As every admirer of the Chanel style (or Chanel “allure”, to use the technical term) knows perfectly well, the maison follows its own rigorous stylistic grammar, whose elements were established very early on by Gabrielle Chanel. These elements include the essential black and white, the famous Chanel beige, Breton stripes, the two-piece suit, tweed, quilting, pearls, lions, the camellia… as well as chains, brocade trim and buttons.

In collaboration with Europa Star

A functional flourish

Yes, buttons. But, aren’t they a minor detail? No, they’re far more important than that! The Chanel button is not just a precious object in its own right, a diminutive jewel, exquisitely and artistically crafted – it is also rigorously functional, in accordance with the strict grammatical rules dictated by Mademoiselle herself: “Every button must have a buttonhole”. “Gabrielle Chanel thus conferred on the button an unparalleled nobility,” explains Arnaud Chastaingt, director of Chanel’s Watchmaking Creation Studio. “She magnified an ordinary, unremarkable object and elevated it to the level of a jewel. For her, it was a canvas for creativity in its own right, but it absolutely had to retain its function.”

The exceptional variety of Chanel buttons created over the decades has attracted many collectors. In the very early days, button creation was entrusted to a talented craftsman, Georges Desrues, who in 1929 set up the company that bears his name, and which became Chanel’s primary supplier from 1965. Every day, almost 4000 buttons (each of which requires around ten operations) are moulded, sculpted, carved, polished, dyed, coated and enamelled in its workshops, using a combination of modern technology and traditional craftsmanship. Some twenty artistic crafts are employed, and Chanel was able to preserve them for posterity when it bought the Maison Desrues in 1984. “It is a unique tool in the world of luxury ready-to-wear,” confirms director of operations Stéphane Berthélémy.

Mademoiselle Privé Bouton Ganse de diamants

Mademoiselle Privé Bouton Ganse de diamants. Numbered and limited edition of 5 pieces. 18K yellow gold button adorned with a half white Australian cultured pearl (15 mm). Outer 18K yellow gold cord set with 52 brilliant-cut diamonds (~0.46 carat), inner 18K yellow gold cord. 18K white gold dial set with 142 brilliant-cut diamonds (~0.52 carat). Gold-finished hands. 18K white gold rigid cuff with a black coating and 18K yellow gold trim set with 316 brilliant-cut diamonds (~3.89 carats). High-precision quartz movement.

Mademoiselle Privé Bouton Perle

Mademoiselle Privé Bouton Perle. 18K yellow gold button adorned with a half white Australian cultured pearl (15 mm). Outer 18K yellow gold cord set with 52 brilliant-cut diamonds (~0.46 carat), inner 18K yellow gold cord. 18K white gold dial set with 142 brilliant-cut diamonds (~0.52 carat). Gold-finished hands. Black and gold tweed cuff with a golden calfskin trim and a black calfskin lining. High-precision quartz movement.

Couture time

“For me, the idea of a ‘button’ watch was one of those creative obsessions that I couldn’t let go of – it just seemed self-evident,” confirms Arnaud Chastaingt. “I had a dream of the button as timepiece.” The dream is all the more unconstrained because, as he correctly points out: “30 years ago, Chanel came from the world of couture, and invited itself without permission into the closed world of watchmaking.” Onto this world, which at the time was stylistically conservative and highly segmented, Chanel succeeded in imposing its own grammar, beginning with black and white, gradually introducing the rest of its codes, and translating them into watchmaking.

So, a button as watch… A watch born out of couture? What could be more natural? Arnaud Chastaingt, obsessively pursuing his research, had the idea of “unpicking the sleeve of a jacket, and keeping only the cuff with its buttonhole.” And thus the architecture of the bracelet was born: a soft tweed cuff edged with a slim golden leather binding, that wraps around the wrist and fastens with… a button. The button is functional, as per the rule. But not only does it have a buttonhole, it also covers and conceals a watch. “Style comes first, time comes later, whether you like it or not,” concludes Arnaud Chastaingt.

“For me, the idea of a ‘button’ watch was one of those creative obsessions that I couldn’t let go of – it just seemed self-evident.” – Arnaud Chastaingt, director of Chanel’s Watchmaking Creation Studio

Mademoiselle Privé Bouton décor Lion

Mademoiselle Privé Bouton décor Lion. Limited edition of 55 pieces. 18K yellow gold button adorned with a sculpted gold lion motif. Outer 18K yellow gold cord set with 52 brilliant-cut diamonds (~0.46 carat), inner 18K yellow gold cord. 18K white gold dial set with 142 brilliant-cut diamonds (~0.52 carat). Gold-finished hands. Black and gold tweed cuff with a golden calfskin trim and a black calfskin lining. High-precision quartz movement.

