Chanel
Gabrielle “Coco” Chanel, born in 1883, opened her first boutique in Deauville in 1912 and set a milestone in the fashion world a year later with her sports collection made of jersey fabric for women. The headquarters today are located in Neuilly sur Sein in Paris. To this day, from young to old, the term Chanel is known from fashion, jewelry, cosmetics, perfumes to the world of watches. Coco Chanel put a new face on women's fashion of the time, with flowing fabrics, wide trousers and knee-length skirts, far away from tight corsages and bodices. The great sensation of the new cuts faded and was considered old women's fashion; it was not until 1983, with Karl Lagerfeld as artistic director, that Chanel blossomed into a new form again.
The first Chanel watch is created
In 1987, Chanel ventured into new territory and created the first Chanel watch, the Première watch. The closure shape of the bottle No. served as inspiration. 5 and Place Vendome. Three years later, the Mademoiselle watch was released, featuring advertising icon Claudia Schiffer. The watch's bracelet consisted of 5 strands of pearls. After a long break from making watches, Chanel acquired the G&F Chatelain watch manufacturer in Switzerland in 1993. The first jewelry boutique that also sold watches opened at 18 Place Vendome in Paris in 1997. Just in time for the turn of the century, Chanel's latest creation, the J12, was released. Sporty, dynamic, in the typical Chanel black and previously unseen in scratch-resistant ceramic. The counterpart to the black J12 came to the wrist in 2003, the white ceramic J12. In the same year, Chanel takes part in the world jewelry and watch fair Baselworld in Basel. Things will be quiet around Chanel watches for a long time until the men's watch Monsieur arrives in 2016. The special thing about this watch is that it is equipped with the first in-house Haute Horlogerie caliber 1 movement. The Code Coco watch was launched in 2017. In 2019, Chanel joined the Swiss watch manufacturer Kenissi and became a partner. The automatic watch J12 with a case diameter of 38 mm is equipped with the caliber 12.1 from Kenissi. As part of this achievement, Chanel launches the advertising campaign “It's all about Seconds” with Keira Knightley. In the same year, the J12 white ceramic was awarded the Grand Prix Horlogerie de Geneve prize in the women's watch category.
Technical innovation
The 12.1 caliber is no longer only used in the J12 diameter 38 mm, but is increasingly found in the new J12 models. These also received a small update and were visually and technically changed. We remain excited to see what sophisticated and unique watch designs the creative minds at Chanel will come up with for us in the future.
