As Chanel marks 25 years of the J12, design extraordinaire Arnaud Chastaingt reflects on authorship and articulation through the lens of a couturier
Arnaud Chastaingt does not wear a watch. It is a detail that startles at first, especially coming from the director of Chanel’s watch creation studio, whose career hinges on sketching and sculpting hours into ceramic, steel and sapphire. One might expect the wrist to serve as a natural gallery, but that is precisely the expectation he resists.
“My wrists are covered by my jacket for two reasons. First, I don’t really like the idea of creators wearing their own creations. It’s a bit like a painter hanging his own work in the living room — to me, that’s not really good taste. I’d much rather see my loved ones or friends put on what I design. My wife, for example, wears the Mini Première Ribbon that has a black rubber with a velvet touch. It transitions easily from morning to night. You can even strap it on unthinkingly, give your baby a bath and get it all wet — it doesn’t matter,” he says with a smile.
“And the second thing I’ve come to understand as a designer is that it can be dangerous to be around the same thing all the time. You might start believing what you’ve created has the best proportions, the best architecture. That’s why I think we need to stay neutral. It’s advice I often give my team members: they can wear whatever they want, as long as they change it every week.”
Chanel’s watch manufacture in La Chaux-de-Fonds / Photos: Chanel
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Chastaingt (pronounced “shas-tawn”) steps back so his work can find its footing. Valuing distance from the object he crafts allows him to remain clear-eyed, and not to mistake authorship for ownership. Preserving a kind of purity in the creative act lets a watch take on the patina of someone else’s story and become truly theirs.
“Don’t get me wrong, I absolutely love watches. I’ve been wearing them for more than 20 years but this way [of detaching myself] is just a rule I set for myself,” he quickly adds. Designing one, however, had not crossed his mind at first.
“After graduating from art school and arriving in Paris, I was dreaming about a lot of things. But absolutely not watches. I always thought — and I say this with great respect — they belong to the territory of a watchmaker, of engineering or mechanism, and not the domain of creation. But when Chanel launched the J12 in 2000, I developed a huge crush the moment I saw it. For me, it was a lesson in style, a revelation. The word might seem strong but that was how I felt as a 20-something. And the more I explored other brands, the more I began to understand that there were, no doubt, moments in horological history when the field was more creative than others.
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“Suddenly, watches became my life, my creative playground. So, when Chanel contacted me to take charge of the J12, I was overjoyed. It was the only brand I was willing to leave for,” recalls Chastaingt, who took on his current role in 2013, following a 10-year tenure as a designer at Cartier.
The Diamond Tourbillon is the (literal) crown jewel of the J12 Bleu collection, featuring a flying tourbillon and a diamond-set cage
First conceived by then-artistic director Jacques Helleu in 2000, the J12 shook up the traditionally strait-laced horology universe with a bold silhouette cast in matte monochromatic ceramic, a scratch-resistant material that lent the women’s accessory a punchy, unisex athleticism. The wildly popular trailblazer — combining the functionality of a sports watch with the elegance of a link bracelet — was inspired by the sleek lines of the 12m J-Class racing yachts, particularly those from the America’s Cup.
For the model’s 20th anniversary, Chastaingt reworked 70% of the original components, narrowing the bezel to increase the dial opening, refining the typeface of the numerals and indices, as well as increasing the number of notches around its perimeter from 30 to 40 to give the watch a lighter, more feminine profile. The most significant update perhaps was the introduction of the maison’s first manufacture movement: the Calibre 12.1, certified by the COSC (Contrôle Officiel Suisse des Chronomètres), with a 70-hour power reserve. A notable step-up from the previous ETA, the new addition — visible through a sapphire crystal caseback — was developed by Kenissi, the movement maker majority-owned by Tudor, in which Chanel holds a 20% stake.
In an industry in which decision-making is often layered and cautious, the house has granted Chastaingt rare latitude — full autonomy to shape its watchmaking identity without the glare of publicity. The spotlight finds him only when necessary, as he has said: “Chanel offers the perfect balance between my work and being in the public eye.”
Calm and measured in conversation, the creative steward carries himself with the quiet assurance of someone more interested in ideas than attention. He now lives in Paris, a world away from his childhood in Coussac-Bonneval, a commune of fewer than 2,000 residents in southwestern France. On Sundays, he returns to the slower rhythms of the countryside for family lunches in nearby Aubazine — a village he remembers fondly, and one with an unexpected connection to Chanel: After her mother’s death in 1895, the 11-year-old Gabrielle Chanel was sent to the convent-run orphanage in the same town where she learned to sew. That turning point laid the foundations for her fashion vocation.
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As a teenager, Chastaingt left his rural hometown to study applied arts at a specialised high school, eventually continuing at the Strate School of Design in Sèvres, just outside the French capital. He graduated in 2002 with a degree in art and design. Over the course of his studies, he drew objects of all kinds — handbags, furniture and, once, a watch. It might have seemed incidental at the time. But some shapes stay with him.
