Inside the pristine and deceptively monochrome Wonders Geneva 2026, a distinct line was drawn. To one side stood the permanent novelties – including the deep, inky ceramic of the permanent J12 Bleu, joining the catalogue after five years of intense research. This collection was already the subject of our Vision cover story last year, but we are going with a different approach this time. You see, to understand the true, unfettered soul of Chanel watchmaking, one has to step into the entirely self-contained world of the capsule collection. This year, it is the Chanel Coco Game.

Like all of Chanel’s highly anticipated capsule collections, Coco Game exists separately from the main novelties. Yet, to call it secondary would be a profound misunderstanding. Chanel treats its capsules not as an afterthought, but as a sanctuary reserved exclusively for its most daring creative expressions and highest level of watchmaking. As Frédéric Grangié, CEO of Chanel Watches, explains, everything begins with creation, a sketch, and a vision brought to life by Arnaud Chastaingt and his Watch Creation Studio. Within Chanel’s manufacture at La Chaux-de-Fonds, every technical challenge becomes an opportunity to elevate its savoir-faire. The ultimate expression of said savoir-faire is the capsule collection.

THE MASTERPIECE OF THE BOARD

The undisputed centrepiece of the 14-piece capsule collection – and its ignition spark, according to Chastaingt – is The Chessboard, a breathtaking high horology masterpiece that found a loving owner even before Watches and Wonders Geneva 2026 opened. Framed as an extraordinary chess game, it positions Gabrielle Chanel as the central figure: the Queen who masters the rules and sets the tempo.

According to Grangié, it is the most complex project the Maison has ever undertaken, requiring more than 1,000 hours of development on the ceramic alone. The board rests on a black obsidian base, featuring 64 squares of alternating black and white highly resistant ceramic enclosed by a spectacular row of 516 brilliant-cut diamonds.

Every single game piece of this unique set has been crafted by combining gold, ceramic, and diamonds in a uniquely Chanel style. The 32 pieces are miniature sculptures referring to the universe of the House. The 16 black pawns are sculpted in a high-tech black ceramic that is seven times harder than steel, and highlighted by white gold and diamonds. Their opponents are sculpted in pure white gold with a wealth of subtle details; we cover this in greater depth in the cover story but below is the tl;dr.

The line-up of pieces is a collectors’ dream:

• The Kings: Represented by magnificent lions. The white King is snow-set with 764 diamonds, while the black King is sculpted in black ceramic and set with 142 diamonds.

• The Bishops: Modelled as elegant couture mannequin busts.

• The Knights: Sculpted as horses rising from bases detailed with Chanel’s iconic quilted effect.

• The Rooks: Striking miniatures of the Vendôme column.

• The Pawns: Sixteen refined rings of ceramic and gold.

The literal “secret” of the board lies within the white and black Queens. Dressed in an intricate diamond tweed suit (because of course), these two pieces conceal high-precision quartz watch movements with 25mm dials hidden under their pedestals. The owner can even wear them as secret timepieces on an included chain made of white gold, diamonds and onyx.

THE COMPLETE CAPSULE

Beyond the chessboard, the capsule explores all aspects of the gaming universe, playing on Chanel’s emblematic codes of line, black, and white.

The proprietary Gabrielle Watch (limited to 10 pieces) features Mademoiselle emerging from a black-lacquered dial in her iconic pose. Her white suit is rendered in a new, patented tweed-setting technique. Grangié notes that it required 10 test iterations and two master setters to perfect this technique, which captures the texture of woven fashion tweed using hand-set gemstones as if it were being worn. The silhouette is repeated on the Gabrielle Long Necklace (limited to five pieces), featuring a gold-sculpted Mademoiselle suspended from a diamond and onyx chain.

The collection then shifts seamlessly into 8-bit digital gaming nostalgia. The Coco Game Long Necklace (limited to five pieces) reinterprets Mademoiselle as an all-pixel drawing that took four months to design, utilizing blackened titanium and 193 diamonds. Chanel is, of course, no stranger to pixel designs, as it has demonstrated over the years but especially in the Cybernetic models, which debuted in 2023.

This digital motif moves directly to the wrist with the J12 Coco Game Charms (limited to 55 pieces), which suspends a pixelated lacquer charm from the crown of a matte white ceramic watch. Meanwhile, the J12 Coco Game 38mm features a pixelated character laser-cut from a carbon plate acting as the second hand, trotting around a black-lacquered dial. It is available in an Haute Horlogerie edition set with baguette diamonds, alongside two limited editions in glossy white and matte black ceramic.

