Although Pantone has crowned Mocha Mousse as the colour of 2025, CHANEL Horlogerie is embracing a different hue for the CHANEL J12 — Bleu, not blue. While the shade is not part of the maison’s revered quintet of black, white, beige, gold, and red, it has its storied place in the CHANEL universe. In 1932, Gabrielle Chanel unveiled one of her creative exponents, the Bijoux de Diamants, widely recognised as the world’s first high jewellery showcase. The groundbreakig 50-piece collection of diamond and platinum masterpieces was inspired by the most important things in Gabrielle Chanel’s life, one being Paris’ starry night skies. Among the dazzling pieces created and sold, a particular piece, the Comete brooch, is now safeguarded in the maison’s possession. Curiously, the velvet jewellery box housing the Comete brooch emanates a dark blue shade, which ultimately became a source of inspiration as CHANEL marks a major milestone for the CHANEL J12.
It has been 25 years since the world was introduced to the CHANEL J12, the brainchild of then-designer Jacques Helleu as an ode to open ocean yacht racing and the J-class 12 metre yachts. The vessels exhibited the perfect tension between elegance and performance, which became the design language of the CHANEL J12 — full of poise but also highly technical at the same time.
The CHANEL J12 DIAMOND TOURBILLON CALIBER 5 BLACK WATCH from 2024
Instead of fashioning the piece from stainless steel, Helleu opted for black ceramic (glossy black), connecting the dots with the colour’s significance in Gabrielle Chanel’s creative vision. Perhaps it was also a nod to how inky black yacht sails would glisten under the sun. The CHANEL J12 debuted in 2000 as a unisex 38mm watch at the turn of the millennium. By then, ceramics had already been used in the watchmaking industry, but Helleu turned the CHANEL J12 into a covetable and precious icon rather than a utilitarian tool, writing it into annals of iconic watchmaking.
“In the course of 25 years, CHANEL has elevated ceramic to the level of a precious material. The art of ceramic is undeniably CHANEL watchmaking and our outstanding savoir-faire: it’s an inspiring material that, thanks to the genius of our engineers, offers a vast creative playing field,” says Arnaud Chastaingt, director of the CHANEL Watchmaking Creation Studio.
The CHANEL J12 DIAMOND TOURBILLON CALIBER 5 WHITE WATCH from 2024
Naturally, white ceramic was the next colour CHANEL pursued, and it materialised in 2003. Since then, numerous iterations of both colours have been released. As the maison celebrates the silver anniversary of the CHANEL J12, it does so in the most fitting way possible by introducing the new (inserts caveat, explained in the later paragraphs) and exclusive shade, Bleu, to its watchmaking division.“I dreamt of giving a colour to black, of illuminating it with blue. The final choice of this particular blue was like an epiphany,” Arnaud Chastaingt said. “I wanted a blue that has a rigorous elegance, a blue that’s nearly black or a black that’s nearly blue.”
Turning the colour into a reality rather than picking the next appropriate colour was the bigger challenge of the two, and the five years of research and development proved fruitful. Across the nine CHANEL J12 Bleu models, CHANEL presents a tonal interplay of contrasting elements with the matte blue ceramic case, which lends the watches a different dimension and touch of modernity from its two predecessors.
Representing the peak of CHANEL’s watchmaking prowess are the CHANEL J12 Bleu X-Ray Watch, the CHANEL J12 Bleu Diamond Tourbillon Watch and the 42mm, 38mm and 28mm J12 Bleu Sapphires Watch. The former is a tribute to transparency — its case and bracelet milled from a single block of blue synthetic sapphire — while its Calibre 3.1 and baguette sapphire indices appear to levitate in the dial with sapphires set in the bezel and bracelet centre links.
The gem setting narrative continues in the latter four models as a single 65-facet solitaire diamond orbits gracefully in the tourbillon cage surrounded by a sapphire set bezel of the CHANEL J12 Bleu Diamond Tourbillon Watch. The three other pieces feature baguette sapphires set in the bezel, two of which extend across the bracelet centre links.
The quartet of CHANEL J12 Bleu Calibre 12.1 38mm Watch and CHANEL J12 Bleu Calibre 12.2 33mm Watch with either baguette sapphire or brilliant diamond hour indices, or sans precious stones, rounds out this release.
CHANEL’s embrace of Bleu for the CHANEL J12’s 25th anniversary is more than a mere colour choice. From the deep night skies that once inspired Gabrielle Chanel to the pioneering use of ceramic in modern horology, it is a statement of evolution and craftsmanship as the maison continues to weave its legacy into the fabric of time. Clad in the enigmatic shade of Bleu, the CHANEL J12 confidently steps into its a new chapter, where a fusion of technical mastery and artistic vision remains undeniably and unmistakably CHANEL.
Once you are done with this story, click here to catch up with our April 2025 issue.