Chanel’s capsule collection for the year is Couture O’Clock that draws inspiration from the workshop of Gabrielle “Coco” Chanel by referencing dressmaking tools. A homage to the brand’s dressmaking and tailoring, the lineup includes wristwatches and pendant watches, but the most captivating timekeeper is undoubtedly the Couture O’Clock Musical Clock, a unique piece that is table clock containing a music box and automaton. 

A three dimensional display under a glass dome, the clock is centred on five ceramic dressmaker mannequins that travel around the base like a carousel while a tune plays. Continuing with Chanel’s tradition of a clock each year, is clad in Chanel’s elegant colours of black, white, and gold, but lavishly constructed, with diamonds set on the chandelier, brooches and 245 pieces of onyx inlaid on the base.

Table clocks occupy a niche in timepiece collecting, yet are incredibly diverse and range from the hyper mechanical to the whimsical. Chanel’s Musical Clock is paradoxically all at the same time – impressively in its mechanics, incredibly extravagant in execution, yet lighthearted in theme.

Like the brand’s past table clocks – most just as impressive and expensive – the Musical Clock is an apt homage to the Chanel. But unlike its predecessors, the Musical Clock is a more straightforward embodiment of the brand’s best-known line of business. It is also more feminine than Chanel’s earlier clocks, yet according to the brand, the buyer of the clock, which sold by first day of the fair, was a gentleman.

As a one-off object with a price tag of well over €2 million, the Musical Clock doesn’t need a wide audience. Yet it illustrates a broader concept: Chanel’s admirable ability to transform and sculpt the many motifs and themes associated with the brand, most of which are from fashion, into striking mechanical timekeepers.

According to Chanel, the domed clock was conceived to capture the atmosphere of Coco Chanel’s Parisian workshop located on Rue Cambon, now the also location of the brand’s flagship boutique. The clock does that both tangibly as well as acoustically – inside is a musical box that plays My Woman by Al Bowlly, a melody that was reputedly a favourite of the brand’s founder.

The visual focus of the clock is the carousel of dancing mannequins, also known as Stockmans after their most famous maker. When activated, the carousel begins rotating on the base, with each Stockman rotating on its own axis while sliding up and down, with the musical box playing at the same time.

And the time, if it matters, is displayed on a 24-hour scale on the base of the clock that resembles a tailor’s tape measure. Made of aluminium ceramic, the time scale is read against a pointer made up of a pearl and baguette-cut diamond, both set in 18k gold.

All of that is wound by a solid, 18k gold key set with diamonds that is delivered on a matching diamond-set gold chain, allowing it to be worn as a pendant. Together, the key and chain are set with over 350 diamonds totally some 14 carats.