The Chanel booth at this April’s Watches And Wonders fair in Geneva took a dark turn, quite literally. While many of its neighbours opted for airy, sumptuous interiors with harmonious paletes, Chanel opted to kill the lights, which only amped up the mystery of the treasures it had displayed within. At the centre of the cavernous, otherworldly abyss sat a ghostly blue disc of light of ceiling height; gazing upon it was like being hypnotised by the unfathomable lens of the sentient computer HAL 9000, the main antagonist of 2001: A Space Odyssey. Except the cerulean orb was not leading you to your demise, but instead focusing your attention on the colour that defines Chanel’s watch novelties this year, and perfectly captures the aesthetic philosophy of Chanel: simple, elegant wearability.
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Twenty-five years after the launch of the J12 collection, and through successive debuts of J12 watches in black ceramic and white ceramic, Chanel has finally introduced the J12 Bleu series, defined by a colour wholly new to the J12 family: a shade exclusive to the maison that Arnaud Chastaingt, Director of the Chanel Watchmaking Creation Studio, described as “a blue that is nearly black or a black that is nearly blue”. A magnificent first for the J12 collection, this matte blue ceramic now forms the foundation for nine limited-edition J12 novelties — among them five high-horology timepieces — with a number of them decorated with blue sapphires.
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It may seem remarkable that a colour this muted would make such a big splash, but on closer examination, the excitement is completely justified. The J12 collection made its debut in 2000 in black ceramic, and the first references in white ceramic followed in 2003, and previous releases of J12 were almost entirely monochromatic, with a few exceptions, such as the black-ceramic J12 Calibre 3125 of 2008 with its yellow-gold accents and the J12 Chromatic in 2011. An early (and possibly even the first) appearance of blue in the J12 collection was in the ceramic bezel of the Marine edition, released in 2010 to mark the collection’s 10th anniversary. But through the decades, J12 timepieces, while wonderfully imaginative, have remained overwhelmingly black and white: as a bicolour fusion, such as the J12 Paradoxe of 2020, with a clean section of its white-ceramic case looking as if it had been dipped in a pot of ink; or as matching pairs, such as the Mademoiselle J12 La Pausa unique duo created for the 2023 edition of the Only Watch charity auction. Chanel brought this concept to the next level with its 2023 Interstellar capsule collection, as exemplified by the J12 Eclipse box set (composed of seven watches vertically split between graduated compositions of white ceramic and black ceramic, going from all-white to all-black), the J12 Spatiotemporal pair (one watch is three-quarters black ceramic and one-quarter white ceramic, and the other is the inverse), and the J12 Cybernetic (a black-ceramic watch appears to be partially obscured by large white-ceramic pixels.)
“…a blue that is nearly black or a black that is nearly blue.”
— Arnaud Chastaingt, Director of the Chanel Watchmaking Creation Studio
Having proven its infinite creativity using only black and white, for the maison to venture into a new colour after 25 years of monochrome is an extraordinary step for the artistic evolution of its watch division. While black and white undoubtedly make up the backbone of the maison, colours have always been present in the Chanel universe, according to Chastaingt. Deep blue, in particular, has popped up in the house’s fashion and cosmetics pillars, and even on boxes housing its jewellery from the Bijoux de Diamants collection of 1932, as well as serving as the inspiration for the Bleu de Chanel fragrance line (whose moody campaign, lensed by Martin Scorsese, was lately fronted by the maison’s fragrance ambassador and actor of the moment, Timothée Chalamet).
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To dream in colour
Located in the twilight zone between dark Prussian and black, this newly developed shade is not immediately obviously one or the other, but it could be perceived as either depending on the strength and incidence angle of ambient light, the surrounding environment and textures, and more. (If Schrödinger’s cat were a colour, it would be this one.) “I dreamt of giving a colour to black, of illuminating it with blue. The final choice of this particular blue was like an epiphany,” Chastaignt said about his quest for a blue with “a rigorous elegance.”
The director of the Chanel Watchmaking Creation Studio reportedly took inspiration from sources closely associated with Gabrielle Chanel herself, from her midnight-blue Rolls Royce to a gown by her presented in the 2020 exhibition Gabrielle Chanel: Fashion Manifesto in the Palais Galliera, and even the Jean Cocteau ballet Le Train Bleu for which she designed the costumes. Without sharing any visual references or Pantone colour codes, he gave the Chanel Watch Manufacture free rein — and, crucially, no deadline — to research and materialise the blue ceramic of his dreams. Five years and at least 24 iterations later, that has finally become a reality: a ceramic that maintains all the superlative qualities of its predecessors, in a shade that is neither too red nor too yellow, but just right.
Though brands such as Omega (with the Seamaster Cermet from the late 1970s), IWC Schaffhausen (with the Da Vinci reference 3755 from 1986), Rado (with the DiaStar from the 1960s, and the Ceramica in 1990) were among the earliest adopters of ceramic in watches, when Chanel entered the game with the J12 collection in 2000, that move provided a significant boost to the perceived preciousness and desirability of ceramic watches. With this J12 Bleu cohort of novelties, Chanel is reinforcing the connection between its J12 collection and ceramic, and for good reason. Besides being lightweight, with a sleek wrist-feel that brings an enticing chill on first wear, the material offers a host of technical advantages: it is seven times stronger than steel and yet noticeably lighter, hard and durable, resistant to scratches and to high temperatures (its melting point is roughly 2,000 degrees Celsius), antimagnetic, non-oxidising and thus corrosion- and rust-proof (hence it does not develop a patina), hypoallergenic and colour-fast, boasting presence without heft, and beauty without decline.
