Chanel Mademoiselle Privé Pique-Aiguilles watch nods to couture

Chanel Mademoiselle Privé Pique-Aiguilles watch surrounded by pin cushion needles

Mademoiselle Privé Pique-Aiguilles tweed motif watch in 18ct yellow gold, titanium, black lacquer, pearls and diamonds, price on request, by Chanel

(Image credit: Florent Tanet)

By Hannah Silver

published 14 March 2023

in Features

The humble pin cushion is behind the latest watch from Chanel, with Arnaud Chastaing, the director of Chanel’s watchmaking studio, taking inspiration from objects whose architecture centres around their function. Chanel watches traditionally take their design cues from the French maison’s world – from winding its distinctive embellished leather handbag chain around the wrist to evoking the form of a No. 5 perfume bottle stopper or imprinting tweed on a dial.

With the Mademoiselle Privé Pique-Aiguilles watch, it’s the pin cushion that Gabrielle Chanel often toted on her wrist in her role as seamstress that acts as muse. Cutting a playfully oversized silhouette, the tweed motif version features the pattern of a tweed jacket, trimmed with 92 diamonds, underneath a domed case evoking the shape of a pin cushion. It’s dotted with the tools of an atelier, such as thimbles, scissors and tape measures, all drawn in sculpted gold.

A final flourish is a nod to the chain sewn inside every Chanel jacket to ensure it hangs perfectly, here elegantly trimming the dial.

chanel.com

A version of this story appears in the April 2023 Issue of Wallpaper*, available now in print, on the Wallpaper* app on Apple iOS, and to subscribers of Apple News +. Subscribe to Wallpaper* today

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Hannah Silver is the Art, Culture, Watches & Jewellery Editor of Wallpaper*. Since joining in 2019, she has overseen offbeat art trends and conducted in-depth profiles, as well as writing and commissioning extensively across the worlds of culture and luxury. She enjoys travelling, visiting artists' studios and viewing exhibitions around the world, and has interviewed artists and designers including Maggi Hambling, William Kentridge, Jonathan Anderson, Chantal Joffe, Lubaina Himid, Tilda Swinton and Mickalene Thomas.