Style Edit: Chanel’s new watches celebrate Gabrielle Chanel’s artistry – the Couture O’Clock collection includes the Musical Clock Couture Workshop, J12 White Star Couture and more
- Chanel’s stand at Watches and Wonders 2024 went big on couture elements to echo those in the timepieces and jewellery
- Arnaud Chastaingt, director of Chanel’s Watchmaking Creation Studio, wanted to ‘open the doors to the rue Cambon studios’ with the collection
Her connection to fashion as both couture designer and seamstress, her 1930s atelier and apartment at 31 rue Cambon are brought to life in this remarkable, utterly distinctive piece. Five ornately decorated miniature couture busts perform a dance to the tune of My Woman by Al Bowlly, one of Mademoiselle Chanel’s personal favourites.
Above them dangles a chandelier with diamonds in place of crystals, while beneath is a marquetry plinth made from 245 pieces of onyx, inspired by her upholstered sofa. The time is displayed on a rotating tape measure, indicated by a fixed pairing of a baguette-cut diamond and a pearl.
As you’d expect, making such an extraordinary object relies on combining a formidable range of creative and artisanal skills. The musical movement is based around a genuine miniature keyboard, played by the rotation of a cylinder, into which a collection of tiny pins have been painstakingly drilled. These pins lift the keys of the keyboard causing a note to be played.
Meanwhile, another movement inside the Musical Clock Couture Workshop controls the busts, made from aluminium ceramic, and cut and fitted by hand, rotating above the onyx plinth, likewise hand-laid.
There are some equally head-turning pieces among the other new watches in the Couture O’Clock collection. The glamorous J12 White Star Couture, limited to just 12 pieces, shows off more than 200 baguette-cut diamonds, as well as having baguette-cut ceramics covering its case and bracelet, surrounding a baguette pattern ceramic dial.
