Chanel has announced the acquisition of 30 percent of Kross Studio, an independent Swiss fashion house founded in 2020 by Marco Tedeschi. An operation that is anything but limited to the financial dimension or simple investment, which instead fits into a strategy that Chanel has been pursuing for years: supporting independent realities with a strong technical and creative identity, without absorbing them or distorting their language.
But what can be the future of Kross Studio with the entry, in the capital, of one of the most solid and influential groups in contemporary luxury?
Kross Studio is a small independent business that defies convention
Kross Studio has been distinguished from the beginning by a radical approach to design and an ongoing dialogue with the world of pop culture, design, and contemporary collecting. Each project began as a conceptual object, often without a visible logo, with a focus on symmetry, the architecture of movement, and the relationship between container and content. The caliber that has defined the brand’s DNA is a suspended central tourbillon, without hands, in which the time is read via peripheral discs.
Alongside this highly specialized technical approach, which limits a priori the possibility of standardization, are celebrated licensed collaborations (Batman, Star Wars, Game of Thrones) that have taken Kross Studio beyond the traditional boundaries of watchmaking, without ever slipping into merchandising. Limited editions, often accompanied by mechanical sculptures or kinetic displays, designed for collectors who no longer separate watchmaking, art and visual culture.
kross Studio Death Star Central Tourbillon.
This dialogue with pop imagery, however, raises a central question for the brand’s future: to what extent can such a strongly identity-driven language, anchored in specific cultural references, evolve without becoming trapped in its own aesthetic cipher? The challenge is less about consistency and more about the ability to transform that identity into an open system capable of regenerating itself over time.
Why does Chanel invest in Kross Studio?
Kross Studio Batmobile Clock.
Chanel‘s entry into the capital does not change the creative independence of Kross Studio. Marco Tedeschi remains at the helm of design and product development, while the structure retains its operational autonomy. Rather than a “direction” in the strict sense, this is a strategic flanking.
For Chanel, the transaction follows an already established model and articulated presence in Swiss manufactures: minority shareholdings that allow it to support independent realities without intervening directly in the creative process, offering-as an industrial and strategic partner-stability, long-term vision, and structural support, while leaving the identity core of the brand involved intact. From the manufacturing hub in La Chaux-de-Fonds to stakes in some of the most respected realities of independent haute horlogerie (such as J.P. Journe), Chanel has progressively built an ecosystem oriented toward controlling savoir-faire and production quality, rather than rapid growth or immediate visibility.
Within this system, Kross Studio represents a specific and complementary element: advanced watchmaking intelligence, understood as the ability to rethink the architecture of the movement and the role of design not as a mere casing but as an integral part of the mechanical construction. For Chanel, it means access to a highly specialized laboratory for experimentation without having to create it in-house or incorporate it into a more rigid industrial structure.
Chanel invests in Kross Studio, focusing on innovation, independent manufacturing and creative freedom
For Chanel, this is neither an industrial bet nor a quantitative expansion, but a positioning operation. Through Kross Studio, the Rue Cambon maison strengthens its dialogue with the most experimental independent watchmaking and, as it moves beyond the perimeter of fashion, consolidates its credibility with collectors and enthusiasts of haute horlogerie.
At the same time, for Kross Studio, the entry of a giant like Chanel can be a concrete answer to the initial question about its future evolution. The solidity of such a partner offers the conditions to continue experimenting without the pressure of forced commercial growth, allowing the brand to mature its language without distorting it.
A delicate balance, and not without tensions: those between creative independence and the system, between design radicality and long-term sustainability. It is precisely on this fine line that the real value of the operation will be measured, not only for Chanel and Kross Studio, but as a possible model for the future of contemporary independent watchmaking.
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