The pinnacle of the J12 capsule offerings is the J12 X-Ray Coco Game (limited to 12 pieces). This skeletonized mechanical marvel requires 1,600 hours of sapphire crystal machining and features sapphire link bracelets crossed by a central line of baguette- cut diamonds. It houses the manual-winding Caliber 3.1, a movement requiring seven days of meticulous assembly by hand.

The remaining shaped pieces of the Maison (Chanel is one of the few watch brands where we accept this terminology) also join the fun. The Première Coco Game Ring (limited to five pieces) is a double-faced secret ring; one side displays a large 0.90-carat baguette diamond embedded in sapphire glass, while the other flips to reveal an octagonal diamond-set Première watch face. For a more casual look, the Première Coco Game watch spells out C-H-A-N-E-L via Scrabble tile–inspired white lacquer and sapphire charms swinging from a classic leather-interlaced chain bracelet. Finally, in reference to the tokens of dominoes, the Code Coco Game contrasts a white quilted leather strap with two black dials and a signature Mademoiselle turnlock adorned with a princess-cut diamond.

THE VISION BEYOND TIME

For Chanel, this showcase is proof that creativity goes far beyond mere aesthetics; it is embedded in every story and technical breakthrough. By vertically integrating its métiers, Chanel continues to challenge the codes of traditional watchmaking. The couture house that broke into watchmaking in 1987 with its own vision has now created a proud space for its unique approach and identity, adds Chastaingt. The Coco Game collection proves that high watchmaking does not always have to take itself so seriously, even when the underlying craftsmanship is breathtakingly serious.

Turn the page for our exclusive, full-length conversations with Chanel Watches CEO Frédéric
Grangié and Watchmaking Creation Studio Director Arnaud Chastaingt. These conversations have been
edited for clarity, length and language.

BIG PICTURE

As president of Chanel Watches & Fine Jewellery, Frédéric Grangié charts the course for the maison’s creative drive.

Of course, anyone will be familiar with Chanel, but the message that creativity is paramount for the brand in watchmaking is worth knowing more about. Please tell us about this, especially as it relates to the Coco Game capsule collection and fine watchmaking?

At Chanel, everything begins with creation – a sketch, a vision, an intuition brought to life by Arnaud Chastaingt and his Watch Creation Studio. From there, the challenge is to nurture a culture where our expertise serves our creative ambition. The Chanel Watch Manufacture and the Creation Studio work hand in hand; every technical challenge becomes an opportunity to elevate our savoir-faire. This is why we have fully integrated all métiers, including our high jewellery workshop, within the Chanel Manufacture at La Chaux-de-Fonds. Creativity is our driving force even as a young player in watchmaking – we bring more new creations to the market each year than many more established names.

The Chanel Coco Game capsule collection is a perfect illustration of this spirit. Here, audacity and playfulness are combined with absolute product integrity. Take the chessboard, for example, it is the most complex project we have ever undertaken, requiring more than 1,000 hours of ceramic development. Every single piece, down to the smallest pawn, embodies the pinnacle of ceramic craftsmanship. To serve our creative intention, our team even developed a new gem-setting technique that evokes the texture of tweed, unmistakably a Chanel signature. This technique is now being patented, and I believe it’s the first of its kind, truly capturing the essence of tweed as if it were being worn. For us, the goal is always to build a living patrimony, constantly elevating our savoir-faire.

We ask this because creativity is much more than design, as showcased in the many unique creations that we see every year but also in wristwatches such as the pincushion series (the Mademoiselle Privé Pique-Aiguilles) and Blush J12 box set. Those are only two examples, but they are unique in the world of watchmaking. What does this say about Chanel’s vision of watchmaking?

This speaks to the original inspiration of Gabrielle Chanel: her quest for freedom and her audacity and refusal to be bound by convention. At Chanel, we aim to challenge the codes of traditional watchmaking. Every watch we create must combine technical sophistication with subtle and distinctive design. Our vision is to offer something truly unique in a market often defined by tradition.

But creativity also means elevating our savoir-faire and pushing the boundaries of materials. For example (beyond the chessboard noted above), our research into ceramic led to the creation of the blue ceramic for J12, a shade unique to Chanel, achieved after five years of research and that is joining the permanent collection this year. The Mademoiselle Privé Pique-Aiguilles was realized with Les Cadraniers de Geneve (see below), allowing us to work with the very best to bring our vision to life. The J12 box Dripping Art from the Blush watch capsule collection showcases how the Chanel world of beauty could be interpreted in watchmaking, again further proving that, for us, creativity goes far beyond aesthetics – it is embedded in every story behind every detail.

You have said that your job is to help realise the creativity of watchmakers. How do you do this, from the business side of things?

