Letter from the Publisher

• 368 Grand Complications, Vol. VII
What other new products are you
launching this year?
We are paying tribute to La Première,
our historic watch. When it was
released in 1987, Chanel was one of
the first Houses to get involved in
Swiss Made watchmaking. The
piece was very innovative at the
time, combining elements from the
world of accessories, fashion and
horology. And it’s still here! This
year we are proposing a “Vintage
1987” series in gold, equipped with a
quartz movement.
So you were one of the first fashion
brands…
We are the very opposite of a “fashion”
brand, which changes with every trend.
On the contrary, we create the trends!
We have an exclusively “Swiss Made” approach, for the
long term—and we have never abandoned a product. It’s
a very thorough, in-depth approach. Around 230 people
work at our office in La Chaux-de-Fonds in Switzerland,
and horology is the third domain of Chanel, after fashion
and fragrances.
What goes on at your branch in La Chaux-de-Fonds?
That was the site of the Châtelain business, which
was acquired by Chanel in 1995. It created cases, buckles
and bracelets. Since the acquisition, we have been
utilizing it for all of our horological operations besides the
production of the movements themselves: mounting,
encasing, setting, etc. We also do work in ceramic, gold,
steel and titanium there. The business has remained
autonomous, and Chanel is one client of Châtelain,
among others.
For watch movements, you are currently working with
ETA (Swatch Group) for La Première and some of the J12
models, and with Audemars Piguet (Renaud & Papi) for the
grand complications. Do you foresee other partnerships in
your future?
No, we prefer to work with the fewest number of partners
possible. It’s important to work with just a few people,
but over the long term, if only to facilitate the logistics of
after-sale service.
Are you planning on going the other way entirely
and vertically integrating all of your watch production
at Chanel?
For Chanel, a watch is a creation, and creation must have
the fewest number of constraints possible! If we started
to make movements, we would have to talk dimensions,
lines, proportions, etc, and we would run the risk of making
watches just for the movements within. We don’t want to be
influenced in that way. In 2008, we created a small version of
the Première, and ETA offered us a small quartz movement
that was perfect for the piece. We work with consummate
professionals and that has served us quite well.
Out of your entire watch production, what is the division
between quartz and mechanical movements?
The split is about 40 percent quartz, 60 percent mechanical.
But it’s not a conflict for us: Swiss Made quartz movements
work very well. Occasionally, certain women even ask us to
replace their automatic movement with a quartz one!