Rowing at its best is a sport about disappearing into the group, where collective effort, synchronization, and precision matter more than any single star. Since 1829, Oxford and Cambridge have tested that idea against each other on the tidal Thames, over a 4.25-mile Championship Course between Putney and Mortlake in West London. In 2027, the crews that win will lift something entirely new.
CHANEL and The Boat Race have unveiled the J12 Boat Race trophies, the House’s first-ever sporting trophies. Designed by Arnaud Chastaingt and made by Thomas Lyte, the equal-size silver cups in white and black frames will first be awarded in 2027, the Women’s Boat Race Centenary.
At the Presidents’ Challenge on September 30, CHANEL and The Boat Race unveiled two new trophies for the victorious men’s and women’s crews of The CHANEL J12 Boat Race. The timing is no accident. 2027 marks the third year of the House’s role as the event’s first Title Sponsor and Official Timekeeping Partner, and the Centenary of the first Women’s Boat Race, held in 1927. It also brings a first for CHANEL itself: these are the first sporting trophies the House has ever created.
That last detail is the one that stays with us. Since Gabrielle Chanel founded the House at the beginning of the last century, CHANEL has been designing objects meant to be worn, carried, and admired, yet it had never made the one object whose entire purpose is to be raised in victory. That it chose a student rowing race, one of the world’s oldest amateur sporting events, rather than something louder feels, in our view, entirely in character.
The trophies were imagined by Arnaud Chastaingt, Director of the CHANEL Watch Creation Studio. CHANEL describes them as a tribute to the passion, commitment, and human achievement at the heart of the event, bringing together the House’s creative heritage and nearly two centuries of Boat Race legacy. The design aims to balance respect for tradition with the timeless modernity, distinctive contrasts, and ergonomic considerations the Maison considers signature to its creations.
In practice, that means a cup you would recognize instantly as a trophy, only sharper. The familiar curves and volume of a traditional trophy have been streamlined and resculpted to enhance the polished silver, and each cup stands within a bold, contemporary rectangular frame. The Women’s trophy is framed in polished white with matte black lines; the Men’s trophy in polished black with matte black lines. The contrast reflects the Maison’s signature colors while echoing the iconic black-and-white palette of the J12, the watch that lends the race its name.
The details carry the idea further. The frame’s edging is mirrored on the trophy’s contours, creating a visual transition between the two, as if joining them in unison. At the heart of each silhouette sits a narrative medallion, a crest-like seal crafted in gold-plated silver and bordered in black, which celebrates both the victory and the encounter between CHANEL and The Boat Race. Notably, the Women’s and Men’s trophies are equal in size, and both were conceived for ease of handling, with frames crafted for the winners’ maximum comfort in the moment of the victory showcase. For crews who will have just raced the length of the Championship Course, that is a thoughtful consideration.
“I was humbled and honoured to lead the creation of trophies for the winners of this momentous race,” Chastaingt shares. “The ambition was to preserve the trophy’s symbolism as a beacon of victory, while reinterpreting and refining it for today.”
He continues: “My guiding principle was to illustrate the relationship between CHANEL and The Boat Race through its design, to have CHANEL’s presence felt without overshadowing the significance of either the trophy or the race.”
To bring the design to life, CHANEL turned to Thomas Lyte, the British designers and makers of iconic trophies, which holds a Royal Warrant as Goldsmiths and Silversmiths to His Majesty King Charles III. The trophies were developed over almost two years and required more than 320 hours of workshop craftsmanship. The first crews to raise them will be the men’s and women’s winners at The CHANEL J12 Boat Race 2027.
The Centenary is a reminder of how far the Women’s Boat Race has come. When the first edition was held in 1927, the Oxford and Cambridge crews were not permitted to compete directly against each other, so each rowed separately and was assessed on both style and speed. It would be another 50 years before women’s rowing entered the Olympic Games, which made the students who took to the water in 1927 genuine trailblazers. The 2027 race celebrates their legacy and the generations of women who followed.
To mark the occasion, the order of the races will be reversed. The CHANEL J12 Men’s Boat Race will take place first on the Championship Course at 15:40, followed by The CHANEL J12 Women’s Boat Race at 16:40, scheduled 2.5 and 1.5 hours before high tide respectively. Giving the women the final race of the day in their Centenary year strikes us as exactly the right call.
None of it happens without ceremony. Siobhan Cassidy, Chair of The Boat Race Company Limited, explains that the race only takes place after the Presidents’ Challenge, “a tradition dating back more than 200 years, where the Presidents of the previous year’s losing crews formally challenge their victorious opponents to defend their titles.” She adds, “The Centenary is the perfect time to deepen our longstanding partnership with CHANEL, with the unveiling of the J12 Boat Race trophies. Our three organisations commit to precision and an unwavering standard of form and function that we are immensely proud to carry into the next 100 years.”
For CHANEL, the trophies are framed as an act of stewardship as much as design. “Our ambition is to support and safeguard what makes this historic event so exceptional: its traditions, uncompromising standards and the remarkable collective endeavour it celebrates,” reflects Frédéric Grangié, President of CHANEL Watches and Fine Jewellery. “The creation of these trophies embodies that commitment… We hope they will become enduring symbols of achievement for the crews who raise them, today and for generations to come.”
In our view, the trophies succeed precisely because of their restraint. A brand of CHANEL’s stature could easily have turned a centuries-old sporting prize into a billboard. Instead, the House let the frame do the talking and left the cup unmistakably a cup, polished silver, two handles, and all. Making the Women’s and Men’s trophies identical in size is the quietest and most meaningful design decision of all, especially in a year devoted to the women who were once judged on style rather than allowed to race head to head.
The J12 has always been a study in black and white. Come race day on the Thames, so will victory.
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