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The creations Fontaine aux Oiseaux and Lady Arpels Heures Florales Cerisier awarned at the Grand Prix d'Horlogerie de Genève 2022

November 16, 2022

Fontaine aux Oiseaux, Extraordinary Object, Van Cleef & Arpels

Created in 2001, the Grand Prix d'Horlogerie de Genève (GPHG) highlights and yearly rewards the most remarkable contemporary creations. In November of each year the event draws elite representatives of the international watchmaking profession, united in honouring the finest creations and stakeholders who breathe vitality and creativity into the watchmaking world. 

 

 

The Fontaine aux Oiseaux automaton watch was awarded the Mechanical Clock Prize at the Grand Prix d'Horlogerie de Genève 2022. Combining animation on demand and retrograde time display, this creation offers a double spectacle. The automaton comes to life for about a minute, revealing a touching scene thanks to the movement of the different elements. The water of the pond starts to undulate, a water lily flower opens its petals while a dragonfly rises flapping its wings and swiveling slightly. Birds on the edge of the fountain awaken and their song rings out. The excellence of seasoned craftsmen and experts in their field was necessary for this achievement.

 

The experience of the automatier François Junod was once again combined with that of lapidaries, jewelers, gem setters, enamellers, and cabinet makers: so many virtuosos who have dialogued and shared their know-how, each one going beyond their limits to give life to a poetic story. This unique Objet Extraordinaire, which required more than 4,300 hours of work in the Van Cleef & Arpels workshops and more than 25,200 hours overall, embodies a collective human adventure.

The Lady Arpels Heures Florales Cerisier creation also stood out by winning the innovation prize. Its three-dimensional dial poetically depicts the passage of time through the opening and closing of 12 corollas. The reading of the time becomes a spectacle, as the flowers bloom and close in a random way, renewing the landscape of the dial every 60 minutes. At each time change, the open flowers close to make way for a new combination.  No less than 226 elements are enhanced by the craftsmen of the Geneva Watchmakers' Workshop. Petals in painted mother-of-pearl, butterflies in miniature paint, branches in sculpted gold and clouds in sculpted mother-of-pearl are enhanced by a very fine setting. 

 

Time flows with the rhythm of nature in the Van Cleef & Arpels garden.