Van Cleef & Arpels’ Poetry of Time: An Enchanted Imaginative and prescient of Watchmaking

Lovers assembly at midnight on a bridge. Ballerinas are poised within the wings earlier than their efficiency. A fairy perched delicately on a cloud. These usually are not scenes from the theatre or the opera — they’re the ticking heartbeats of Van Cleef & Arpels timepieces.

It is a Maison that doesn’t merely assemble watches. It composes fairytales. Every timepiece is written within the language of uncommon crafting strategies comparable to enamel, miniature portray and engraving, all underpinned by extraordinary mechanical artistry. 

Ever since its basis – following Alfred Van Cleef and Estelle Arpels’s wedding ceremony in 1895 – emotion, craftmanship and storytelling have been the soul of the model.

Love is greater than a theme for Van Cleef & Arpels; it’s a cornerstone. The primary piece the Maison ever bought was a diamond coronary heart. And greater than a century later, that spirit of enchantment and poetry endures in its most iconic horological assortment: Poetic Issues.

“Every of our creations begins with a narrative,” says Pascal Narbeburu, Timepieces Métiers Director at Van Cleef & Arpels. When the Poetic Issues assortment was launched in 2006, it turned conventional watchmaking over its head. As a substitute of privileging technical prowess for its personal sake, right here, emotion, craftsmanship and storytelling turn out to be the driving pressure of the watch, whereas animations, issues and métiers d’artwork all come collectively to color a vivid image of romance and poetry. 

Every watch takes as much as 5 to 10 years of analysis and improvement. It’s hardly stunning, then, that all through the years Van Cleef & Arpels has obtained 15 awards (eight of them for the Poetic Issues) on the Grand Prix d’Horlogerie de Genève. 

Time to Romance

One of the vital emblematic watches embodying the Van Cleef & Arpels spirit is the Girl Arpels Pont des Amoureux. Launched 15 years in the past, it options two lovers standing on reverse sides of a bridge, ready for his or her reunion. 

Past the charming narrative is an ingenious technical feat: she strikes with the passing hours; he climbs extra shortly, in keeping with the minutes, to fulfill her at 12 o’clock. There, they share a kiss lasting a magical three minutes earlier than a retrograde mechanism returns them to their respective locations. Since 2019, an on-demand animation triggered by a push-button permits the wearer to replay the scene at will. 

The lovers have returned in varied guises over time. For 2025, Van Cleef & Arpels has introduced again the couple in two iterations: the primary is a collection of 4 watches the place they make a date to rendezvous on the bridge at totally different occasions of the day. Then, there’s the Girl Arpels Bal des Amoureux Automate watch, the place they waltz on the cobblestoned streets of Paris.  

Embodying the very essence of Van Cleef & Arpels’ identification, this assortment stays a cornerstone of the model’s horological storytelling, nonetheless extremely sought-after by collectors and emblematic of timeless design.

“We now have our personal imaginative and prescient of time which stays very constant by the years” says Narbeburu. “That is without doubt one of the explanation why the Poetic Issues watches we’ve created since 2006 are timeless. It’s like taking a basic out of your bookshelf and studying it to your youngsters. A narrative by no means will get previous.”

The most recent Pont des Amoureux creations for 2025 meld a large number of artisanal strategies and mechanical feats, showcasing the Maison’s ever-evolving mastery. Narbeburu notes that
Van Cleef & Arpels has been steadily creating its in-house capabilities, particularly for mechanisms that serve the storytelling facet of the Poetic Issues assortment. Because of this, the Maison is ready to develop, assemble and do high quality management for its issues in-house. This permits designers, engineers, watchmakers and artisans to create embodiments of the Van Cleef & Arpels watchmaking philosophy; the actions they craft are mechanically bold but all the time elegant, with ornamental strategies utilized that serve a story goal. The watchmaking workforce demonstrates technical finesse in creating superior issues in probably the most compact manner potential. That is essential in order that the actions can slot in ergonomically optimised circumstances, making the watches appropriate for on a regular basis put on.

From Day to Night time 

Girl Arpels Pont des Amoureux Soirée (left) & Girl Arpels Pont des Amoureux Aube (proper)

For 2025, the Maison depicts the lovers assembly at totally different moments of the day, specifically daybreak, morning, nightfall, and moonlight. The dials are a sight to behold, crafted utilizing the colored grisaille enamel approach. A palette of delicate watercolours depicts the town at varied factors in the course of the day and night time. Throughout dawn, the rays of the solar permeate by the buildings in a radiant burst of yellows, oranges, purples and pinks, whereas the sky shimmers in a gradient kaleidoscope of purples, pinks and oranges because the solar units. 

