Awed by the spectacle of the stars and the heavens, the French jewellery and watch company pays tribute to celestial wonders through creations that express the full scope of its expertise.
Poetry of the Heavens
For more than a century, Van Cleef & Arpels has pursued the dream of living in time with the cosmos. Awed by the spectacle of the stars and the heavens, the Maison pays tribute to celestial wonders through creations that express the full scope of its expertise.
In 1929, it designed a pocket watch fitted with a complication showing phases of the Moon. In the 1950s, Van Cleef & Arpels once again turned its gaze to the night sky, especially with the Meteor secret watch. This year, the Maison is observing the Moon’s subtle variations through a new Poetic Complications timepiece.
The hours of Poetic Astronomy tick by in harmony from one time zone to the next, within an elegant setting highlighting the art of enamel. Meanwhile, Van Cleef & Arpels’ jewels that tell time interpret the boundless depth of the sky in rare materials. Finally, the Extraordinary Dials collection welcomes two new watches – legendary tales of love set against a celestial backdrop.
Midnight Jour Nuit Phase de Lune
Van Cleef & Arpels is expanding its Jour Nuit collection, launched in 2008 and revisited in 2024, with the introduction of a new creation in honour of the Moon, a long-standing source of inspiration for the Maison. The watch features two overlapping complications housed within the case. The first animates the eponymous Jour/Nuit display, while the second ‘astronomical’ complication illustrates the current Moon phase, a feature that entered the watchmaking history of Van Cleef & Arpels in 1929.
Within the 42mm white gold Midnight case, the dial beams with the intense sparkle of a black Murano aventurine glass sky. Van Cleef & Arpels’ Innovation Department took part in developing this component, achieving a deep colour and a shimmering bronze-toned effect that calls to mind the full beauty of the night sky.
Over the course of the day, the guilloché golden Sun gradually gives way to a Moon fashioned in white mother-of-pearl and surrounded by acrylic traced stars. The two heavenly bodies thus emerge and disappear behind the horizon, represented by a guilloché mother-of-pearl shroud painted in a gradient of shades from black to white.
Their daily pursuit is made possible by the movement of a 24-hour rotating disc, characteristic of Jour Nuit creations. This first display is enhanced by a subtle shift in the appearance of the Moon, echoing its eternal 29.5-day cycle. The phenomenon remains visible on demand even when the Moon is hidden behind the shroud, thanks to a button on the rim of the watch.
When the animation is prompted, the dial rotates 360° for approximately 10 seconds, revealing the Earth’s satellite in its star-studded decor. The story continues on the back of the case, with an engraving in white gold that evokes the Moon’s topography. The Earth is represented in enamel tracing on the sapphire crystal positioned atop the oscillating weight. The crystal itself is adorned with planets in miniature painting, gently sparkling against a guilloché background. The rear of the watch inverts the perspective offered on the dial, portraying the cosmos as observed not from the Earth, but from the Moon.
Illuminating the Moon’s Mystery
The decor of the Midnight Jour Nuit Phase de Lune watch comes to life thanks to the joint operation of two rotating discs, each moving at its own pace. The first, cloaking the bottom of the case, depicts the Sun pursuing the Moon in a 24-hour cycle. The second disc, more discreet, describes a rotation of 24 hours, 16 minutes and 27 seconds, almost imperceptibly transfiguring the satellite, day after day.
The combination of discs displays the Moon phase in precise detail, mirroring its actual appearance in the night sky. Thanks to an automaton, the heavenly body can also be revealed in its current phase during the day. Four years of development were required to breathe life into this astronomical movement, wholly designed by the experts at Van Cleef & Arpels’ Watchmaking Workshops in Geneva.
This technical feat went along with the need to minimise the weight of the rotating discs, facilitating movement and avoiding friction. Over several months of testing, craftsmen were able to create a fluid on-demand animation that lets the wearer consult the Moon phase as often as desired. The different layers making up the dial were thinned down to ensure a compelling view of the creation’s scenery. The fully ergonomic design includes systems to set the time and adjust indication of the phases of the Moon, both controlled from the crown.
Midnight Heure d’ici & Heure d’ailleurs
Featuring a dual-time zone movement, the Midnight Heure d’ici & Heure d’ailleurs watch offers a refined and poetic interpretation of time in two different corners of the planet. Every glance at the dial becomes a boundless invitation to wander, a window open onto the world.
The design of the 38mm Midnight case accentuates the harmonious balance between the polished, satiny rose gold of the case and hour markings, and the subtle tones of the embossed enamel making up the dial, its brown nuances taking on warm or cold accents depending on the light. The dial presents a guilloché aesthetic radiating out from a piqué motif recalling the Van Cleef & Arpels hallmark.
Pure lines resonate with the asymmetry of the decor, a paragon of the Maison’s style, in which the flowing letters spelling out the name of the piece pay tribute to the poetry expressed in the words. The back of the case illustrates an engraved Moon basking in the glow of a guilloché Sun.
