The Black Moon was the first Dior watch, launched way back in 1975. The piece is an example of how simple design can at times be the chicest, and it is this concept of design that would continue to inspire future Dior watch collections.
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In 1990, 15 years later, Dior launched the Bagheera collection, taking inspiration from the lineaments of the Black Moon. As the name 'Bagheera' is also the name of the black panther in Rudyard Kipling's Jungle Book series, perhaps the elegant design of this watch was partly inspired by the elegance of this creature.
In 1995, La Parisienne watch was launched. This time, the fashion house had designed a square-shaped piece, an edgy offering to the market of the time.
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After La Parisienne, a new era began for the Dior watch collection, with the shapes of the dial and the design of the straps becoming even more original. In 2000, the Malice was launched, which featured a strap designed with interlocking ‘CD’ shapes, and the Riva, an update of La Parisienne.
The following year, with John Galliano at the helm, the fashion house launched a collection of watches for Dior, in 2001. The first was the Chris 47 Aluminum, a piece with a contemporary shape, which gave birth to a new style for the design of Dior watches.
The Malice and Riva watches have been redesigned with precious stones to create the Malice Sparkling and Riva Sparkling a spin-off of the original models.
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In 2002, it was time for the Spring-Summer ready-to-wear collection, a powerful lineup of models that played with what it meant to be ‘feminine’, by removing floral designs and blurring the boundaries between male and female silhouettes. These runway models served as the inspiration for the Dior 66 watch, an incredibly thin and not 'traditionally feminine’ piece.
With the Dior watch collection growing stronger, Dior Fine Jewelry designer Victoire de Castellane launched her own watch called Le D de Dior (‘The D of Dior’). Her design echoed the elegance of the 1975 Black Moon, a curved and simple which simply lets Dior's status speak for itself.
Like the Dior 66, the Le D de Dior was designed for women but played with masculine traditions, with the Dior Homme Chiffre Rouge watch launched at the same time.
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In 2005, Galliano launched the Dior Christal watches, which once again featured a masculine shape with feminine details in the form of a combination of steel and sapphires. The same year, the Chiffre Rouge collection won awards at the World Watches and Jewelry Show in Basel, Switzerland. It was overall a stellar year for Dior as it was also the 100th anniversary of designer Christian Dior's birthday.
Inspired by Christian Dior's taste for grand balls, the Dior VIII Grand Bal collection was launched in 2011. Some seventy years after the important date October 8, 1946 – the year in which Christian Dior created the fashion house – the Dior VIII Grand Bal Plissé Ruban was launched. The story continues and Dior watches always enjoy great success in the auction market.
