Chanel’s New J12 Bleu Watch Is Fall’s Most Subtle Statement of Good Taste

It’s not easy to make a watch that looks totally distinctive: A lot of companies create timepieces that resemble, generally, Rolexes, IWCs or Cartiers. But the minute Chanel introduced the all-ceramic J12 in 2000, it was instantly recognizable as something new. Designed by Jacques Helleu, the couture house’s longtime artistic director, the black J12 managed to be both soft and bold. The smooth edges made the watch elegant and wearable, and the robust ceramic case and bracelet could take a licking. It was marketed as a unisex watch at a time when few brands deviated from the masculine-feminine dichotomy. On the wrist, the blunt monochrome popped without being flashy.

Chanel began offering the model in white in 2003, and various complications and some rare spinoffs followed, but it hasn’t been offered in any other ceramic color until this year, when the J12 Bleu was introduced at the Watches and Wonders trade show to much fanfare.

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