My role is to create the right conditions for creativity to flourish. This is why we pursued vertical integration from the very beginning, bringing all key métiers together within the Chanel Watch Manufacture. We invest in our own ecosystem of independent watchmakers, always supporting and protecting the transmission of unique savoir-faire. These choices are not just strategic, they are essential. They allow Arnaud Chastaingt and his Watch Creation Studio to push creative boundaries ever further, ensuring that our relentless pursuit of innovation is matched by technical mastery.

Watches are, traditionally, understood as masculine objects, but Chanel famously made deep inroads into making things more unisex. The technical nature of watches, especially with regards to mechanical movements, is what draws many enthusiasts. What’s Chanel’s experience here, especially with its stake in Kenissi and of the Châtelain Manufacture?

The Chanel Watch Manufacture and our partnership with Kenissi are a testament to our commitment to technical excellence and independence. By developing our own movements and mastering every aspect of production, we ensure that each Chanel watch is as accomplished on the inside as it is distinctive on the outside.

But for Chanel, watchmaking has never been about gender. It is about individuality and freedom, values rooted in Gabrielle Chanel’s own approach to style, where she boldly borrowed from the masculine
wardrobe to create something new. Our watches, whether for men or women, reflect this spirit. We aim
to challenge conventions, to offer something distinctive without ever compromising on technical excellence.

Chanel is also a major supporter of independent watchmakers and brands. For the Monsieur range, you tapped into Romain Gauthier’s expertise. Will you consider more such projects? As long-time fans of MB&F too, we are reminded that Max Busser never claims to be a watchmaker but a creator; this approach would work very well for Chanel, or so we think. What is your perspective?

Chanel has always placed great importance not only on creation itself, but also on craftsmanship. The quality of craftsmanship and the expertise of artisans are essential to our ability to bring the ideas and designs of our creative studios to life. In watchmaking, this commitment is embodied through the development of numerous areas of expertise at the Chanel Manufacture in Switzerland, from our gem-setting workshop, to master watchmakers capable of designing and assembling our manufacture movements, and also an unparalleled mastery of ceramic, perfected over the past 25 years thanks to the J12 watch, to the point of being unrivalled in the world today.

At the same time, the Maison has made various investments aimed at supporting and protecting independent watchmaking and its unique savoir-faire. Together, these companies form a unique watchmaking ecosystem, allowing our watchmaking creative studio access to this wealth of expertise. For example, our most complex dials are regularly produced by Les Cadraniers de Genève, owned by F.P. Journe (as noted above). The Calibre 12.1 that powers the J12 comes from Manufacture Kenissi. Romain Gauthier indeed contributed to the creation of Calibre 1, Chanel’s first in-house movement. MB&F is an integral part of this watchmaking ecosystem and possesses a vision of watchmaking that leaves no one indifferent. Imagining a creative encounter between Max Büsser and Arnaud Chastaingt is indeed a thrilling prospect. Perhaps it will happen one day, but ultimately the decision rests with them!

“For Chanel, watchmaking has never been about gender. It is about individuality and freedom”

BLANK CANVAS

Refusing to be bound by formed ideas offers total creative liberty to Arnaud Chastaingt, director of the Chanel Watchmaking Creation Studio.

What sparked the Coco Game collection?

Initially, I was inspired by one of the fundamental Chanel codes, black and white, and the duality of the two. With chess, dominoes, Scrabble, and the like, I quickly made, in the past, a connection with Chanel’s design, because all these game pieces are normally white with different graphic elements in black. For their design, it’s something very simple, with no ornamentation and no decoration. It’s very straight; very minimalistic. And while they are games, they’re also tools. There, I found something that connected with the Chanel philosophy. That’s how the collection was born.

So, the idea of the fusion of Chanel codes with the aesthetic qualities of games came to you many years ago?

I think it was before I started working for Chanel, when I saw the graphic [design] connection to games. A long time ago, I collected dominoes that I found in Parisian flea markets. Some of them could be very old and made of ebony and ivory, and I remember noticing that the materials could form the basis of a Chanel brooch or something like that. So, I think it’s that kind of idea that stays in your head for a long time, and finally, one day, you find the opportunities to illustrate them in collections.

And right now is a good moment for this theme, because maybe you wanted to express something about playfulness within the house?

I don’t know if it’s a question of time [or timeliness]. In creation, sometimes you have a kind of obsession. You never know why you want that kind of theme at that time, but yeah, I found it was a good time to illustrate the theme in my collection.

How did the collection take shape around this theme?

