Chanel takes the retrograde function to a new level this year with the launch of Retrograde Mysterieuse, celebrating the 10th anniversary of the brand's J12 collection with a model that tells time in a completely different way.
Nicolas Beau, international director of Chanel's watch division, says that the watch is the result of a project spanning three years, during which Chanel worked closely with Giulio Papi and his team at Audemars Piguet Renaud Papi (APRP).
'It's one of the most innovative movements I've seen,' Beau says. 'We call it the Retrograde Mysterieuse because, while on the surface it may look innocuous, the wearer is fully aware of all the mysteries it holds.'
The first thing one might notice about the J12 R?trograde Mysterieuse is the positioning of the crown. Instead of the traditional placement on the side of the watch, it is located on the dial at the three o'clock position. The vertical retractable crown releases with a push, and another push depresses the crown and locks it in place.
While the shorter hour hand is unaffected by the crown positioning, the movement of the minute hand is impeded between the 10 and 20 minute marks. The solution proposed by the Chanel and Giulio Papi teams, therefore, was for the minute hand to go around the crown.
For the first 10 minutes of every hour, the dial is read normally. When the hand reaches the 10-minute mark, however, the retrograde function begins. The hand moves anticlockwise at five times its normal speed, travelling 50 minutes within 10 minutes to end up at the 20-minute mark, after which the dial is read normally again for the rest of the hour.
During the 10 retrograde minutes, the time is shown through a magnified aperture at the bottom of the dial that displays the numbers 11 to 19. When the minute hand is on its usual clockwise track, the disc stays in neutral mode and does not show any numbers.