French luxury fashion house CHANEL has introduced two fascinating collections – the J12 BLEU Collection and the Blush Watch Capsule Collection – at Watches and Wonders Geneva 2025.
The J12 BLEU Collection celebrates the 25th anniversary of the iconic J12 watch, features a stunning matte blue ceramic design – a hue developed over five years to achieve a shade that’s almost black yet uniquely blue – and includes various models, such as the J12 BLEU 33mm and 38mm, which are adorned with blue sapphires, and a tourbillon model displaying intricate mechanics.
The Blush Watch Capsule Collection, a lively tribute to artistry and colour, is inspired by CHANEL Beauty and features shades like lacquer reds, sculpted gold and powdered pink, merging the world of makeup with timekeeping. Playful and expressive, the designs reflect Gabrielle Chanel’s belief in beauty as freedom.
The J12 BLEU Collection
For the first time ever, CHANEL dresses its iconic watch in blue matte ceramic. Twenty-five years after the J12 revolutionised the watch industry – the black edition launched in 2000 and the white in 2003 – the J12 BLEU explores a new territory where the expert savoir-faire of the CHANEL Manufacture gives rise to a series of exceptional creations in an exclusive colour.
Deep and matte. Intense and unique. CHANEL creates the J12 Bleu, giving this emblematic watch a ceramic hue that is as exclusive as it is powerful. Although blue has always been part of the House’s palette, present in fashion, beauty and even of the jewellery boxes of the 1932 Bijoux de Diamants collection, it is interpreted today in a new shade exclusively made for watchmaking.
“In the course of 25 years, CHANEL has elevated ceramic to the level of a precious material” said Arnaud Chastaingt, Director of the CHANEL Watchmaking Creation Studio.
“The art of ceramic is undeniably CHANEL watchmaking and our outstanding savoir-faire: it is an inspiring material that, thanks to the genius of our engineers, offers a vast creative playing field.”
It took five years of research for the CHANEL Watch Manufacture to develop the J12 BLEU’s exclusive hue, demonstrating the absolute mastery of the production techniques of this sophisticated material that is scratchproof, highly resistant and durable.
“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 added.
“I wanted a blue that has a rigorous elegance, a blue that is nearly black or a black that is nearly blue.”
The J12 BLEU bears witness to the excellence of the CHANEL Watch Manufacture craftsmanship, perfectly mastering the development and production process of this singular blue ceramic.
A blue that reveals its multiple facets with the play of light, adorns nine new creations combining radiance and discretion, excellence and precision. A collection of nine watches, some of which are set with bright blue precious sapphires, is casting the spotlight on the J12 BLEU.
The Blush Watch Capsule Collection
The CHANEL Watchmaking Creation Studio pays tribute to another world that company founder Gabrielle Chanel reinvented: Beauty. Free and daring, the CHANEL Blush Watch Capsule Collection instils a powerful energy to all its watch collections. Vibrant in colour and spirit, this set of precious watches captures the essence of this universe, transcribing its palette and textures into the artistry of contemporary watchmaking.
A century ahead of her time, Gabrielle Chanel changed the codes of fragrance and cosmetics by launching the N°5 perfume and a remarkably refined makeup line in the 1920s. It was as if these powders and lipsticks, placed into black lacquered cases, disregarded colour to better reveal it. This is a multifaceted duality that Arnaud has chosen to apply to watchmaking.
“The visual language of CHANEL Beauty creations is both fascinating and graphically very inspiring,” he explained.
“I am drawn to the authoritative elegance of these objects – their sophisticated architecture, their striking, deliberate geometry; the depth of black lacquer that intensifies the richness of a crimson hue or the softness of a powdered pink.
“There is an aesthetic dimension akin to artistic composition in these CHANEL creations. These palettes, pencils, brushes, pigments, and textures – so intrinsic to the art of fine watchmaking – inspired me to establish connections with artistic movements such as Dripping Art and Pop Art.
“Why not put makeup on time to make it more beautiful? This vision of beauty became the heartbeat of the entire collection”
Inspired by the energy of the colour palette designed by CHANEL’s Makeup Creative Studio, the CHANEL Blush Watch Capsule Collection consists of a series of timepieces that showcase the creative power of colour and exceptional métiers d’art craftsmanship.
Dusted with pink, shaded with red, embossed like eye shadows, randomly splashed, colours become a fully-fledged, living material that the CHANEL Watchmaking Creation Studio makes timeless, thanks to the savoir-faire of the House.
Grand Feu enamel, decal and pad printing on the dial, airy setting, miniature painting, gold sculpting… the richness and diversity of the métiers d’art highlighted on each watch gives this collection its unique allure while elevating the symbols of CHANEL Beauty to the status of true jewels.