Chanel

Chanel entered the world of watchmaking much later than the great Geneva houses, but with a debt to its own founder, Gabrielle "Coco" Chanel, who as early as the 1930s wore wristwatches with ease at a time when they were almost exclusively a male domain. It was only in 1987, however, that the house introduced its first true watch, the Première: a late launch but a calculated one, arriving when Chanel was already an absolute name in fashion and perfumery, and could afford to enter watchmaking carrying an already very strong aesthetic language instead of chasing the industry's conventions.

The most important turning point came in 1993, when the house acquired the G&F Châtelain manufacture in La Chaux-de-Fonds, in the heart of the Swiss Jura arc, turning it into its own watchmaking production base. From then on Chanel built an increasingly autonomous Watches and Fine Jewelry division, able not only to design but also to produce and innovate: the most significant moment in this journey remains the launch of the J12 in 1999, the first luxury watch made entirely from high-tech ceramic, which redefined what a fashion brand could bring to watchmaking in terms of materials and research.

In the 2000s and 2010s Chanel consolidated its watchmaking credibility with investments in high watchmaking (tourbillons, in-house manufacture movements) and with a stake in Kenissi, the movement maker with which it shares some calibers with other brands in the Audemars Piguet group. Today Chanel's watch catalogue moves on two tracks: on one side collections with a strong fashion and identity character such as Première, Boy·Friend and Mademoiselle Privé, and on the other the J12, now recognized by enthusiasts as a genuine contemporary classic independent of its status as simply "a fashion brand's watch".