Watches and Wonders Edit: Chanel’s Couture O’Clock and Pink Edition timepieces wow with design elements and technical features, under the direction of Arnaud Chastaingt

• Chanel’s Watchmaking Creation Studio director dropped the Couture O’Clock capsule collection, featuring the J12 Couture Workshop Automaton Calibre 6 with its jauntily moving Coco Chanel figure
• The J12 X-Ray Pink Edition timepiece features 93 pink sapphires totalling some 8.28 carats – Chastaingt says that at Chanel, the colour pink has ‘its own individual character and authority’

Watches and Wonders 2024 concluded in Geneva in mid-April, with more than 50 of the world’s top horology brands coming together to present the first new releases of the year. For Arnaud Chastaingt, director of Chanel’s Watchmaking Creation Studio, this meant – among other releases – dropping the aesthetically arresting Couture O’Clock haute horlogerie and horlogerie capsule collection.

Chanel J12 White Star

Inspired by Gabrielle “Coco” Chanel’s Rue Cambon atelier and the tools of her seamstresses – including thimbles, scissors and safety pins – the collection’s jewel watches marry bold design elements with refined details and technical sophistication.

The limited edition J12 Couture Workshop Automaton Calibre 6 has a dial animated by a cartoon Coco Chanel brandishing a pair of scissors next to her couture mannequin. The bezel is enhanced by 48 baguette-cut diamonds, while the crown is set with a brilliant-cut diamond, the stones totalling around 3.34 carats.

Do you have questions about the biggest topics and trends from around the world? Get the answers with SCMP Knowledge, our new platform of curated content with explainers, FAQs, analyses and infographics brought to you by our award-winning team.

Paris Fashion Week, wrapped: Chanel, LV – and a ‘secret’ Saint Laurent show

The timepiece is equipped with the Calibre 6, a Chanel Manufacture manual-winding mechanical movement with automaton function. The movement – whose 355 components include 54 rubies – is responsible for the jaunty movements of Mademoiselle Chanel, activated at the touch of a button.

Chanel’s limited edition J12 Couture Workshop Automaton Calibre 6

Separately, the maison has launched special editions of its J12 and Boyfriend watches in variations of pink, complemented by Chanel’s signature beige gold. Numbered and limited to just 12 pieces, the J12 X-Ray Pink Edition is all about pink sapphires and 18k beige gold.

The story behind Chanel’s short film starring Brad Pitt and Penelope Cruz

The bezel is set with 46 baguette-cut pink sapphires, the dial is enhanced by 12 baguette-cut pink sapphires, the crown features a brilliant-cut pink sapphire, while two beige gold links within the pink sapphire crystal bracelet are set with 34 baguette-cut pink sapphires. Altogether, the watch’s pink sapphires number 93 and total around 8.28 carats. The Chanel Manufacture manual-winding mechanical movement, Calibre 3.1, has a timer bridge, plate and gear-train bridge in crystal sapphire.

Chanel J12 X-Ray Pink Edition

Discussing the Couture O’Clock collection, Chastaingt said ahead of Watches and Wonders, “I have chosen to focus on the roots of the house of Chanel – in other words, on couture, the original profession of Gabrielle Chanel.

“With Couture O’Clock, I wanted to open the doors to the Rue Cambon studios – a unique time and space governed by the rhythm of fashion collections,” he added. “””I wanted to plunge into the intensely focused atmosphere … the patience and painstaking care demanded by haute couture.”

The J12 X-Ray Pink Edition timepiece features 93 pink sapphires totalling some 8.28 carats

As for the automaton Calibre 6 – the new in-house movement that goes into the J12 Couture Workshop watch – Chastaingt described it as “a true technical tour de force put at the service of watchmaking performance”. The animated Mademoiselle Chanel and the details of the scene are something special as well. “Among bolts of tweed and camellia-print fabric, ribbons and spools of thread, the figure of Mademoiselle dances, dressed in her legendary suit and holding a pair of scissors. Beside her, a couture dummy wearing a jacket rises and falls on its tripod.”

Very superstitious: fashion’s long love affair with lucky charms – from Coco to Dior

Turning to the four Pink Edition timepieces, Chastaingt explained, “At Chanel, pink is a colour in its own right – far removed from any childish or kawaii connotations – with its own individual character and authority, expressed in a multitude of shades.”

The watches range in hue from the palest pink to raspberry – and when it comes to the J12 X-Ray, Chastaingt said, “I chose to equip it with a bracelet and case in powder-pink sapphire, and to accentuate this by setting the bezel and hour markers with baguette-cut pink sapphires.”

More Articles from SCMP

Chinese President Xi Jinping arrives in Paris with EU trade, Ukraine among hot button issues on table

Write a fun caption for these floating humpback whales

Long-overdue third plenum to set tone for China’s development

Singapore Sevens: double joy for Kiwis, who lay down Olympic marker, as Argentina win first world series title

This article originally appeared on the South China Morning Post (www.scmp.com), the leading news media reporting on China and Asia.

Copyright (c) 2024. South China Morning Post Publishers Ltd. All rights reserved.