At least five different artisans contribute to the creation of each timepiece in the Poetic Complications series.
Photo: Courtesy of Van Cleef & Arpels
Van Cleef & Arpels Conjures an Enchanting New Collection of Timepieces
The maison transforms a watch face into a moment for artistry and craft
The Lady Arpels Brise d’Été watch by Van Cleef & Arpels features diamonds, tsavorites, spessartite garnets, and white mother-of-pearl set in 18K white gold. Photo: Courtesy of Van Cleef & Arpels
The Lady Arpels Brise d’Été watch by Van Cleef & Arpels isn’t just another pretty face. Rather, it’s an enchanted universe: Lively enamel butterflies whirl around the dial, revealing the time, and flowers gently sway, with each finely painted bloom layered to create a verdant, jeweled garden. And it’s all enveloped in a 38-millimeter, white gold and diamond case.
It’s one of the French jeweler’s Poetic Complications series of timepieces (only three models were introduced this year), which combine age-old artistry with technical ingenuity. Those fluttering butterflies are powered by a self-winding mechanical movement with an on-demand automaton component that brings the scenery to life.
At least five different artisans contribute to the creation of each timepiece in the Poetic Complications series. Photo: Courtesy of Van Cleef & Arpels
The same attention to detail applies to the Lady Arpels Jour Enchanté timepiece from the maison’s Extraordinary Dials collection, where a luminous sculpted fairy flutters over a field of jeweled flowers atop a turquoise marquetry sky dial with a sun of 18K yellow gold embedded with jewels. Layers of delicate plique-à-jour and faconne enamel flora give the illusion of a boundless flower bed. “These creations instill emotion in the wearer,” says Pascal Narbeburu, director of timepieces for Van Cleef & Arpels.
Since its founding in Paris in 1906, the company has drawn inspiration for its designs from the natural world, from diamond-covered orchid brooches crafted in the 1920s to midcentury gemstone daisy necklaces and now rings with mother-of-pearl blossoms and carnelian ladybugs. The latest watches, though, are more than figurative interpretations; they’re miniature dioramas that tell a story of nature.
The Lady Arpels Jour Enchanté watch features diamonds, sapphires, and turquoise, among other gems, set in 18K yellow and white gold. Photo: Courtesy of Van Cleef & Arpels
To bring the Brise d’Été to life, Van Cleef & Arpels turned to five master craftsmen, each with a different métier, including an enameler, an engraver, and a miniature painter. The artisans were trained in its in-house atelier, where longstanding skills are improved as they are passed down from one generation to the next. The timepiece’s varying textures and opacity are created with a trio of enamel techniques: The azure petals are painted using very fine marten-hair brushes in lighter to deeper tones with vallonné enamel and set with tiny spessartite garnet pistils; the leaves are colored in champlevé enamel and surrounded by tsavorite blades of grass; and the butterflies are composed in a more transparent plique-à-jour enamel.
For the Lady Arpels Brise d’Été, the precise application of layers of enamel forms the subtle gradation of color in the petals. Photo: Courtesy of Van Cleef & Arpels
The nuanced color gradient of the flowers comes from layers of enamel hues, each coat secured with intense heat. “The challenge with enamel is the firing, where every step of the process demands absolute precision with time and temperature,” says Narbeburu. Even the slightest deviation can ruin a piece.
“These creations instill emotion in the wearer”
pascal narbeburu
In an era when a wristwatch isn’t the only way to clock minutes and hours, these timepieces by Van Cleef & Arpels transport us to a place where one can get lost in a magical garden and time can stand still, if only for a moment.
A version of this article first appeared in print in our 2024 Collectors Issue under the headline “Poetry in Motion.” Subscribe to the magazine.
Cover: At least five different artisans contribute to the creation of each timepiece in the Poetic Complications series.
Photo: Courtesy of Van Cleef & Arpels
