HIGH JEWELRY

Named Helios after the Sun god of Greek mythology, this transformable long necklace is an ode to the solar orb. At the heart of an elegant composition of diamonds and cultured pearls, the piece features a resplendent yellow sapphire from Sri Lanka, weighing over 50 carats. Its buttercup shade and gleaming, highly crystallized material are revealed by a deep oval cut, set horizontally within an embroidery of yellow gold and diamonds.

Filled with wonder by the spectacle of the Milky Way, the Maison has devised the Sentier d’étoiles bracelet: at its center, it reveals a generous sapphire cabochon like a fragment of eternity. The stone features a delicate rounded shape, and weighs a remarkable 69.23 carats. Its velvety blue color – typical of its Sri Lankan origin – combines with a gleaming and finely crystallized material that endows it with extra charm.

The clips of the Sous les étoiles collection alternate figurative and abstract aesthetics, giving life to stars, or symbolizing a window on an infinite cosmos. Ornamental stones, such as lapis-lazuli, turquoise or sugilite associate in surprising combinations of colors.

Evoking the West comet, which was visible to the naked eye, this Between the Finger Ring™ gives pride of place to the unique style of Van Cleef & Arpels. Its dynamic lines recall the curved tail of the celestial body. A cabochon-cut star ruby of 7.42 carats illuminates the ring as the West comet illuminated the sky while it was approaching the sun, spreading its bright colors in the night sky. 

The Trésor astral necklace offers a bejeweled depiction of a famous pair of stars visible to the naked eye: Alcor and Mizar, in the constellation of the Great Bear. To represent this celestial couple, two sapphires are juxtaposed in a bold tête-à-tête: one, from Sri Lanka, weighing 31.17 carats and the other – from Burma – 22.82 carats.

Remarkable for its brilliance and vivacity, this necklace is inspired by the passage of Halley's Comet, visible from Earth every 75 years. The Maison interprets it here in a radiant composition, accentuated by a contrasting interplay of white and yellow diamonds. The creation is illuminated by a Fancy Vivid Yellow diamond weighing 11.29 carats, symbolizing the head of the comet.

The Ison cuff bracelet evokes the eponymous comet that disintegrated into a diffuse and radiant cloud after passing too close to the Sun in 2013. Diamonds provide a dazzling accompaniment to Mystery Set™ rubies, in an association that is characteristic of Van Cleef & Arpels. The rubies were recut individually by hand, before being placed into gold rails that follow the shape of the bracelet. The fruit of a close collaboration between jeweler and lapidary, the set surfaces display a brilliantly uniform shade of red.

The dance of the planets and the celestial figures coexists with a repertoire of forms and materials that captivates the gaze. In dynamic outlines, dazzling silhouettes and chromatic explosions, this contemplative dreamscape explores both gems and the heavens in all their hidden beauty.

The Saturne clip is one of the collection's figurative pieces: in gold and diamonds, it depicts the planet with the second greatest mass in the solar system, with its distinctive ochre color and huge rings. The latter take the form of sparkling strands gravitating around a half-sphere in hammered yellow gold, which appears through a cloud of closed-set diamonds.

Much brighter than the Sun, Cepheids are giant stars whose intense brilliance varies rhythmically from week to week. They have provided Van Cleef & Arpels with the inspiration for the Céphéide set, which depicts the radiance of these heavenly bodies in a bold gradation of shades. Punctuated by mauve sapphire, tsavorite garnet and diamond motifs, the necklace showcases eleven chalcedony cabochons, weighing a total of 159.72 carats.

The depictions offered over the centuries by enthralled astronomers, writers and artists have fuelled the imagination of the Maisonʼs designers, expert gemologists and craftsmen. The result is a wealth of interpretations, at the crossroads of Van Cleef & Arpelsʼ emblematic style and free creativity.

Featuring colors and a design that evoke spiral galaxies, this High Jewelry watch harbors a secret dial at its heart. In a precious dramatization of time, the hours emerge from a hypnotic spiral, in which rows of diamonds alternate with blue, pink and mauve sapphires. Thanks to the bracelet’s openwork structure, the colored stones seem to glitter in the sky like stars.

Unfurling across two fingers, this ring evokes the comet Iwamoto – discovered in 2018 by a Japanese amateur astronomer – whose blue-green glow will next be visible from Earth in the year 3390. Immortalizing its passage, a Sri Lankan sapphire weighing 26.41 carats nestles in a spiral of precious stones. Its generous size and octogonal cut draw the eye deep into its color – a particularly luminous blue – and finely crystalized material.

The Sous les étoiles collection gives pride of place to one of the inspiration dear to the Maison: the feminine figures. These goddess and fairies are incarnations of a stellar and dazzling femininity. 

In homage to the Milky Way, the Ciel de minuit necklace is an invitation to contemplate a starry night. To depict the heavenly vault, lapis lazuli motifs have been carefully recut on the necklace – that is, individually sculpted by hand to fit the jewelry structure – at Van Cleef & Arpels’ workshops.

Depicting the sky and stars has run through the history of Van Cleef & Arpels like a constant fascination. Observing the cosmos has inspired the Maison to create stylized forms of great modernity. Lines erupted from the Pylônes jewels in the late 1930s, or converged and whirled in the Météore collection, which combined strands of yellow gold and diamond centers in the 1950s.