CHANEL TURNS TIMEKEEPING INTO PLAY AT WATCHES AND WONDERS GENEVA 2026

At this year’s Watches and Wonders Geneva, Chanel presented Coco Game, a collection that explores the relationship between time, play and the house’s visual vocabulary. Developed by the Chanel Watchmaking Creation Studio in La Chaux-de-Fonds, the collection brings together watches and objets inspired by games, including chess, playing cards and dominoes.

The concept has a distinctly Chanel quality: familiar forms are taken out of their usual context and transformed through materials, proportion and craftsmanship. Here, the world of games becomes a stage for some of the maison’s most recognisable motifs, with Coco Chanel herself placed at the centre of the collection’s imaginary kingdom.

The most elaborate expression of the idea is the unique Chessboard, conceived as both a functional timepiece and a work of jewellery. Created from ceramic, obsidian, white gold and diamonds, the board is accompanied by 32 miniature pieces, each individually conceived as an object of art.

Among them are references to Chanel’s house codes, including lions, couture-inspired figures and the Vendôme column. These details transform the chess set from a traditional game into a miniature landscape of Chanel symbolism, with each piece contributing to the larger narrative.

At the heart of the board are two opposing queens. Both are representations of Coco Chanel, rendered in contrasting combinations of white gold, black and white ceramic and diamonds. Their role is not purely decorative. Hidden beneath the pedestals are miniature watch dials, turning the queens into secret timekeepers.

The pieces can also be transformed into necklaces, introducing another dimension to the design. The idea reflects Chanel’s long-standing practice of moving between jewellery, fashion and watchmaking rather than treating each discipline as entirely separate.

More than 9,000 diamonds are incorporated into the Chessboard, according to Chanel, creating a surface in which the distinction between horological object and high jewellery becomes deliberately blurred. The diamonds are complemented by the darker presence of obsidian and ceramic, giving the composition a graphic contrast that echoes the black-and-white logic of a chessboard.

The Chessboard is not the collection’s only interpretation of play. Coco Game extends the concept across a series of watches that draw from other familiar games and symbols. The J12 Coco Game introduces a more graphic expression, while additional designs reference playing cards and dominoes.

The J12 provides an especially appropriate foundation for the collection. First introduced in 2000, the watch became one of Chanel’s defining contemporary timepieces, known for its ceramic construction and sporty proportions. Over the years, the J12 has been repeatedly reinterpreted through colour, complications and artistic treatments while retaining its distinctive circular case and ceramic character.

For Coco Game, that established language becomes more playful. The collection uses visual references associated with games while maintaining the precision and material discipline expected from Chanel’s watchmaking division. The result is less about reproducing a particular board game literally and more about examining the visual codes of play through the lens of fine watchmaking.

Chanel’s presence in Swiss watchmaking is relatively young compared with the maison’s fashion heritage, but its approach has developed into a distinctive creative discipline. Chanel began creating watches in 1987 with the Première, a design inspired by the shape of the Place Vendôme and the geometry of the Chanel N°5 bottle stopper. Watchmaking later became an important part of the house’s creative universe, with the establishment of its dedicated Watchmaking Creation Studio in La Chaux-de-Fonds.

The Swiss location is significant. La Chaux-de-Fonds has been associated with watchmaking for centuries and forms part of the UNESCO-listed urban landscape of watchmaking heritage. Chanel’s presence there allows its designers and watchmakers to work within a region whose identity is closely connected to mechanical watchmaking and specialised craftsmanship.

Yet Chanel’s watchmaking has consistently retained a strong connection to the house’s Parisian vocabulary. The Première, J12, Boy·Friend, Code Coco and other collections have explored different facets of the Chanel identity, often taking inspiration from architecture, couture, jewellery and the personal world of Gabrielle Chanel.

Coco Game continues this approach by making play itself the organising principle. Chess is particularly appropriate because it combines visual geometry with strategy and hierarchy. The queen, traditionally one of the most powerful pieces on the board, becomes a representation of Chanel’s founder while simultaneously concealing a watch. The transformation is characteristic of the collection: an object has one function at first glance and another on closer inspection.

The attention to miniature craftsmanship is equally important. The 32-piece chess set requires the same sensitivity to proportion and finish associated with high jewellery. Each component contributes to the composition, while the use of white gold, ceramic, obsidian and diamonds creates a deliberate interplay between hardness, shine and monochromatic contrast.

This dialogue between jewellery and watchmaking has long been central to Chanel’s approach. The maison has used precious stones not simply to decorate watches, but to alter their visual identity, while its jewellery creations frequently incorporate technical or functional elements. Coco Game takes that relationship into a more theatrical realm.

The collection also reflects Chanel’s broader interest in the idea of Coco Chanel as a continuing creative figure. Her presence is not represented through a conventional portrait alone; instead, her likeness becomes part of the mechanics and symbolism of the object. The two miniature Coco figures positioned as opposing queens effectively turn the founder into a participant in the game.

At Watches and Wonders Geneva, where technical innovation and mechanical watchmaking traditionally occupy centre stage, Coco Game introduces another possibility: the watch as a cultural and artistic object. Its complications are not presented in isolation from design, but incorporated into a larger story involving games, jewellery, fashion and Chanel’s own mythology.

That approach feels particularly suited to Chanel, a house whose history has often been shaped by unexpected combinations. Gabrielle Chanel’s original vocabulary brought together masculine and feminine references, simplicity and ornament, fashion and jewellery. The watchmaking studio continues to explore those contrasts in contemporary forms.

With Coco Game, time becomes part of the game rather than merely its measure. A chessboard becomes a jewelled sculpture; a queen becomes a watch; a miniature object becomes a necklace. The collection’s greatest interest lies in these transformations, where familiar objects acquire a second identity through Chanel’s particular language of design and craftsmanship. At Watches and Wonders 2026, the maison’s playful approach serves as a reminder that fine watchmaking need not always be solemn: sometimes, the most intricate expression of craftsmanship begins with the simple pleasure of play.

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