WHEN CHANEL’S WATCHMAKING CREATION STUDIO dreams up new products, the creative souls toiling in the workshops don’t have to look too far for inspiration. They can easily tap into the vast archives of the Chanel fashion house, its rich legacy, and the signifiers that have come to define one of the world’s most desirable luxury brands.

This is precisely what Arnaud Chastaingt, director of the Chanel Watchmaking Studio, and his team did. For 2024, they looked to the brand’s haute couture division, but not in a way that one might expect. They didn’t translate any of the couture creations that have floated down the runways of Paris or draped a celebrity onto a wristwatch. 

What they did was to reference the very origin of the couture pieces: The atelier where those garments are made. In 1918, house founder Gabrielle Chanel designed and debuted her first haute couture collection at 31, Rue Cambon in Paris. The iconic address still exists today as the location of the flagship Chanel boutique, haute couture atelier, and Chanel’s restored apartment. 

As the heartbeat of the fashion house, the workshop is a symphony of skilled artisans, designers and seamstresses, all working in tandem to uphold the legacy of Mademoiselle Chanel. After all, she was known for her impeccable craftsmanship and revolutionary designs.  

Imagine the energy inside the Rue Cambon studio. The atmosphere is buzzing with creativity and precision. The room is a whirlwind of activity, with bolts of luxurious fabrics draped over tables and spilling onto the floor. 

As designers confer with patternmakers to sketch out visions of elegance and sophistication, seamstresses huddle over sewing machines, their needles dancing across delicate silks and intricate laces. Artisans from embroiderers to feather workers deploy their expertise in their chosen craft.

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It is this scene that stirred the Watchmaking Studio into creating the Couture O’Clock capsule collection. Couture dummies, scissors, measuring tape, thimbles, bobbins, needles and pins – the tools of daily work in Rue Cambon – are ingeniously transformed into wristwatches, cuff watches, necklaces and even an automaton clock. 

The collection is divided into two. Mademoiselle’s Workshop features designs inspired by the general scenography of the atelier, while Mademoiselle’s Sewing Tools, as the name implies, celebrates the various implements used to bring the couture creations to life. 

Here are the highlights from both series. 

Mademoiselle’s Workshop – Musical Clock Couture Workshop

The Musical Clock Couture Workshop surely has to be the most enchanting object in the series. Part-musical box, part-clock and part-automaton, the glass-domed creation – a one-off piece – is like a dollhouse version of the haute couture atelier on Rue Cambon. 

It’s mounted on a faceted onyx plinth that’s inspired by an upholstered sofa in Chanel’s apartment, which is also located in the same building as the atelier. The plinth is trimmed with gold and set with diamonds. To wind the movement, you have to use a key mounted on a long, gold chain necklace.  

Inside the dome, a miniature chandelier in gold with black coating and gold candlesticks bear pear-cut diamond droplets. When the movement is fully wound, the five busts (made of aluminium ceramic and trimmed with diamond-set gold brooches) “dance” around, spinning on their own axes while simultaneously bobbing up and down as the base makes one revolution. 

The busts aren’t dancing in silence; their choreography is set to the tune of My Woman by Al Bowlly, a melody that Chanel herself liked to hum. At the base, time is displayed on a tape measure, with markings denoting 24 hours.

Mademoiselle’s Workshop – J12 Couture Workshop Automaton Calibre 6

To further illustrate Chanel’s work in her studio, the watchmakers produced this whimsical watch animated by an automaton figure of Mademoiselle with one arm akimbo and the other hand wielding a pair of fabric scissors. This scene is articulated on five levels on the dial. 

Mademoiselle springs to life when the button at 8 o’clock is pushed. She is depicted swaying on her hips as the couture bust bobs up and down. 

Powering all the action is calibre 6, a new manual-winding movement made in-house. With 72 hours of power reserve, you can entertain those around you for an entire weekend.  

Limited to 100 pieces, the 38 mm watch’s matte black ceramic case sports a polished bezel studded with baguette-cut diamonds. 

Mademoiselle’s Workshop – Bust Long Necklace Couture

With a couture dummy being central to a couturier’s work, it is celebrated in this long necklace that culminates in an 18-ct yellow gold bust snow-set with brilliant diamonds and trimmed with black lacquer. This piece is a limited edition of 20. 

But that’s not all. In the grand tradition of secret watches – because aren’t all couture workshops a treasure trove of secrets? – the bust conceals a quartz watch in its waist. The two-hand watch is mounted on a black lacquered dial.

Mademoiselle’s Sewing Tools – J12 Couture 33 MM

The iconic J12 watch takes on a graphic quality here, with white ceramic and baguette diamonds contrasting against black PVD-coated steel. This 55-piece limited edition is powered by the in-house, automatic calibre 12.2. 

On the dial inspired by toile a patron (the technical canvas for moulding on a sewing mannequin), the hours and minutes hands are depicted by a pair of fabric scissors, while the seconds hand is symbolised by a sewing needle.

Mademoiselle’s Sewing Tools – Mademoiselle Prive Pincushion Cuff

We will never look at our tailor’s pincushion the same way again. Not after bearing witness to this brilliantly conceived cuff watch, of which only five pieces have been made. The “pincushion” is housed in a domed gold case with a quilted motif onyx dial. The hours and minutes hands are almost invisible against the starburst pattern of “pins”, which are composed of gold, pearls and diamonds. 

To complete the look, there is even a version of the pincushion on a long necklace and a ring. 

Mademoiselle’s Sewing Tools – Bobbin Cuff Couture

Who would have thought that a tool as banal as a bobbin – a spool of thread – could be reimagined as something luxurious? 

A one-of-a-kind piece, the Bobbin Cuff Couture is a gilded cuff set with brilliant diamonds that trace a graphic, zig-zagging design. The striking, 17.73-ct emerald-cut yellow sapphire at its centre hinges open to reveal a hidden quartz watch, its dial embellished with baguette diamonds.