The Chanel J12 watch changes everything, without changing anything
The J12 watch is born of a desire.
When Jacques Helleu, artistic director of the House, decides to create a watch, he draws it for him. He traces his first shots of pencils by imagining it timeless, sporty, all black. He is inspired by two worlds he loves more than anything, the automobile and sailing. He loves the sleek lines of racing cars and, above all, the nobility of the silhouettes of the America's Cup sailing boats. They are called J12. The watch will be called as well. In the year 2000, the J12 revolutionized the world of watchmaking. In her black ceramic dress, she is crowned first watch icon of the 21st century.
First black in 2000, then white in 2003, it is unalterable, almost as eternal as a diamond. And renew forever the look of the female wrist.
The J12 watch is J12
Twenty years after its creation, Arnaud Chastaingt, Director of the CHANEL Watchmaking Creation Studio, offers the J12 a makeover without touching the identity that made its myth and its success.
To increase the opening of the dial, the bezel has been refined, the number of its gouges increased from 30 to 40. The typography of its figures and index redrawn. The width of the crown has been reduced by a third and its ceramic cabochon styling slightly flattened.
Hour-level indicators have been added to the inner railway, which has also been redesigned.
To fully anchor the J12 in the house codes, the AUTOMATIC and SWISS MADE mentions are now stamped in CHANEL typography, the SWISS MADE being integrated on the flange.
The original typography of the figures has also been redesigned by the Studio de Création to optimize and refine it. Applied on the dial, they are now ceramic. Needles, too, have been revised and corrected. Hours and minutes now have equivalent widths with a dimensional adjustment of the black Super-LumiNova luminescent areas on the black J12, making it the exact negative of the white J12.
The thickness of the box has been gently increased but the silhouette of the J12 remains fluid. Thanks to a softened profile, a little rounded, the case does not appear thicker than before.
The bottom drench and the design of the new bracelet, re-structured subtly with longer links, accentuate this illusion of optics and finesse.
The new J12 now has a one-piece ceramic case, set with a sapphire crystal to admire the new caliber 12.1, automatic movement designed and developed exclusively for CHANEL by the new Swiss Manufacture KENISSI. Made of tungsten to allow its opening while maintaining an effective reassembly power, the oscillating weight was thought by the Creation Studio of CHANEL who wanted a perfect circle, one of the graphic signatures of Haute Horlogerie CHANEL. Caliber 12.1, chronometer certified by the COSC (Swiss Official Chronometer Testing Institute), offers a power reserve of approximately 70 hours.
Because the J12 can only be itself, it had to evolve. Without changing.
The J12 watch remains J12