The process of transformation
From production to assembly, the new matte blue ceramic J12 Bleu timepieces are entirely crafted by the Chanel Watch Manufacture at La Chaux-de-Fonds in Switzerland; in particular, the in-house creation of ceramic is undertaken by G&F Châtelain, the nearly 80-year-old manufacturer of watch cases, bracelets and clasps that Chanel acquired in 1993. The challenging, exacting process of producing high-tech ceramic begins with zirconium oxide, with the mineral powder combined with pigments and adhesive binding agents, and the resulting raw material is subjected to heat and pressure to create the initial molded shape.
After debinding, which removes the binding agents by submerging the molds in a fluid bath and dissolving the binding agents, the molds are sent for sintering, or fusing in a kiln at extremely high temperatures, typically around 1,400 degrees Celsius for zirconium oxide-based ceramics. During this stage, the mold shrinks in size, and the extent of that must be meticulously calculated and accounted for. After the ceramic pieces cool, experts refine each element’s surfaces and shape through precise mechanical processes, before polishing and smoothing.
Achieving a matte finish demands additional steps in the manufacturing process, such as sandblasting. Ceramic watch parts and their movements also undergo testing for shocks, both direct impact and indirect G forces, as well as for tolerance of environmental changes, temperature extremes and swings, magnetic fields, vibrations, compression, twisting forces, water resistance and more.
The results of such demanding precision can be seen in one of the most outstanding J12 Bleu novelties this year. Limited to 55 pieces, the J12 Bleu Diamond Tourbillon is exceptional in spite of (or perhaps because of?) its subtlety: Built from highly resistant matte blue ceramic, the watch features 34 baguette-cut blue sapphires on the bezel, totalling approximately 4 carats; an openworked dark blue dial; and Chanel Manufacture’s Calibre 5 manual-winding movement with flying tourbillon, which is highlighted by a 65-facet solitaire diamond in the centre of the flying tourbillon cage, an exclusive cut conceived to maximise the gemstone’s brilliance.
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Chanel’s first in-house flying tourbillon movement, the Calibre 5 was developed over three years by the haute horlogerie workshop within Chanel Watch Manufacture, and is made up of 172 components. Measuring 28.40mm in diameter and 6.25mm in thickness, the movement beats at a frequency of 4Hz (28,800 vibrations), and provides a variable-inertia balance wheel, shock protection system, and power reserve of 42 hours.
On the aesthetics front, the watch’s fixed bezel and 38mm case are partially crafted from steel with black coating, which is the same material that forms the triple-folding buckle. The sides of the case and bracelet bevels undergo polishing by hand for eight hours, to amplify the interplay between contrasting textures. And Chanel’s in-house gem-setting expertise is on full display via the blue natural sapphires of a vivid, uniform shade that the Chanel Watch Manufacture and Creation Studio determined in collaboration. All these minute details come together to make up a timepiece that is the epitome of juxtaposition: between dynamic blue and muted blue, between plush velveteen and smooth silk, between the sombre and the scintillating.
The J12 Bleu Diamond Tourbillon is far from the only highlight of the series. In the footsteps of the clear, colourless J12 X-Ray launched in 2020 (and the subsequent J12 X-Ray red edition and pink edition) comes the J12 Bleu X-Ray, also in blue, but fashioned from sapphire crystal instead of matte ceramic, with a lighter shade of blue chosen to evoke the sea and sky on a clear day.
Limited to 12 pieces, this watch is composed of individual elements hewn from a single block of synthetic sapphire, taking 1,600 hours to craft and sculpt the case and bracelet alone. An astounding 196 baguette-cut blue sapphires can be found on the bezel, as hour markers, and along the length of the bracelet down the centre. Its fixed bezel, hands, and non-screw-down crown feature black-coated white gold, and the same material found in parts of the case and bracelet. Inside the 38mm case beats the Calibre 3.1 manufacture manual-winding skeleton movement, with the plate, timer bridge and gear-train bridge made from colourless sapphire crystal to give the appearance that the movement is floating in a vacuum.
The J12 Bleu series also includes two watches imagined and presented as a pair. Both are limited to 12 pieces, and made of matte blue ceramic, with varnished dials decorated with hour markers of blue sapphires, and bezels, non-screw-down crowns, and parts of their cases made of blackened steel. The J12 Bleu 42mm Sapphires features 170 baguette-cut sapphires, and runs on the Calibre 12.1 manufacture self-winding movement with black coating and a date window between 4 and 5 o’clock, whereas the J12 Bleu 28mm Sapphires bears 196 baguette-cut sapphires and is powered by a high-precision quartz movement.
The rest of the series is made up of the J12 Bleu 38mm Sapphires, limited to 100 pieces, powered by the Calibre 12.1 self- winding manufacture movement and decorated with 58 baguette- cut blue sapphires on the bezel and dial, and a quartet of limited- edition J12 Bleu in 33mm or 38mm, with Calibre 12.1 or Calibre 12.2, with or without blue sapphire or diamond hour markers.
With the J12 Bleu, the cosmos of the Chanel J12 watch collection has just gained a few new stars. Whether the introduction of matte blue ceramic is a hint at the permeation of this hypnotic shade across the maison’s timepiece collections or more new ceramic colours to come from the Chanel Watch Manufacture (or both — we will not take sides), the results will be undeniably and unmistakably true to the ethos of Chanel.
This story was first seen as part of the WOW #78 Vision 2025 Issue cover story
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