The Parisian watch company Chanel has just unveiled a new version of its elite Monsieur collection of men's watches. This new release, known as the Monsieur Superleggera Edition, marks the first new Monsieur wristwatch in several years. This "super light" model is the first sporty-styled Monsieur model and is among the less common ceramic Monsieur watches (most versions are made of gold or platinum). The first Chanel Superleggera model was part of the J12 Chronograph collection (initially introduced in 2005) and featured a ceramic and aluminum case. In the Monsieur Superleggera model, Chanel emphasizes a sporty style (as opposed to lightweight construction) and durable materials, using black matte ceramic and steel for the case.
I was the first to introduce the original Chanel Monsieur watches in 2016 here, when Chanel first presented them in precious metal. The debut piece was priced around $40,000, with jewelry versions costing over $100,000. This makes this product somewhat different from the typical watches of the luxury fashion house. What makes the Monsieur particularly special for watch enthusiasts is the movement inside. The movement (known as the Chanel Calibre 1), made for Chanel by Romain Gauthier (watch brand R. Gauthier), is a beautiful hand-wound mechanical movement that combines a jumping hour indicator (at the "6 o'clock" position) with a 270-degree retrograde minute indicator (and a traditional auxiliary seconds dial). The essence is to be visually stunning while offering a mechanism worthy of even the most experienced connoisseurs. The movement operates at a frequency of 4 Hz with a 72-hour power reserve and features a combination of modern lines with traditional watchmaking craftsmanship and manual finishing.
Chanel crafted the dial of the Monsieur Superleggera Edition to be unlike most other Monsieur models - even with the same dial layout. Not as classic as other Monsieur versions, this model's dial is partially skeletonized around the periphery, revealing part of the hour indicator disc, as well as some new textures and visual effects inspired by a car's instrument panel. The middle case in matte black ceramic (with a steel bezel, crown, and case back) is 42 mm wide and is covered with sapphire crystal over the dial and movement. Attached to the case is a superb strap made of black calf leather and black nylon (with a bright red inner lining). With the Monsieur Superleggera model, Chanel truly aims for a strong masculine image that is nonetheless as refined as you would expect from the famous French fashion house.
Chanel notes that the black textured areas on the dial feature machine guilloche engraving. In most cases, such details are stamped, but in this case, Chanel opts to use a more traditional (and perhaps more precise) guilloche engraving process to create these dial details. In this instance, it's not so much about the visual style (since the desired textured effect can be achieved in several ways) but about Chanel's contribution to bringing these and other Monsieur watches into the world of haute horlogerie, where materials and technique are as important as aesthetics and style. Chanel has a whole range of "watch enthusiast class" products, and they have every reason to particularly wish for their higher-end products to stand on par with complex products from boutiques or traditional names in mechanical watchmaking. Chanel can claim (for example) that along with the Monsieur Superleggera watches, companies like Breguet also possess the rare art of rose engine guilloche engraving.
In my opinion, the Chanel Monsieur Superleggera Edition watches are as beautiful as they are appealing, and this is the type of men's watch I prefer to see from Chanel. Less than a month ago, I talked about another excellent men's watch from Chanel - the now-discontinued Chanel J12 H3131. I can easily imagine that there are quite a few men who might not connect with the Chanel brand because it is primarily associated with women's watches, or those who disagree with the busy nature of the dial. Nevertheless, given the exclusive nature of these small-series watches and Chanel's strong global brand support, I am fully confident in the success of the Monsieur Superleggera and look forward to the opportunity to try them on my wrist.
The price of the Chanel Monsieur Superleggera reference H6823 is approximately $37,000. More information can be found on the Chanel website.