Chanel’s brought us plenty of lustworthy timepieces over the years – most recent of which is the Boy.Friend watch; at the start of this year, it was the colourful Première Rock Pop, and then there’s the evergreen classic, the sporty J12 made of high-tech ceramic, the brand’s first automatic watch that was launched in 2000.
Over a recent trip to Seoul with Chanel, however, we got acquainted with a whole new range. Meet the J12 XS, and as its name implies, yes, it’s a compact version of the J12, featuring a 19mm dial. But other than that, the J12 XS is far removed from the sporty chic of the original J12, and has a personality that’s completely its own.
If you think your eyes are fooling you here, they’re not – that’s indeed the J12 XS worn as a multi-row black cuff, an accessory that nails rocker chic right on the head. And that’s not the only way the J12 XS can be worn: the entire range of 16 designs spans large and small cuffs, leather gloves both long and fingerless, and even an exquisite ring that’s quite literally one of a kind, all with the J12 XS watch built into them to create bold accessories that contradict the delicate nature that such a small dial usually implies; but it’s a contradiction of the best kind possible.
The collection is divided into three categories: the boutique pieces, including calfskin cuffs in black or white and a pair of fingerless gloves; the Lesage pieces, featuring the most exquisite embroidery work by French embroiderer Maison Lesage, whom Chanel has been turning to for its couture pieces for decades, on calfskin cuffs and lambskin leather gloves; and the high jewellery pieces, which includes the watch ring made of high-tech ceramic and 18K white gold, as a way to completely revolutionise the way you tell the time.
Maybe you’re inclined to not call the J12 XS a watch, but rather, a piece of high fashion that happens to be plenty useful as well when it comes to keeping you on schedule. We love how Chanel has deliberately challenged watch-wearing conventions with this collection; it’s an idea that takes a while to get used to, that’s for sure, but once you do, you might find that you won’t want to tell the time any other way.
CHANEL J12 XS, available at the CHANEL Fine Jewellery Boutique at #01-04 Ngee Ann City from September. chanel.com/en_sg
You must be logged in to post a comment.