Mademoiselle Privé Bouton décor Camélia

Limited edition of 55 pieces. 18K yellow gold button adorned with a camellia motif fully set with 50 brilliant-cut diamonds (~0.38 carat) and a central brilliant-cut diamond (~0.5 carat). Outer 18K yellow gold cord set with 52 brilliant-cut diamonds (~0.46 carat), inner 18K yellow gold cord. 18K white gold dial set with 142 brilliant-cut diamonds (~0.52 carat). Gold-finished hands. Black and gold tweed cuff with a golden calfskin trim and a black calfskin lining. High-precision quartz movement.

Creative wealth

This novel architecture, with its cuff and its button-watch, opens up a wealth of creative prospects. The precious button – and over the course of its history Chanel has created countless examples – lends itself to so many possibilities that the list is virtually infinite. The Mademoiselle Privé Bouton watch will definitely not be a one-off. The collection opens with a selection of buttons created from yellow gold, diamonds, pearls and agate. It encompasses lions, camellias and the byzantine cross. The iconic profile of Mademoiselle Chanel appears as a cameo, carved from onyx. The tweed cuff is quilted and transformed into white gold, set with diamonds. In 2021, Gabrielle Chanel’s profile is revealed on a carved yellow gold button. The cuff is in black leather, with a quilted motif trimmed in golden calfskin.

Mademoiselle Privé Bouton décor Byzantin

Numbered and limited edition of 5 pieces. 18K yellow gold button adorned with a byzantine motif set with 1 cushion-cut diamond (~1.5 carat), 4 cushion-cut diamonds (~2 carats), 4 pear-cut diamonds (~0.65 carat) and 8 brilliant-cut diamonds (~0.24 carat). Outer 18K yellow gold cord set with 52 brilliant-cut diamonds (~0.46 carat), inner 18K yellow gold cord. 18K white gold dial set with 142 brilliant-cut diamonds (~0.52 carat). Gold-finished hands. Black and gold tweed cuff with a golden calfskin trim and a black calfskin lining. High-precision quartz movement.

Mademoiselle Privé Bouton Camée

Mademoiselle Privé Bouton Camée. Numbered and limited edition of 5 pieces. 18K yellow gold button adorned with an cameo depicting the profile of Gabrielle Chanel. Outer 18K yellow gold cord set with 52 brilliant-cut diamonds (~0.46 carat), inner 18K yellow gold cord. 18K white gold dial set with 142 brilliant-cut diamonds (~0.52 carat). Gold-finished hands. Black and gold tweed cuff with a golden calfskin trim and a black calfskin lining. High-precision quartz movement.

Novelty 2021

Mademoiselle Privé Bouton décor Gabrielle

Novelty 2021 – Limited edition of 55 pieces. 18K yellow gold button adorned with a carving depicting the profile of Gabrielle Chanel. Outer cord in 18K yellow gold set with 52 brilliant-cut diamonds (~0.46 carat). Dial in 18K white gold set with 142 brilliant-cut diamonds (~0.52 carat). Cuff in black leather with a quilted motif, trimmed in golden calfskin. High-precision quartz movement.

Mademoiselle Privé

The Bouton watch is the latest to take its place in the Mademoiselle Privé collection (whose name comes from the sign on the door to Gabrielle Chanel’s workshop). As Arnaud Chastaingt explains, Mademoiselle Privé represents “the most intimate side of Chanel haute horlogerie, the most feminine. And perhaps the least well-known.” The Mademoiselle Privé collection, which was launched in 2012 as a showcase for the artistic crafts, includes some of Chanel’s finest and most precious watchmaking creations. Take, for example, the first Mademoiselle Privé watches, inspired by Coromandel screens, and reproduced in breathtaking enamel by Anita Porchet. There are camellias sculpted from mother-of-pearl, skeletonized or paved in diamonds, a parure of petals against a backdrop of enamel, mother-of-pearl marquetry, onyx and sculpted gold, labyrinths of diamonds, a camellia that rotates, or is picked out in gold thread and tiny beads, a soaring comet, aventurine dials…

The Mademoiselle Privé Bouton watch takes its place among these stunning creations, and will no doubt leave its mark on Chanel’s watchmaking. It is a perfect fit, because it is an utterly coherent stylistic interpretation of the Chanel codes. And its legitimacy is beyond question. Who other than Chanel could be behind the tweed, the buttonhole and its button, and all the symbols? Arnaud Chastaingt naturally agrees, noting that the Bouton watch is “a curiosity, an uncomplicated creation in the watchmaking world, but an obvious next step in the world of Chanel.” It’s also an obvious next step for admirers of Mademoiselle Chanel.