I think the chessboard was the beginning of the project. The plate of the chessboard has this duality of black and white, a very graphic architecture. For me, the connection came very quickly. I’ve been fascinated by these objects for a long time. At school, a teacher of mine found it interesting to teach chess, so I learned and played chess between the ages of six and 10. You learn a lot from chess. There’s strategy, it develops creativity, and I remember it as an amazing microcosm of the world. You never know, when you play chess, if the game will be five minutes or one hour. So I found, too, that the notion of time when you play chess is very important, and it was nice for me in my creative process thereafter to create a metaphor of Le Temps Chanel, or an allegory of Chanel Time, and recreate this Chanel world on the chessboard with Gabrielle Chanel as the queen of the game.

How did you decide which aspect of which game to translate into which timepiece? There are so many considerations about how to express a watch, so how did you combine all these elements and components and decide which is the best way to incorporate a time- telling element in this form or this model?

It was very natural. The black and white was my first obsession, and I really wanted to have a white-on-black collection. I can never start creating without a story. I always need a story before starting sketches. And once you find the story you want to tell, it comes together very quickly. And that’s when it becomes magical, because, of course, you know the theme. For example, when I decided to put the playing card with Gabrielle Chanel as a queen of hearts on the Boyfriend, it worked very easily.

So it’s very organic, it almost feels impossible to explain because you’re not analysing it with a line of reasoning; it just feels obvious that this design should be in this model or collection…

Most of the time, my creation is spontaneous. I’ve been doing press interviews for two days now, and this year, I’ve had a lot of questions about inspiration. And it’s very hard to explain where our inspiration comes from, because most of the time we don’t know. Maybe we observe the world differently than others do – I say that with real humility; I’m not implying that we are better. I think we are like a sponge, and we take in all kinds of information, and one day we materialise them.

Creation is very natural. I always say that in essence, my job is five words: to dream and inspire dreams. I have a very simple job, and Chanel is a house of creation. Creation is at the beginning of everything for watches, and so Chanel is a beautiful playground territory for me. And at Chanel, we have this manufacture. The first day I started working for Chanel 13 years ago, I was so surprised that at that time it was a little bit of a secret. And the first time I discovered it, I said, Wow, Chanel has so many beautiful industrial tools and in this manufacture, we had developed so many beautiful savoir faire. All the technical people who work for Chanel, they perfectly know the traditional culture of high-end watchmaking, but they know that if they work for Chanel that it’s a house of creation. They are masters of classical music, but we ask them sometimes to play electro.

And that moment when you feel you’ve arrived at the perfect technique or expression, it’s also an instinct and not something that you can analyse with a checklist.

Yeah, of course. Finally, when you know it’s a good creation with good harmony, structure and architecture, it’s just a question of emotion.

What are your thoughts on your vision of watchmaking clarity, and how do you express it?

I think my personal vision and the Chanel vision are absolutely intertwined. I don’t say this just because you’re here today, but I have been fascinated by Chanel for a very long time. The J12 connected me with the watch world when I was about 20 years old. For a long time I thought the watch world was not the territory of designers, but Chanel opened my eyes to the fact it’s very inspiring to work on the watch. At Chanel, we have, I think, our own definition on the watch. Personally, I refuse to consider that a watch is only a measuring tool for time that you wear on the wrist. Of course, it is, on one level, but for me, it’s a creation that says a lot about you, it’s an identity marker that will express ‘you’ easily, and that’s why I found this object so fascinating. And if I want to put time on a ring, on a belt, on a glove, on a necklace, under a stone, of course I’m free to do that, and I’m sure Gabrielle Chanel would have had the same vision.

Speaking of ideas and inspiration, I understand that you visit 31 Rue Cambon with some frequency, you prefer not to wear your own watch designs, and you encourage your team to rotate frequently among their personal watches. Would you say that this dedication to neutrality and freshness is the most important quality to materialising in your vision?

Thanks, because I take your question like a compliment, you know (laughs). I find it interesting that in the watch world, all these brands we have here today have a different vision. But that’s like the world – everybody’s different and it’s nice to have people with different points of view, different visions, different nationalities.

About the masculine and feminine codes in the Maison, you’ve talked about how they complement and they influence each other, and sometimes there’s a lot of crossover between the two. For this year’s watch presentation, how do you see that relationship?

It’s true that Chanel is (the) ultimate feminine brand, that’s already the way we go. But the question of gender has really changed these last years, and today, more than ever. Because Chanel sometimes can break the norms, when I create something, I can envision it for women or men, it’s true, but I think more about style than gender. For example, you can see today men wearing a small watch with no [inhibition or hesitation]. In the story of Gabrielle Chanel, she was inspired by men so many times. When you’re a designer for Chanel, you always play with this duality between masculinity and femininity.

This article was written by Ken Ke with interviews done by Ashok Soman and Zara Zhuang

This story was first seen as part of the WOW #84 Summer 2026 issue.

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