Listen up gentlemen, your wife/sister/girlfriend’s favourite fashion house has unveiled its first-ever dedicated men’s timepiece, and it’s a serious proposition. The Monsieur de Chanel is no mere fashion watch (is the term even relevant anymore?), but one that is designed and built completely in-house with a pair of time-telling complications: jumping hours and retrograde minutes. The latter, in particular, demonstrates an earnest endeavour at technical watchmaking on the Maison’s part, elevating the regular retrograde with a 240-degree arc and bi-directional setting.
This being Chanel, you can also expect a stunning aesthetic outlook. The Monsieur’s handsome mien is characterised by references to the couture house, from the custom-made quasi-digital font echoing brand logo typography to the Place Vendôme-inspired hour display window. Its 40mm case is dressed in white or beige gold — a Chanel alloy paler than rose gold — while the emblematic lion (Coco’s constellation) leaves its majestic imprint on the crown, buckle and movement.
On the back of the Monsieur de Chanel, the inaugural Calibre 1 is flaunted in full black anthracite, with a circle-in-circle arrangement of gears, wheels, and bridges engineered by independent watchmaker Romain Gauthier. It exemplifies Chanel’s inimitable styling of technical excellence, and even though the current calibre is fully integrated, future complications are to be expected, all bearing the lion’s seal to distinguish manufacture movements that are designed in Paris and produced in La Chaux-de-Fonds.
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