Photographer Marc de Groot / Artwork Course Gaspard Yurkievich and Guido Voss
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 methods resembling enamel, miniature portray and engraving, all underpinned by extraordinary mechanical artistry.
Ever since its basis – following Alfred Van Cleef and Estelle Arpels’s marriage 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 Problems.
“Every of our creations begins with a narrative,” says Pascal Narbeburu, Timepieces Métiers Director at Van Cleef & Arpels. When the Poetic Problems 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 drive 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 Problems) on the Grand Prix d’Horlogerie de Genève.
Time to Romance
Some of the 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 rapidly, in step with the minutes, to satisfy 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 numerous 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 instances 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’ve our personal imaginative and prescient of time which stays very constant by means of the years” says Narbeburu. “That is without doubt one of the the explanation why the Poetic Problems watches we’ve created since 2006 are timeless. It’s like taking a traditional out of your bookshelf and studying it to your youngsters. A narrative by no means will get previous.”
The newest Pont des Amoureux creations for 2025 meld a mess of artisanal methods 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 Problems assortment. In consequence, the Maison is ready to develop, assemble and do high quality management for its issues in-house. This enables designers, engineers, watchmakers and artisans to create embodiments of the Van Cleef & Arpels watchmaking philosophy; the actions they craft are mechanically formidable but all the time elegant, with ornamental methods utilized that serve a story objective. The watchmaking crew demonstrates technical finesse in creating superior issues in probably the most compact means potential. That is mandatory 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 numerous factors throughout the day and evening. Throughout dawn, the rays of the solar permeate by means of 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 realize this impact, the craftsman fires every dial round 10 instances within the oven, a fancy 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 Below 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 excellent, so the motion seems pure, fluid and sleek.
The scene is ebullient, with a smattering of stars, lanterns and fairy lights evoking an idyllic evening 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 be sure that the watch remained skinny.”
This dial requires over 40 hours of labor, created utilizing two enamel methods: the traditional and extremely advanced 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 might be extra romantic than stargazing with somebody you’re keen on? For Van Cleef & Arpels, the sky will not be the restrict, it’s a canvas. Whereas many manufacturers have explored astronomical issues, calculating tides and celestial positions with scientific precision, Van Cleef & Arpels’ objective is extra emotive: to carry the heavens to the wrist.
Technical innovation meets inventive ingenuity inside the Girl Arpels Planétarium. The sweetness lies within the astronomical mechanism, which may observe the motion of planets across the dial. All of it matches inside a 38mm case, making it really a piece of marvel
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 special, 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 capturing star encircles the dial each 12 hours, pointing to the present time, a contact that provides simply the appropriate 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 hues, impressed by the 1751 work Philosophia Botanica by Swedish botanist Carl von Linné. In his guide, Linné imagined a backyard whose flowers opened and closed to disclose the time.
The Girl Arpels Heures Florales timepieces carry this dream to life with a miniature backyard the place blossoms unfurl to show the hours, providing a pleasant shock as the subsequent flowers to bloom stay a thriller.
Demonstrating how the crew takes a hands-on function for each watch and is continually pushing boundaries, Narbeburu reveals that they went by means of a demanding artistic 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 fully random. “Within the morning, one flower would possibly bloom to point 1am; within the afternoon, it will likely be a special flower; and the morning of the subsequent 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 Women’ 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 methods resembling 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, an emblem of lightness, hope and benevolence. She first fluttered into the Maison’s world within the Nineteen Forties as a sculpted, gem-set clip. At present, 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 she or he wears a sapphire- and diamond-studded tutu. Her wings are product of turquoise plique-à-jour enamel, whereas the dial is crafted in guilloché mother-of-pearl.
A Good Dance
Girl Arpels Ballerine Musicale Rubis (left) and Girl Arpels Ballerine Musicale Émeraude (proper)
Van Cleef & Arpels has lengthy been each passionate in regards to 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 together 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 at the present time.
The Maison continues to bounce its means 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 fancy animation and a mechanism that mixes a music field and a chime to create a sensorial spectacle. Out there in a collection of three, every iteration, the Girl Arpels Ballerine Musicale Émeraude watch with its inexperienced tones, Rubis in crimson, 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 gems.
Girl Arpels Ballerine Musicale Emeraude
The small print 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. In contrast to a minute repeater, this musical field can play a spread of notes. Miniaturising this engineering marvel right into a wristwatch was really a unprecedented 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 perform of time with its Poetic Problems 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 enable 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 replicate 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’ve our personal imaginative and prescient of time which stays very constant by means of the years. That is without doubt one of the the explanation why the Poetic Problems watches we’ve created since 2006 are timeless. It’s like taking a traditional 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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