Uncover Chanel’s $4 million chessboard, which secretly tells the time

‘I at all times knew at some point I needed to create a set impressed by video games, connecting Chanel and the watch world,’ says Arnaud Chastaingt, director of Chanel’s watch creation studio. ‘Chess is a conventional sport, and there’s a reference to the graphic world of Chanel – within the duality of the black and white, and in addition the truth that the objects are very important. There’s no ornamentation. It’s like when you could have a domino on the desk, you rapidly perceive how you can use it. There’s a minimalist simplification and performance.’

The French home’s one-of-a-kind chess set attracts on its excessive jewelry and watchmaking acumen, crafting a ceramic chessboard, in deep black and pearly white, that was two years within the making. It’s populated with a forged of sculpted 18k white gold figures studded with diamonds, all acquainted characters in Chanel’s universe. And the way does it inform the time? Within the base of the determine of the queen – represented, naturally, by Gabrielle ‘Coco’ Chanel – is hid a clock. A loop on the highest signifies that she will also be held on a white gold chain set with diamonds and onyx, which is secreted away within the chessboard drawer. In a neatly playful twist, the winner can, fairly actually, put on time.

‘This chessboard is a metaphor for Chanel time,’ Chastaingt provides. ‘I performed chess after I was younger, and I feel it helped to develop my creativeness. For me, chess is sort of a little theatre. You play and also you perceive the facility of the totally different parts. It provides you the chance to replicate. There are totally different actors, they usually all have a special energy.’

We recognise the actors right here – Gabrielle Chanel’s favorite motifs, which regularly pop up throughout watches and jewelry. The king is a lion, the knight is Chanel’s distinctive quilted motif, the bishop a couture bust and the rook the Vendôme column, which stands outdoors Chanel’s Paris boutique. Each bit epitomises a pointy goldsmithing skill, and is formed utilizing the standard lost-wax casting method from bespoke moulds earlier than being sandblasted, polished, rhodium-plated and set with diamonds

‘It’s fascinating for me that the spirit of Gabrielle Chanel is a guardian of time right here,’ says Chastaingt. ‘You play chess, uncover a watch underneath the queen, and the winner can put on her. The story doesn’t end on the finish of the sport. In all good tales, you could have a secret.’