Poetic Wish

Each season, Van Cleef & Arpels creates dreamlike timepieces which embody the bold creativity of the Maison. These timepieces never cease to amaze…

Once upon a time, in 2007, the Lady Arpels Féérie appeared. The diamond fairy then granted a wish to a baby girl in her cradle. Years later, we followed her as a young girl in Une Journée à Paris, where she discovered the City of Romance. 

In 2010, the girl returned to Paris on the Pont des Amoureux watch, where she met a young man and fell in love on a bridge over the Seine.

This year, the Maison introduces two new Masterpieces…

The Midnight Poetic Wish and the Lady Arpels Poetic Wish symbolize the never-ending love story between the two young lovers in Paris. Each of these precious timepieces requires hundreds of hours of work to complete. They combine an incredible amount of expertise in watch-making with the know-how of decorating the dial.  Each watch features three integrated automatons with a five-minute repeater movement. While sculpting and engraving on gold, miniature painting, mother-of-pearl sculpting, and stone-setting accentuate the exquisite detail and refinement of the timepieces. With this new chapter, the Maison not only pushes the limits of technical prowess, but also changes the representation of time.

Discover the story behind this creation…

A few years ago, a young man fell in love with a young woman on the Pont des Amoureux, and at midnight, they exchanged a kiss. Separated from his love and wishing to find her again, he stands at the top of the tower of the Notre-Dame Cathedral and looks out over the city. It is dusk and the last rays of sunshine light up the stained-glass windows of the cathedral. The scene is animated on demand. As the young man slowly steps out onto the roof of the cathedral to the ringing of Notre-Dame’s bells, a shooting star accented with a diamond appears. The star is the messenger of the young man’s wish, carrying it towards the Eiffel Tower, minute by minute, note by note.

The Lady Arpels Poetic Wish timepiece depicts a young woman waiting for her love at the top of the Eiffel Tower. Like the Midnight Poetic Wish, the scene is animated on demand. As the bells of Notre-Dame sounds, the girl, indicating the hours, moves towards the center of the dial with each ring, and sends a wish to the cathedral in the distance. Is someone there waiting for her? Suddenly a kite appears, just in time to carry the wish to the Île de la Cité; it advances minute by minute, note by note.

With these two new Master timepieces, the Maison has once again pushed the limits of technical prowess. 
The Poetic Wish movement indicates the hour and the minutes thanks to a “poetic animation” and a 5-minute repeater mechanism: striking the hours, then the number of 5-minute intervals that have passed since the hour, while at the same time, moving three automatons. The hammers for the repeater strike the gongs situated behind the crystal case back.
Each Poetic Wish timepiece is presented in its own extraordinary cabinet made of precious woods and mother-of-pearl inlay, and is developed using a violin-maker’s technique of incorporating a resonating box for optimal acoustics.