There\u2019s always a first time. A first chapter in the story. The first day of the rest of your life. The one that marked Chanel\u2019s arrival on the watchmaking scene took place in October 1987. Lighting up a rainy Paris that autumn, the stage entrance of the Premi\u00e8re entrance heralded a real watchmaking springtime for Chanel. For 31 years, this dainty octagonal watch designed exclusively for women\u2019s wrists has been weaving Chanel\u2019s watchmaking history with a precious and timeless golden thread. Premi\u00e8re is first and foremost a name. A reference to that which is achieved for the very first time. It is also the name given to the head seamstress of an haute couture atelier. When Chanel presented this tiny watch specifically made with women in mind, no one was expecting it. Nonetheless, although the Maison with its two intertwined Cs had never previously sought to extend its signature to encompassing the measurement of time, the launch of the Premi\u00e8re was a natural continuation of the style codes instilled by Gabrielle Chanel. The exquisite sketch made by Chanel\u2019s Artistic Director, Jacques Helleu, gave rise to a timelessly elegant watch featuring a shape inspired by the stopper of the N\u00b05 fragrance, as well as by the Place Vend\u00f4me. The strap embracing the wrist was a fresh interpretation of the woven leather and metal shoulder strap of the 2.55 it-bag. And while a watch is made to tell the time, this one seemed to have been designed to transcend its functional purpose. The Premi\u00e8re is a piece of jewelry and a fashion accessory in its own right.<\/p>\n
CHANNELING COCO CHANEL<\/strong><\/p>\n Embodied by the fashion muse In\u00e8s de la Fressange ; subtle and refined on the wrist of French actress Carole Bouquet ; adopted by generations of women in love with the unique Chanel allure, the Premi\u00e8re has been perpetually reinvented while losing nothing of its inherent splendor. In 2012, the collection was enriched by the Premi\u00e8re Flying Tourbillon, in which this jewel was transformed into a fascinating expression of mechanical horology. While Chanel had called on the expertise of the movement developers, engineers and master watchmakers at Renaud & Papi in creating the caliber, the signature touch of the in-house design studio clearly governed the creative process. Finely crafted like metal lacework, a camellia evoking those Mademoiselle Chanel liked to wear on her lapel adorns the tourbillon. The latter beats steadily behind the scenes, while the petals of the flower with its diamond-pav\u00e9 heart indicate the passing seconds. Hovering between poetry and technical sophistication, the Premi\u00e8re appeared in a new guise in 2017, powered by the dainty and mesmerizing Caliber 2 : the second Chanel in-house mechanism entirely openworked and stylized to form a three-dimensional camellia bloom. Nonetheless, alongside such technical feats, the Premi\u00e8re watch has for more than two decades remained a fashion queen that flirts with jewelry codes. In double or triple tour versions or as a glam rock iteration, enhanced by a metal chain or a bracelet inspired by the famous quilted-patterned Chanel handbag, Premi\u00e8re continues to delight fashionistas \u2013 as it has done since that very first time.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" There\u2019s always a first time. A first chapter in the story. The first day of […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":15,"featured_media":31704,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[1674],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.gmtmag.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/31707"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.gmtmag.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.gmtmag.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.gmtmag.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/15"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.gmtmag.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=31707"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.gmtmag.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/31707\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":31708,"href":"https:\/\/www.gmtmag.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/31707\/revisions\/31708"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.gmtmag.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/31704"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.gmtmag.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=31707"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.gmtmag.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=31707"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.gmtmag.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=31707"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}