When it comes to Chanel’s watchmaking high notes, we often find ourselves in a quandary. There is always a brilliant capsule collection, which we covered last year, but it disappears almost as soon as it appears. This year, for example, the theme is Couture O’Clock (because of course), and it is excellent. The standard bearer here was a magnificent Musical Clock Couture Workshop, which is a unique piece and was sold before Watches and Wonders Geneva; the owner allowed Chanel to continue to display it during the show but consequently, operating it and such was all but impossible. Not that it would matter to most of us in the press since the clock is not in the public eye anymore. Therein lies the difficulty for us – bringing you news that you might be able to act on.

With that in mind, we decided to zoom in on the one watch from WWG that is more in-line with our Summer vibes (sporty watches basically) and reflective of the precious metal narrative thread running through this issue. As luck would have it, Chanel happens to have something in the form of the J12 Calibre 12.1 watch, now with a yellow gold bezel set with diamonds. It was introduced last year, without the flash, but we did not get to it then; happily we can resolve that omission now. One thing to note here is that the proper name for this model, in its 38mm guise, is J12 Calibre 12.1. The 33mm models are known simply as the J12.

The J12 Calibre 12.1 tells you (almost) everything you need to know about it just by its name. The watch features the COSC-certified manufacture automatic Calibre 12.1, which was developed and built by Kenissi, a joint venture with Tudor. The watch is part of the J12 collection, which makes it the sports elegance offering from Chanel (note that the water-resistance here is 50m because the crown is not of the screw-down sort, which is an aesthetic decision). The watch is perhaps more famous for its 200m water-resistance, which it gets (partially) from a screw-down crown, but for the fancier versions (as we have this year) things are a little more delicate.

Last year, Chanel introduced a simple gold bezel and you might also recall a version with baguette diamonds. This year, Chanel has gone with yellow gold bezels with brilliant-cut diamonds in both white and black ceramic cases. If you are familiar with some of the gem-set options in the J12 range, the hour markers are in same sort of diamonds as the bezel (round brilliant-cut). There are 12 of these, for a total of 0.09 carats, and 50 on the bezel (1.51 carats).

Movement: Automatic calibre J12.1; 70-hour power reserve (approximately)
Case: 38mm in ceramic with gem-set gold bezel; 50m
Strap: Bracelet
Price: NA

This story was first seen on WOW’s Summer 2024 Issue.

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