While watch brands like Piaget and Omega have generally focused their attention on the men’s watch market, they’ve recently been seeing increasing demand for women’s watches and, as such, are expanding those offerings. Chanel on the other hand has already had a solid hold on the women’s watch market, having catered entirely to the women’s watch market since 1987. But as more watch brands are shifting their focus, so too will Chanel, by going the opposite direction and offering watches for men, starting with their latest release: the Monsieur de Chanel.
The Monsieur brings Chanel’s classic, elegant design to the men’s market with a large, silver face with separate minute and hour dials. The face is wrapped in a round, minimalist 40mm gold case. Flip the watch over and you’ll be treated to the Monsieur’s matte black movement, a more modern juxtaposition to Chanel’s classic design elements.
The big story with the Monsieur (beside the fact its Chanel’s first men’s watch) is its black heart — it’s Chanel’s first-ever in-house movement. Appropriately dubbed the Calibre 1, it was developed at the company’s assembly plant in La Chaux-de-Fonds, Switzerland, and boasts both jumping hour and retrograde minute indication (meaning the minute hand jumps back to the zero position at the beginning of each hour). These are two incredibly difficult functions to develop (let alone for a company’s first in-house movement) and as such it took Chanel five years to develop.
The Monsieur de Chanel will go on sale later this year and will be limited to 150 beige gold and 150 white gold pieces, selling for $48,500 and $50,800, respectively.