead.
Price250 000 euro.