To attain this impact, the craftsman fires every dial round 10 occasions within the oven, a posh endeavour that captures each nuance and element of the sky. Every dial takes about 40 hours to create. The scene continues on the caseback, with a sculpted gold case and an enamel decal – making for a real murals. 

Dancing Underneath the Stars

The lovers proceed their romantic sojourn, off the bridge and on to the cobbled streets of Paris. Impressed by the open-air dance cafes of the nineteenth century, they lean into one another for a kiss at midday and midnight. Nevertheless, the Maison pushed the envelope even additional for the Girl Arpels Bal des Amoureux Automate, as the 2 lovers decrease their linked arms in concord – this seemingly easy gesture took
Van Cleef & Arpels 4 years to good, so the motion seems pure, fluid and swish. 

The scene is ebullient, with a smattering of stars, lanterns and fairy lights evoking an idyllic night time out, whereas two stars point out the time on the retrograde counter. One of many largest challenges, says Narbeburu, was to mix all of the Maison’s narrative parts contained in the restricted area of a case. “This watch is sort of three-dimensional. On the dial, there are 5 totally different layers, together with the clouds, the buildings, the figures, and we needed to ensure that the watch remained skinny.”

This dial requires over 40 hours of labor, created utilizing two enamel strategies: the traditional and extremely complicated grisaille and colored grisaille, a method created in-house, so the background is sort of hypnotic in its chiaroscuro impact. 

When the Stars Align

What could possibly be extra romantic than stargazing with somebody you’re keen on? For Van Cleef & Arpels, the sky is just not the restrict, it’s a canvas. Whereas many manufacturers have explored astronomical issues, calculating tides and celestial positions with scientific precision, Van Cleef & Arpels’ aim is extra emotive: to convey the heavens to the wrist. 

Technical innovation meets inventive ingenuity throughout the Girl Arpels Planétarium. The wonder lies within the astronomical mechanism, which might observe the motion of planets across the dial. All of it matches inside a 38mm case, making it really a piece of surprise

The Girl Arpels Planétarium watch is an ideal illustration of this imaginative and prescient. Set on a dial of deep blue aventurine glass, which shimmers like an evening sky, it options seven concentric rings that chart the real-time motion of the planets. Every orb is crafted in a unique, beautiful materials: Venus in inexperienced enamel, Earth in turquoise, Mercury in pink mother-of-pearl, the Solar in sculpted gold, and the Moon as a diamond, which itself revolves across the Earth in 29.5 days. A golden taking pictures star encircles the dial each 12 hours, pointing to the present time, a contact that provides simply the best celestial aptitude to the timepiece. 

When Horology Meets Horticulture  

In a magical backyard, flowers bloom and shut, marking every passing hour. Within the palms of
Van Cleef & Arpels, nature is captured in a wealthy and vivid tableau.

The Girl Arpels watch serves as a canvas, permitting Van Cleef & Arpels’ artisans to pay homage to their perennial muse, nature, in all its boundless magnificence and bounty. Among the many highlights are the Girl Arpels Heures Florales timepieces, supplied in two variations and colors, impressed by the 1751 work Philosophia Botanica by Swedish botanist Carl von Linné. In his e-book, Linné imagined a backyard whose flowers opened and closed to disclose the time.

The Girl Arpels Heures Florales timepieces convey this dream to life with a miniature backyard the place blossoms unfurl to show the hours, providing a pleasant shock as the following flowers to bloom stay a thriller. 

Demonstrating how the workforce takes a hands-on function for each watch and is consistently pushing boundaries, Narbeburu reveals that they went by a demanding inventive course of that concerned all manufacturing groups engaged on a number of iterations, every time incorporating an elevated contact of “magic” to the creation.  

One of many “magical” elements of the backyard is that the blooming of the flowers seems utterly random. “Within the morning, one flower may bloom to point 1am; within the afternoon, will probably be a unique flower; and the morning of the following day, yet one more one,” explains Narbeburu. “So, we’ve three cycles that give the impression of randomness.” 

The minutes are indicated on a lateral band on the case center, permitting time to be learn discreetly. Although poetic and delicate in its expression, the mechanism is a marvel of engineering, representing 5 years of innovation from idea to creation.

