THE CHIAROSCURO OF A SILHOUETTE
When two highly-distinctive colors, as contrasting as night and day, come face to face on the J12’s body, it’s not a question of fusion or of even thinking of making a choice: but more-so a tale of harmonious cohabitation.
20, an age where everything is possible, an age where life rolls out the red carpet for a future which looks promising. Chanel’s J12, created in 2000, is celebrating its 20th anniversary this year, after having been redesigned – the famous “change everything without changing” – in 2019. The first versions of this young icon adorned black ceramic, the second ones featured white but, to celebrate this 2nd decade, the watch asserts its distinctive character with the J12 Paradoxe, a savvy balance between two fundamentally-opposed colors which, nevertheless, the Parisian house unites with delicate harmony.
On the 38 mm-diameter ceramic and steel case equipped with a two-tone fixed bezel, a straight-line boundary has been traced. Literally. The entire right-hand side of this immaculate piece – lugs, flank, bezel and dial included – conjures ups a pitch-black night, like the hidden side of a face, the dark and discreet part of the J12. The hour chapter displays black-coated applique-style Arabic numerals, except for the 3 which offers a contrast like a moon in a night-time sky. The black baton-style hour and minute hands and the arrow-tipped direct-drive, encircled by a railway-style minute tracker, taper off with white luminescent striations. The black date on white backdrop, between 4 and 5 o’clock, is hardly noticeable.
The basic time features are driven by the 12.1 caliber, a COSC-chronometer-certified manufacture-made automatic movement set at the standard frequency of 4 Hz. This mechanical movement offers a power reserve of 70 hours.
The J12 Paradoxe is worn on a bracelet fashioned with three rows of white-ceramic links attached by a steel folding clasp.
Price not indicated
By Sharmila Bertin