Fashion, Coco Chanel once said, is “not something that exists in dresses only”. Couture houses have often taken her at her word, expanding their offerings beyond the items that made them famous.
Chanel was one of the first fashion brands to move into watches, introducing its Première range in 1987. Others, ranging from Hugo Boss to Calvin Klein, have followed suit.
To underline its commitment to horlogerie, in 1993 Chanel bought Chatelain, a watch assembly plant in La Chaux-de-Fonds, the heart of the Swiss watch industry. The company has increased the number of staff at its Swiss site from about 200 to 360. And it opened a factory in 2012 that doubled the floor space from 8,000m sq m to 16,000 sq m.