Some members of the watch community may not take Chanel watches seriously, but the maison is absolutely putting some serious effort into making complicated pieces. The Chanel J12 Automaton Caliber 6 debuted at Watches & Wonders 2024, featuring a humorous yet mechanically skillful animation of founder Gabrielle “Coco” Chanel at work. The watch is part of the Chanel Couture O’Clock capsule collection that pays tribute to “Coco” and her famed couture workshop on rue Cambon.

Launched in 1999, the J12 was a pioneer in ceramic watches; while it may not have been the very first one, it was certainly the model that popularized the material in watchmaking. 25 years and dozens and dozens of iterations later, the J12 remains Chanel’s flagship ceramic watch collection, always in black, white, or a mix of both. The high-strength black ceramic case of the Chanel J12 Automaton Caliber 6 is offered in an uncommon matte finish and measures 38mm in diameter and 13.65mm thick, including the sapphire glass box crystal. The caseband now includes a gentle chamfer, a first for J12 watches. The black-treated steel bezel is home to 48 baguette-cut square diamonds while the black ADLC crown is set with one brilliant-cut diamond. The case is water resistant to 50 meters and is paired with a matching black ceramic bracelet with, like the caseband, links that are also slightly chamfered. Fitted to the bracelet is a triple-folding clasp.

The dial is brimming with the fashion house’s recognizable motifs and aesthetic codes. There are touches of tweed, camellia blooms, and quilted surfaces, and Coco is at the center wearing her most famous designs including a Chanel suit, cap toe slingbacks, and a bow-decorated hat. The scene is set in the Mademoiselle Privé haute couture workshop with the founder working on a partially-made outfit hanging on a CHANEL-branded mannequin. A push of the button protruding from the case at 8 o’clock activates the automaton, and Miss Gabrielle comes to life with her scissors-clad arm moving up and down while her other hand rests on her hip swaying side to side. The adjacent mannequin moves up and down too. At the center of the dial is brass hour and minute hands, finished with a black galvanic treatment.

This mini mechanical show, conceived by Arnaud Chastaingt, Director of Chanel’s Watchmaking Creation Studio, is all thanks to Caliber 6, the first Automaton movement designed and assembled by the Chanel Watch Manufacture in La Chaux-de-Fonds, Switzerland. The sapphire crystal display caseback reveals the circle-themed skeletonized architecture of the movement, based on Caliber 1 launched in 2016. The signature circular bridges, wheels, gears, and jewels are part of  Caliber 6’s 355 components — about double the number of parts in other Chanel movements and quite the feat considering the compact 38mm diameter of the case that houses them. The manual-winding movement operates at 28,800 beats per hour (4 Hz) and supplies the watch with about 72 hours of power reserve. A theatrical movement deserves a fitting stage — this is Chanel, after all. As such, encircling the sapphire crystal window on the caseback is an 18k white gold frame, engraved with all the customary inscriptions.

I find the new Chanel J12 Automaton Caliber 6 to be charming, cheeky, and above all else, creative. Timepieces like this make me simultaneously smile with delight and nod in admiration. Limited to only 100 examples, pricing for the Chanel J12 Automaton Caliber 6 was not available at the time of publishing. For more information, please visit the Chanel website.