This Van Cleef & Arpels Midnight case houses an automatic mechanism, entirely redeveloped with a 65h power reserve, to display jumping hours alongside retrograde minutes. The Heure d’ici – the baseline hour presented in the upper window – and the Heure d’ailleurs, the hour displayed in the second time zone window located on the bottom of the dial, advance simultaneously thanks to two sector gears that synchronise the two discs and the retrograde minute hand.
Once the hand reaches 60 minutes on the graduated scale, it returns to its initial position just as the hour display jumps forward. So begins a new cycle, announcing a new journey. To ensure easy operation, a single crown serves at once for winding the movement and setting the hour for the two time zones, as well as the minutes.
Enamel: A Reinvented Art Form
To bedeck the Midnight Heure d’ici & Heure d’ailleurs watch in a singular hue, Van Cleef & Arpels turned to the craftsmen in its enamel workshop in Geneva. The experts began by considering the optical properties of selected precious stones such as rubies, which exhibit cool undertones despite their warm colour.
Following a long series of tests, they managed to replicate this dichroism in an enamel tinged with a dense, deep amber-brown hue. Its nuances shift with the light, reflected thanks to a mirror-polished gold background that heightens reflections within the dial.
This first daunting challenge went along with the delicate task of imprinting a piqué motif in the enamel – an allusion to the Maison’s hallmark – as well as a guilloché design radiating out to the rim. Achieving a harmonious interplay between the two decors called for an enamel displaying two distinct colour intensities, as the thickness of the coat affects both its hue and ‘chatoyancy,’ i.e. the behavior of light within the material.
To create the relief motifs, the Van Cleef & Arpels enamellers drew inspiration from glassblowing techniques, adapted for watchmaking tools. The enamel was first worked at low temperature (under 500 °C) for more than 30 hours, to ensure uniform colour distribution. Two subsequent firings at high and very high temperatures – over 1,000°C – served to eliminate bubbles and prepare the material for shaping, carried out with a die applied to the enamel by hand. One last passage in the kiln, and the final shaping stage could begin.
Ludo Secret
Ludo Secret watches celebrate the timeless elegance of one of Van Cleef & Arpels’ signature designs: the Ludo bracelet, created in 1934. Calling to mind a belt, Ludo pieces perpetuate the Maison’s distinctive taste for trompe-l’œil creations. Resonating with the world of couture, they met with great success from the very beginning.
The new sapphire Ludo Secret watch perpetuates this tradition, revisiting a model from 1949. It cradles the wrist with a bracelet composed of mirror-polished yellow gold ‘briquette’ links, carefully assembled and adjusted by hand. Joined in a flexible mesh, they seem to be delicately woven together.
The sunny glow of the yellow gold mingles with the intense blue of the sapphires in a harmony of contrasts. Set on the gold surface, the gemstones form generous crescent motifs. Simultaneous pressure on the two sides of the jewellery ‘buckle’ reveals a white guilloché mother-of-pearl dial. As a final touch of elegance, a baguette-cut sapphire serves as the 12:00 marker.
Meticulous Selection of Sapphires
Knowledge of precious stones and a quest for excellence have been at the heart of Van Cleef & Arpels’ identity since its founding in 1906. The Maison’s expertise in the field of coloured stones was born of transmission, with successive generations of craftsmen passing down a discerning eye and a specific taste.
For the Ludo Secret watch, gemologists selected sapphires according to Van Cleef & Arpels’ demanding criteria, matching the stones based on shared features. Sapphires were thus chosen for their intense colour, a limpid and consistent blue, as well as the purity of their essence and the quality of their cut. Set in yellow gold, they reveal their velvety azure hue in a gradient of diameters that further heightens the impression of beaming radiance.
Perlée
The golden beads iconic of the Perlée collection come together in a shimmering circle to create a new watch. This white gold model combines watchmaking savoir-faire and jewellery inspiration to offer a contemporary vision of jewels that tell time.
The creation exhibits a round contour bordered with a double row of golden beads, meticulously polished to bring out their full brilliance. Under the gently convex crystal, the dial reveals a decor in aventurine glass, its midnight blue nuances reflecting the boundless depth of the cosmos.
The material features a radiating guilloché aspect, an innovative technique that further enriches the interplay of light. Its intense sparkle adds a vibrancy to the passage of time, measured with solid hands. The diamond-paved edge of the case mirrors the flange, which also features diamonds selected by the Maison’s expert gemologists based on the highest objective quality standards. A button on the back of the case sets the time while remaining invisible on the wrist.
The watch comes with an interchangeable alligator bracelet, as well as a second bracelet to be selected among the different colours in the collection. Easy to fasten and remove, bracelets can be switched out according to the wearer’s fancy.
Murano Aventurine Glass
Production of aventurine glass in Murano begins with the manufacture of glass, heated to 1,200°C. The presence of mineral ore in a crucible suffuses the glass with a sparkling deep blue colour. The crucible must then cool completely before being broken with a hammer.
This step in and of itself takes a full month. The pieces of aventurine glass are then cut to extract thin layers, calling for highly exacting savoir-faire. A particularly rigorous selection process guarantees uniformity in terms of hue and glitter on the disc making up the dial. These challenges go hand in hand with the need to give the glass a guilloché quality, the sunbeam-like striations heightening the overall radiance.
