The Boy·Friend takes its name from the way Gabrielle Chanel borrowed from the male wardrobe and made it her own — a lady’s watch cut with a boyish, off-duty ease. It is the kind of piece bought for how it sits on your own wrist on an ordinary Tuesday, not to match anything or anyone. As of July 2026, a steel Boy·Friend sits from around £1,450 pre-owned; the beige-gold and openworked versions climb well beyond it. Frame it, honestly, as a design piece you keep — not a watch you buy to sell on.
What is the Chanel Boy·Friend?
Launched in 2015 and shown first at Chanel‘s Place Vendôme boutique, the Boy·Friend is an octagonal-cased lady’s watch that inherits its geometry from the Première of 1987 — the octagon echoing both the perimeter of Place Vendôme and the stopper of the Nº5 bottle. It comes in small and medium sizes, in steel, in beige gold (Chanel’s own rose-gold alloy), with diamond bezels, and as the openworked Boy·Friend Skeleton. Despite the name, it is a lady’s watch through and through; Chanel’s men’s line is the separate Monsieur de Chanel.
How much is a pre-owned Chanel Boy·Friend worth?
These are wider open-market guide ranges in GBP, as of July 2026, from dealer asking prices and retail anchors where the used market is thin — not sold figures, and not Chrono6538’s prices. Chanel is not tracked by the watch price-indices, so read these as asking prices rather than settled market values.
| Configuration | Guide asking range (GBP, Jul 2026) | Notes |
|---|---|---|
| Steel, black lacquer quartz (small & medium) | ~£1,450 – £2,900 pre-owned | New around £3,000–£3,800. Tweed-motif editions (H4876, H4878) sit in this tier. |
| Entry floor | from ~£1,200 – £1,400 | An older small steel Boy·Friend, worn, without box or papers, sold privately. |
| Beige gold, quartz, medium (H6588) | Retail ~£11,300 – £13,000; pre-owned thin | Genuine used listings are scarce — expect a discount to retail, but supply is limited. |
| Beige gold + diamond bezel, quartz (H6591) | Retail ~£19,500 – £22,500; pre-owned thin | Bezel and buckle set with diamonds. |
| Boy·Friend Skeleton (openworked, hand-wound) | Steel retail ~£24,000–£26,000; beige-gold diamond ~£38,000+ | Used examples rare — flagged rather than priced. |
A note on the range: a steel diamond-bezel Boy·Friend is not really a standard configuration — Chanel’s diamond versions are the beige-gold pieces — so beige gold is roughly four times the steel quartz. And the Skeleton, contrary to what you might assume, is a hand-wound mechanical watch (Chanel’s Calibre 3), not an automatic.
Steel, beige gold or Skeleton?
The steel Boy·Friend is where most ladies begin, and it is the honest heart of the collection — the tweed-motif bracelet editions (H4876, H4878) give the piece its most recognisably Chanel look for the least outlay.
Beige gold is the step into something warmer and rarer, and the diamond-bezel version is the dress piece. The openworked Skeleton is the connoisseur’s Boy·Friend — a hand-finished mechanical movement laid bare inside the octagon — and it surfaces on the pre-owned market only occasionally.
Where the name comes from
Gabrielle “Coco” Chanel built a fashion house on borrowing men’s codes — jersey, tailoring, the boyish silhouette — and remaking them for the lady who wanted to move freely. The Boy·Friend is that idea worn on the wrist. If you want the fuller story, Chanel’s founder has a well-documented life and legacy that explains why a “borrowed-from-a-man” watch is, in the end, entirely a lady’s.
Buying a pre-owned Boy·Friend with confidence
Steel Boy·Friends trade well below retail, which makes the pre-owned route the sensible one — but it also means checking that the case, dial and bracelet are genuine Chanel and in honest condition. Chrono6538 sells authenticated, checked and guaranteed pieces, so the watch is exactly what it says it is, and yours to love without a second thought. Choose it because it feels like you.
See pre-owned Chanel at Chrono6538 →
Guide values from Chrono6538’s reading of the wider pre-owned market as of July 2026; asking prices, not sold prices. Not investment advice — values can fall as well as rise.