Proportions, surfaces, symmetry — the mechanics of an instrument so intimate, yet universal, held him in utter fascination. His eye for detail verges on an obsession, so much so that even a single button, for example, can unlock an entire wardrobe of possibility. In 2020, that fixation gave rise to a series of secret watches under the Mademoiselle Privé Bouton collection, modelled after the simple fasteners that once held together many of Chanel’s iconic tweed jackets and suits. The hero piece, the Bouton Serti Neige (Snow Set), is a one-of-a-kind white gold cuff covered entirely in diamonds and secured by a diamond-set button — totalling nearly 50 carats.
“Turning a humble item into a timekeeper is one of those artistic obsessions that feels so obvious I can’t get it out of my head,” he enthuses. Beyond bejewelled clasps concealing 10mm quartz dials, recent interpretations of the Privé Bouton line have expanded into incarnations worn on the finger as rings, or around the neck as sautoirs.
The diamond adorning the tourbillon carriage requires a special cut
CHROMATIC PROGRESSION
If the art of tailoring once consumed his imagination, this year, the power of palette commands it. To mark the 25th anniversary of the J12, Chanel has unveiled what it calls a major technical feat: a proprietary ceramic developed over five years. The result is a deep midnight blue that borders on black, its tone shifting subtly, depending on the surroundings. Such a phenomenon is known as metamerism, where two surfaces may appear identical under one light and entirely different under another. The J12 Bleu, in both concept and execution, seems to embody, almost symbolically, the elusive shape-shifting nature of time.
“The J12 was born in black, then white in 2003. But, in truth, neither is optically a colour, as they reflect no light. So, I’ve always had this vision of illuminating black with blue. If you look at the patrimony of Chanel, colour has always been part of the story.
“I remember going to La Chaux-de-Fonds [in Switzerland, where Chanel’s manufacture is based] and finally settling on a sample after many rounds of proposals. However, on the train ride back to my studio in Paris, where the sky was sunnier, I realised it had completely changed. I thought something happened to me. Or maybe I was just tired.”
Chastaingt likens such unpredictability to working with Grand Feu enamel. Even when the ratios are calibrated precisely on paper, what emerges from the kiln can still surprise. Although the pursuit of new colour variations is often driven by aesthetic and stylistic aims, ceramic presents its own set of challenges. The material — typically zirconium oxide — is made from inorganic, non-metallic powders mixed with binding agents to form a dense, durable substance. During this process, pigments can alter in unforeseen ways, making it difficult to achieve the intended outcome.
“When I picked the special shade for Chanel, I collaborated closely with our ceramic team to grasp its complexity. You can’t simply add colour to white or enhance black. I absolutely did not want the watch to look a little red in Dubai or yellow in Munich; so, I tested it across various environments during my travels.”
The director also discloses that inspiration partly stemmed from dark blue evening gowns showcased at the Gabrielle Chanel: Fashion Manifesto exhibition — a retrospective organised by the Palais Galliera, the Fashion Museum of Paris — as well as archival jewellery boxes used by the house in 1932 for its Bijoux de Diamants collection. For those drawing parallels to Bleu de Chanel, he clarifies the watch bears no relation to the fragrance bottle, which sports a far deeper shade.
The J12 Bleu was launched in nine iterations, with the Diamond Tourbillon marking as the pinnacle of the anniversary tribute. Limited to just 55 pieces, this haute horlogerie standout features a 38mm case, a bezel set with 34 baguette-cut blue sapphires, and the in-house Calibre 5, a flying tourbillon movement partially exposed through the dial.
As demonstrated by the Mademoiselle Privé Bouton, inspiration can stem from a simple item, like a button
SETTING THE TONE
Where heritage often reigns and designs can blur into one another, singularity has become a valuable currency. For Chastaingt, it is not enough for a watch to function beautifully; it must also demonstrate a clarity of intent, a point of view so distinctive it cannot be mistaken for anything else.
“When Chanel started watchmaking in 1987 with the Première, it entered the horological world without any real permission,” he explains. “It was, perhaps, out of the box, especially compared to the classical, more traditional watchmakers. We were born without market pressure or a marketing brief.”
The liberation, he argues, is what made the J12 possible, a head-turner that defied expectations from the moment it appeared. “Do you think a collection like that could materialise from a marketing brief? No. The idea of a 38mm watch in 2000, when women preferred much smaller sizes, sounded almost impossible. The J12 happened because the desire for creation was stronger than the obsession with trends. It was born from a designer’s longing — a want, not a calculation. Nobody knew whether it was going to be a success. But even before I joined Chanel, I saw it everywhere. Everybody wanted it: a white or black signature on the wrist.”
Like a character, the life of the J12 can be equated to that of an actress: confident, discernible and endlessly adaptable. “She’s strong and recognisable enough to take on different roles. You can cast her in a film, pair her with couture, dress her in blush or reinvent her completely — she remains unmistakably herself,” Chastaingt says, speaking of the watch as if it were a muse he continues to revisit.
“For the future, I still have many stories I want to tell with the J12. But, for now, since she’s 25, I think she’s tall enough to wear a blue dress.”