Lady Rencontre Céleste et Lady Retrouvailles Célestes
A founding source of inspiration for the Maison, love sets the joyous cadence of the Poetry of Time, offering a vision of watchmaking suffused with dreams and emotion. This year, the poignant potency of this theme is providing Van Cleef & Arpels with the elan for a duet of Extraordinary Dials. Through consummate mastery of artistic crafts, these new creations tell the story of a legendary couple: Vega and Altair – also known as Niulang and Zhinu. Complementing one another, the watches express the wistful encounter of these lovers and the rapture of their reunion.
A medley of blue, the Lady Rencontre Céleste watch portrays the couple, hands clasped, framed by a star-studded sky. Their white gold silhouette appears behind sparkling clouds adorned with diamonds set in plique-à-jour enamel. Their faces, suggested by rose-cut diamonds, are manifestly engrossed in mutual contemplation.
This enchanting tableau glows with the soft light of a moon set with diamonds. The background of the dial, glazed in champlevé and grisaille enamel, is further embellished with a subtle sapphire crescent, the setting beads infused with colour thanks to the miniature painting technique.
The Lady Retrouvailles Célestes watch also brings this savoir-faire to life in gently glittering tones of pink and mauve. The background of the dial, fashioned in champlevé enamel, hints at the emotions harboured by the two characters standing before a crescent of mauve sapphires. Arms outstretched in longing, they seem to be awaiting their reunion across an aerial bridge of sculpted white gold birds. Clouds and veils in plique-à-jour enamel and diamonds set in enamel round out the tableau, lending the scene striking transparency effects.
The courtship continues on the back of the watches, with the Summer Triangle asterism, formed by three of the firmament’s brightest stars – Altair, Vega and Deneb – engraved in the night sky.
Variations on Enamel
To breathe life into these enchanting decors, Van Cleef & Arpels brings together several artistic crafts, each calling for patience and exacting precision. The champlevé enamel technique, used to adorn the background of the dials, consists of designing a motif via chambers carved in the precious metal which is then filled with several layers of enamel. The piece is fired after each step.
For the final firing, a lapidary procedure eliminates excess material and reveals a dazzling decor framed by fine metal contours. On the Lady Rencontre Céleste model, this technique is used with grisaille enamel, savoir-faire developed in France as of the 16th century and which draws forth chiaroscuro and perspective effects by combining two colours of enamel.
Meanwhile, plique-à-jour enamel allows light to pass through the fabric of Zhinu’s gown, like a stained-glass window. The motif is outlined in an openwork gold structure and then filled in with fine layers of enamel.
This exacting technique imbues the dials with interplays of transparency that underscore the depth of the scene. Van Cleef & Arpels complements these ancestral methods with an innovative enamelling technique that accentuates the three-dimensionality of the decors.
Developed by the Maison to give form to sketches composed by the Creation Studio, this patented savoir-faire is the fruit of two years of research and development. Setting in enamel involves fixing precious stones directly in plique-à-jour enamel, with no other metal components.
This process generates a feeling of weightlessness that accentuates the glow of the precious stones. There thus emerges a dialogue between science and art, between technical demands and stylistic intent, all dedicated to narrating the tale expressed in the creations.
Poetry of Time
True to its poetic vision of life, Van Cleef & Arpels instils an exclusive dimension in watchmaking: an element of dreams and emotions. Technical expertise transforms the measurement of time into a promise of wonderment.
The Maison draws from its history and its iconic sources of inspiration – love, couture, nature, astronomy, fairies and ballerinas – to depict a golden moment on each dial. This philosophical approach to watchmaking is especially seen in the Poetic Complications collection.
Launched in 2006, this assortment brings together masterful mechanisms, artistic crafts and High Jewellery savoir-faire, all sources of surprise and enchantment. From the Lady Arpels Centenaire watch, featuring a Quantième de Saison movement, to the Pont des Amoureux, Jour Nuit and Heures Florales collections, each Poetic Complications creation expresses the poetry of the moment.
Poetic Astronomy
Throughout its history, Van Cleef & Arpels has drawn inspiration from the spectacle of the stars and the heavens to imagine jewellery, High Jewellery and Watchmaking creations. One of the Maison’s first sales records mentions the 1906 sale of a crescent moon set with a sapphire and brilliants, followed in 1907 by a star brooch in pearls and diamonds. A pocket watch from 1929 displays the Moon’s different phases on its dial, while the 1950s saw the creation of the Maison’s first Zodiac medallions, as well as the Meteor wristwatch.
In the field of watchmaking, Van Cleef & Arpels pays tribute to celestial wonders through the theme of Poetic Astronomy. Mechanisms, precious materials and expert craftsmanship unite to impart in each dial a sense of depth and fantasy. Animated or stationary, these immersive tableaux shrink the infinitely large to fit in a watch or automaton. They hold the promise of life in time with the cosmos, sweeping every gaze into a world of contemplation and reverie.