A New Woman's Watch Inspired by an Iconic Chanel Bag

Originally published by Cara Barrett on Hodinkee.

Chanel is no stranger to the watch game. In fact, the Parisian fashion house has been on something of a roll lately. It all started a few years ago with the Boy.Friend, and then last year they made an even bigger splash with their first ever dedicated men's watch, the Monsieur, which featured an in-house movement developed with none other than Romain Gauthier. It was a not-so-secret hit with us here at Hodinke, as one of the more surprising and interesting watches of that year's Baselworld fair due to the jump-hour Caliber 1. Then, keeping things going, Chanel followed up with the Première Camélia Skeleton and the Caliber 2 just earlier this year.

The CODE COCO  is styled after the clasp of the 2.55 bag and conceals the time when one doesn't need to see it. 

Now, just in time for Paris Fashion Week, Chanel has released the Code Coco watch in stainless steel, available with or without a diamond-set bezel. The new jewelry watch is inspired by the iconic (and in my humble opinion, desirable) Chanel 2.55 purse, which features a very special clasp. The watch itself is reminiscent of something you might have seen from 1970s Piaget, with the unique stainless steel bracelet a major part of the overall package. The black lacquered dial measures 38.1 x 21.5 mm and there is a high-precision quartz movement sitting underneath. The rectangular black dial is bisected by a rotating metal bar that either exposes the time when it is perpendicular to the bracelet, or conceals the time when parallel to it. This allows for an unusual and discreet way to wear your watch and tell time, with the piece itself straddling the watch and bracelet categories.

On the wrist, the CODE COCO watch wears like a bracelet. 

While this is currently a very unusual design and certainly innovative, it is not the first time that we have seen concealed watches for women. Van Cleef and Arpels designed the Cadenas in the 1930s, which championed the hidden dial so that women could check time discreetly, so as not to offend the company they were with of course. Van Cleef and Arpels has continued this design tradition in modern pieces as well.  While the movement of the CODE COCO may be quartz, I myself love a good jewelry watch and think this one is pretty damn cool (you'll be hearing more from me about this soon, whether you like it or not).

The Code Coco in stainless steel with diamond-set bezel. 

The Chanel Code Coco starts at $5,000 for the plain stainless steel version with single .05 carat diamond and $9,100 for the versions in stainless steel with a diamond-set bezel (with 52 diamonds to be exact). There is also a limited edition of five pieces that is made in white gold entirely encrusted with diamonds. This will run you a cool $956,000.