Summer time Breeze

The winner of the Prestigious Girls’ Complication Prize on the 2024 Grand Prix d’Horlogerie de Genève, the Girl Arpels Brise d’Été watch evokes the lightness of a summer time breeze, surrounded by nature. With this piece, Van Cleef & Arpels showcases its mastery of a variety of inventive crafts, combining strategies comparable to gem-setting, plique-à-jour, and vallonné enamel. These strategies act like brushstrokes portray a vivid panorama: the butterfly wings and blades of grass are rendered in delicate plique-à-jour enamel, giving them a translucent high quality, whereas the flower petals — crafted in vallonné enamel — have a domed, luscious end.

Every blossom is adorned with spessartite garnets, and the backyard shimmers with vibrant inexperienced tsavorites. Finishing this enchanting tableau, wildflowers gently sway in the summertime breeze, whereas two butterflies gracefully circle the dial to point the hours and minutes. Urgent the pusher at 8 o’clock units their elegant dance in movement.

Fairy Mud

At Van Cleef & Arpels, Haute Joaillerie and Haute Horlogerie typically collide, as they’re complementary. 

Left: Girl Féerie; Proper: Girl Féerie Or Rose 

A well-known determine within the universe of Van Cleef & Arpels, the fairy is a recurring muse, a logo of lightness, hope and benevolence. She first fluttered into the Maison’s world within the Nineteen Forties as a sculpted, gem-set clip. Right this moment, she reappears within the Girl Féerie watch, perched gracefully on a cloud, her wand delicately commanding the minutes.

Left: Girl Féerie Or Rose ; Proper: The caseback of the Girl Féerie Or Rose

Her type is sculpted in gold, and he or she wears a sapphire- and diamond-studded tutu. Her wings are made from turquoise plique-à-jour enamel, whereas the dial is crafted in guilloché mother-of-pearl. 

A Excellent Dance

Girl Arpels Ballerine Musicale Rubis (left) and Girl Arpels Ballerine Musicale Émeraude (proper)

Van Cleef & Arpels has lengthy been each passionate concerning the arts, and impressed by it, with an affinity for dance. It began with Louis Arpels, a member of the founding household of the Maison, who would typically attend the ballet along with his nephew Claude in tow. This ardour finally took type within the iconic ballerina clips of the Nineteen Forties, items that stay beloved to today.

The Maison continues to bounce its manner into our hearts with a collection of three timepieces, the Girl Arpels Ballerines Musicales watches, which makes use of gem-setting, miniature portray and a posh animation and a mechanism that mixes a music field and a chime to create a sensorial spectacle. Obtainable in a collection of three, every iteration, the Girl Arpels Ballerine Musicale Émeraude watch with its inexperienced tones, Rubis in purple, and at last Diamant in blue, pays homage to the three acts in Jewels. Famously, ballet choreographer George Balanchine developed Jewels within the Nineteen Sixties following an encounter with Claude Arpels, with whom he shared a ardour for gem stones.

Girl Arpels Ballerine Musicale Emeraude

The main points of the watch are really beautiful, from the dramatic folds of the curtain that components to the revealed hand-painted dancing ballerinas. They pirouette onto the stage, to the tune of the music.  Not like a minute repeater, this musical field can play a spread of notes. Miniaturising this engineering marvel right into a wristwatch was really a rare feat, one which was 10 years within the making.

This being Van Cleef & Arpels, the diamonds on the entrance of the case emulate the chandelier of a stage and people on the case center give the impression of curtains – a requirement that made the structure much more difficult, as they muffled the sound, requiring masterful engineering to protect each the watch’s magnificence and its musical readability.

Curtain name

Van Cleef & Arpels redefines the operate of time with its Poetic Issues assortment, watches the place technical prowess is on the service of the story. As Narbeburu reminds us, “The story is on the middle of the creation; mechanics and métiers d’artwork permit us to inform it.” 

Right here, time pauses for a kiss on a bridge or the blooming of flowers in a backyard. Mixing mechanical ingenuity with inventive craftsmanship, these items mirror the spirit of Van Cleef & Arpels, from its inception greater than a century in the past; it continues to form the Maison’s distinctive method to watchmaking.

“We now have our personal imaginative and prescient of time which stays very constant by the years. That is without doubt one of the explanation why the Poetic Issues watches we’ve created since 2006 are timeless. It’s like taking a basic out of your bookshelf and studying it to your youngsters. A narrative by no means will get previous.”
– Pascal Naberburu, Timepieces Métiers Director at Van Cleef & Arpels​

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