Today I went to a Chanel event. The focus of the event was the fine jewelry that Chanel has. My interest was to see if I could view the Chanel J12 Calibre 3125. First a bit of history. The Chanel J12 was introduced in 2000. It immediately developed a cult following with some countries reporting huge demands for the watch. I remember that there was a wait list for the watch in some countries. The watch was unique as it uses ceramic as the base material for the watch.
In 2008, Chanel teamed up with Audemars Piquet to develop the J12 calibre 3125. It is a fusion of the popular and famous AP 3120 movement with the ceramics of the J12. The AP 3120 movement is of course the movement that powers the AP Royal Oak 15300.
Anyway, I asked the kind people in Chanel if they had the J12 calibre 3125? They said yes and asked me to wait a moment. After 5 minutes, they came out with the watch. I have to say that it is a beautiful watch. It is made of black ceramic and 18 k gold. I was surprised that the watch was actually heavy. I thought with the use of ceramic in the body and bracelet, it would not weigh so much. I guess it is due to the gold body under the ceramic (and gold buckle). The watch measures 42 mm in diameter. The crystals, front and back are sapphire crystal.
The Chanel calibre 3125 is a 13 3/4 ligne automatic bi-directional winding movement that has 40 jewels (45 actually but the jewels in the date wheel is not officially counted). It beats at 21,600 A/h and has a power reserve of 60 hours. The movement has a quick set date function as well as hacking second.
In the brief moment that I had it, the watch felt very substantial and the finish is very good. The bezel (uni-direction) rotates beautifully and is very very smooth. The watch retails for NTD 780,000.
The watch.
Photograph: Chanel
The back. Note the gold body.
The movement.
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