At Watches & Wonders 2025, Chanel showed up with a collection that felt like a love letter to gem-set artistry, hidden features, and one of the biggest themes at Watch Week this year, new case materials.

If you’ve been sleeping on the French fashion house's watchmaking, consider this your wake-up call.

It all started with Chanel's updated J12. First introduced in 2000, the J12 was Chanel's game-changing ceramic sports watch.

Now, it’s back in a new matte blue that took five years to perfect. The shade debuts across nine references, ranging from minimal to fully iced-out in blue sapphires.

But this was only a taste of what's to come, the sapphire-set experiments only got wilder at Chanel's Watches & Wonders showcase.

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Next up, The Boy.Friend Coco Art delivered a dose of graphic energy. Its grand feu enamel dial shows Mademoiselle Chanel studying her reflection, framed by 38 pink sapphire baguettes. The dial’s pop-art aesthetic was created using tampography,  twelve printed layers stacked by hand on white gold. It’s bold but deeply considered and right at home in a moment where square watches are quietly reclaiming the spotlight.

Then came the drama. Chanel introduced three new sautoir watches that double as jewelry (sort of like Chanel’s headphones), with secret dials hidden in a lipstick case, a Byzantine talisman, and an eye-shaped pendant modeled after Coco herself. These are timepieces made for red carpets and styled storytelling.

At Chanel, the line between fashion and watchmaking isn’t just blurring, it’s evolving. And I’m here for it.