Mademoiselle Privé represents “the most intimate side of Chanel haute horlogerie, the most feminine. And perhaps the least well-known.” – Arnaud Chastaingt, directeur du studio de Création de l’Horlogerie de Chanel

Mademoiselle Privé Bouton serti neige. Unique piece. 18K yellow gold button adorned with a byzantine motif set with 1 cushion-cut diamond (~1.5 carat), 4 cushion-cut diamonds (~2 carats), 4 pear-cut diamonds (~0.65 carat) and 8 brilliant-cut diamonds (~0.24 carat). Outer 18K yellow gold cord set with 52 brilliant-cut diamonds (~0.46 carat), inner 18K yellow gold cord. 18K white gold dial set with 142 brilliant-cut diamonds (~0.52 carat). Gold-finished hands. 18K white gold rigid cuff snow-set with 1963 brilliant-cut diamonds (~39.88 carats) and an 18K yellow gold trim set with 316 brilliant-cut diamonds (~4 carats). High-precision quartz movement.

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Text: Pierre Maillard

The new 5236P In-Line Perpetual Calendar from Patek Philippe is both supremely elegant and extraordinarily legible, thanks to its in-line day-date-month display in a single window. Just how did the innovative watchmakers at Patek Philippe go about creating a new self-winding movement that enables this perfect sobriety of the display?

In collaboration with Europa Star

To design a perpetual calendar timepiece is one of horology’s highest ideals. That is because, as the name suggests, the aim is to put into mechanical form the great celestial clock that governs the march of time unperturbed. What finer achievement could there be for a watchmaker than to create a mechanism that can measure and display with unerring precision, and withoutoutside intervention, the time of day and the weeks, months, and years by means of a mechanical set of gear trains? Did not the French philosopher Voltaire believe, as a Deist, that God himself was the “Great Clockmaker”?

Today, most of us live according to the divisions of the year established by the Gregorian calendar. It was introduced by Pope Gregory XIII in 1582 to more closely mimic the solar clock. Protestant nations reluctant to follow the Pope’s innovation were said “to disagree with the sun,” choosing to follow the pre-existing Julian calendar, which had, up until that point, accumulated approximately 11 days’ delay (roughly one day per century) compared to the solar clock. So in 1582, when the Gregorian calendar came into effect for those nations choosing to adopt it, October 4 was immediately followed by October 15 to correct the delay. Since then, our Gregorian calendar has come closer to solar precision, but to remain accurate, there are still leap years for it to juggle, with a day added to February every four years but removed at the turn of the century (except once every four hundred years). This certainly gives the watchmaker something to get their teeth into, trans- forming the astronomical calculations into a play of mechanical forces.

The art of the perpetual calendar timepiece, first mastered around the end of the eighteenth century, is something that Patek Philippe has long excelled at. Numerous pocket watches made by the manufacture provide eloquent proof. The company was even the proud parent of the world’s first perpetual calendar wristwatch, which was made in 1925.

The new 5236P In-Line Perpetual Calendar from Patek Philippe is both supremely elegant and extraordinarily legible, thanks to its in-line day-date-month display in a single window.

Deceptively simple, fiendishly complex

The clarity and legibility of the perpetual calendar’s time and calendar indications are essential qualities. And these elements are often combined with moon phases to complete the picture. Over the years Patek Philippe has presented a range of displays: with hands on subsidiary dials (models endowed with the caliber 240 Q); or a double aperture for the day and the month, with a subsidiary dial for a date hand paired with a moon-phase aperture (models featuring the caliber 324 S Q); or yet again, with the date displayed by a retrograde hand and the day and month by apertures (this goes for models fitted with the caliber 324 S QR).

Another form of display exists too, but only in a handful of pocket watches. Until now, it had never been used for a wristwatch. This type of display presents a single linear aperture for the day, date, and month, positioned at twelve o’clock. One particular example – the Ref. 725/4, a pocket watch from 1972 held in the Patek Philippe Museum in Geneva – caught the eye of the manufacture’s engineers and inspired the new Perpetual Calendar Ref. 5236. The calendar information on the museum piece’s dial (see right) is arranged in-line at twelve o’clock above a moon-phase aperture framed by a subsidiary seconds scale. This in-line lay-out expresses both geometrically and graphically the essence of a fine perpetual calendar from a horological viewpoint, displaying precise, uncluttered, complete in- formation that is clear at a glance. But as the engineers would discover, accommodating such a calendar display in a wristwatch raises many technical challenges.

