There is a noticeable difference between the J12’s ceramic case design and that of the clear sapphire case and bracelet.
Two decades ago, the Chanel J12 launched the ceramic watch boom, and since then, the iconic façade has been proudly retained in all of its iterations—tourbillon, GMT, gemset, metiers marquetry—so far. In the J12, ceramic is swapped out for clear sapphire crystal, the second hardest material in the world to diamonds. This results in a watch that has everything you could ever want.
There is nothing to obstruct the view of the movement, as it is made of sapphire crystal, which means that outside of the white gold hands and the chapter ring on the inner dial, there is no other obstructation of the movement from the outside world. As far as the hour indicators are concerned, the baguette diamonds that serve as the hour indicators make a stunning impression: they are set in sapphire crystal over the dial, giving them a sense of suspension.
It is noteworthy that other brands have utilized sapphire crystal on dials and casings, including Richard Mille, Hublot, Bovet, and Girard-Perregaux. However, the bracelet for the new J12 X-Ray is entirely made of sapphire crystal as well. In this bracelet, the links are cut from raw sapphires, revealing the metal hinges that hold the links together. The bezel is set with baguette diamonds valued at 5.46 carats. As a result, the bracelet looks like an ice sculpture and is a pure expression of light and openness. There is no doubt that the J12 X-Ray represents a natural extension of the J12’s aesthetics – a pure and simple design.
An entirely new movement, the caliber 3.1, is exposed in the transparent case and dial, which was also designed with transparency in mind. A clear sapphire plate and bridges give the impression that the gear train is suspended without any support at all, and assembling each movement takes approximately a week. Each movement has components that are manufactured with tolerances ranging from 0.5 millimeters to 1 millimeters. A sapphire crystal watch is notorious for its high price, because the material is extremely difficult to machine and can be extremely expensive, and the J12 X-Ray is no exception-priced at $626,000, it will have a limited run of just 12.
In addition to the J12 Paradoxe, Chanel is introducing a two-tone watch, which redefines the meaning of two-tone, which is typically synonymous with steel and gold in watchmaking. As a result, the J12 Paradoxe celebrates both the blue and black colors of the model’s ceramic cases by fusing black and white together in a proportion roughly 1/3 to 1/3 of its original design. In order to make a complete case, two pieces of ceramic are cut and then perfectly fused together, one black and one white, in a complex process.
During the assembly process, the two parts are assembled on a metallic support that holds the sapphire caseback in place. Once the two parts are assembled, it becomes important to align the seams that fuse the two colors together between the dial and the case perfectly. With the J12 Paradoxe Diamond, Chanel takes the concept to a whole new level by including a baguette diamond set in the bottom 1/3 of the case, bracelet, and dial. As for the ceramic version, it is priced at $7,150, while the baguette diamond version costs $192,600.