The Patek Philippe Museum pocket watch Ref. 725/4, from 1972, that inspired the new Perpetual Calendar watch.

Four discs

As stated earlier, legibility is the grail of this little cosmological machine, the perpetual calendar. To achieve optimum clarity despite the minimal space in terms of diameter and thickness available in a wristwatch, the engineers developed an innovative system of four separate discs, one each for the month and the day and two for the date (one for the tens and the other for the units). The aim was to make the numbers and other indications as large as possible while maximizing the system’s long-term reliability in compliance with the stipulations of the Patek Philippe Seal.

To limit the total thickness of the caliber, the perpetual calendar mechanism was integrated as a separate module mounted on a specially designed plate. With its four discs, this device alone required 118 more components than a classic perpetual calendar display system. And to ensure that all the information appeared on the same plane with no overlap, Patek Philippe’s engineers and watchmakers developed a display system comprising two tiny double ball bearings with coplanar balls, for which they have filed a patent application.

Two additional applications were filed for the perpetual calendar mechanism. One concerns a device for executing the date changeover from the thirty-first to the first. That device allows the unit (the number 1) to remain in place during the transition from the thirty- first of the month to the first of the following month by means of a cleverly contrived date star, two of whose 31 teeth have been removed. The other patent relates to a shock-absorber mechanism that reinforces the security of the date display and the perfect synchronization between its two discs. It prevents any accidental jump in the event of a shock or during a correction. These are far from being minor considerations, since if the units were to move out of step with the tens, the only solution would be to take the watch back to its makers.

Executed using a dragging display rather than an instantaneous jump, these calendar indications (day, date, and month in that order) are complemented by two small round apertures, one for the leap-year cycle (positioned at four o’clock) and the other for a day/night indicator (at eight o’clock). Both are very useful when adjusting the calendar, which is done easily using the three correctors set into the side of the case. A fourth corrector relates to the moon phases, displayed with extreme precision in an aperture at the center of the subsidiary seconds dial at six o’clock.

Perfect in-line legibility is achieved by the four discs of this little cosmological machine, which move on ball bearings.

Energy optimisation

This calendar module is powered by the new caliber 31-260 PS QL (QL for in-line perpetual calendar), based on the previous caliber (31-260 REG QA) launched in 2011 in the Annual Calendar Regulator Ref. 5235. The new self-winding movement’s recessed mini-rotor contributes to its slender finesse. But for this movement to be able to drive a perpetual calendar, which is energy-hungry by nature, the design had to incorporate a number of Patek Philippe’s most recent technical innovations. The engineers increased the barrel torque by 20 per cent and boosted the winding power of the mini-rotor by making the rotor out of platinum, which has a greater mass than the 22K gold used previously. Another contributor to this energy optimization was the use of jewel bearings in the gear trains driving the calendar discs.

Furthermore, along with a Spiromax® balance spring made from Silinvar®, the new caliber 31-260 PS QL is equipped with a reduction wheel that lessens wear by disconnecting the self-winding mechanism when the manual-winding mode is active – an innovation that was patented by Patek Philippe in 2019.

Finally, this splendid movement also acquired a new look, with two distinctive bridges for the escapement and sweep-seconds hand. While this layout complicates life for the watchmaker, it treats watch enthusiasts to an uninterrupted view of the architecture and its lavishly finished components, which are visible through the protective sapphire crystal caseback.

For a perpetual calendar, only timeless beauty will do

For a perpetual calendar, only timeless beauty will do. That principle radiates from the dial and the case of the new Ref. 5236P. A chamfered, polished bezel frames the blue lacquered dial. And, as is customary in order to distinguish Patek Philippe’s platinum wristwatches, the caseband features a diamond set at six o’clock. The three in-line perpetual calendar displays, in blue on a white ground, stand out to perfection, while the large railway-track minute scale and the subsidiary seconds scale at six o’clock (framing the ultra-precise moon-phase dis- play) lend an appropriately technical touch, accentuated by white gold baton-style hands and hour markers.

Streamlined architecture, an uncluttered dial, and an understated 41.3 mm platinum case with perfectly balanced proportions all complement a timepiece that is destined to measure calendar time unperturbed for years, decades, and centuries. This truly is a watch equipped for perpetuity.

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Text: Pierre Maillard

Traduction: Barbara Caffin