The Maison’s savoir-faire reflects the ingenuity of its craftsmen, virtuosos who master, refine and share skills which are sometimes centuries old. To instill wonderment, Van Cleef & Arpels draws from its sources of inspiration and its heritage, developing new techniques. 

Two new watches are enriching the Poetic Complications collection, two invitations to bask in the allure of the heavens: Lady Jour Nuit and Lady Arpels Jour Nuit.

The journey continues in the Maison’s garden with the new Lady Arpels Brise d’Été watch. Our path then meanders through an enchanted forest, where the Extraordinary Dials collection embraces the Lady Arpels Jour Enchanté creation. Finally, perpetuating the Maison’s tradition of precious objects, two original automatons – Apparition des Baies and Bouton d’Or – round out this voyage to the core of savoir-faire, uniting artistic craftsmanship and a quest for movement to enchant the hours as they tick by.

With the Poetic Complications collection, the watchmaking mastery developed by Van Cleef & Arpels combines precious materials and traditional savoir-faire to bring to life a tender story that enlivens every dial. 

The Maison reinvents the Lady Arpels Jour Nuit watch, introduced in 2008, with two new models 33 and 38-mm in diameter that required three years of development. The diamond-paved moon and stars perpetually pursue the sun, embellished with snow-set yellow sapphires, or alternatively guilloché yellow gold. Thanks to the depth effect of the Murano aventurine glass, these pieces portray the immensity of the cosmos and the magic of a starry night. 

Paying tribute to nature, a source of inspiration for the Maison since its creation, the Lady Arpels Brise d’Été watch celebrates the freshness of a summer morning. This new creation brings corollas into bloom within the Van Cleef & Arpels garden. White and yellow-gold butterflies rendered in plique-à-jour enamel not only tell the time, but flutter off thanks to an on-demand animation module that also breathes life into the flowers and their stems. This bucolic landscape offers a vision of the Poetry of Time in which the hours tick by in harmony with the eternal cycle of nature.

The Extraordinary Dials collection merges métiers d'art with the Maison’s jewelry and watchmaking expertise to give full form to its enchanting universe.

Lady Arpels Jour Enchanté - limited-edition and designed as miniature work of art - have just joined the Extraordinary Dials collection. This three-dimensional scenes come to life through an interplay of perspective celebrating enchanted nature. With this creation that required two years of development and 180 hours of work, the Maison brings to life a graceful silhouette picking flowers under the early morning sun. Light passes through generous leaves of white gold, plique-à-jour enamel and diamonds harboring a field of flowers. In the background, affixed to a sky exhibiting three nuances of turquoise, the sun gleams with the radiance of its precious stones.

Since its foundation in 1906, the Maison has distinguished itself by creating precious objects that spark awe and enchantment. This year, Van Cleef & Arpels unveils two brand new automatons: Apparition des Baies and Bouton d'Or, paying tribute to the wonders of flora and fauna. Some 30 centimeters in height, these table ornaments are created in partnership with François Junod, an automaton maker in Sainte-Croix, Switzerland.

Folded onto themselves, the lacquered rose-gold leaves of the Apparition des Baies automaton form a luxuriant dome that conceals a secret. Like a delicate blooming, the opening of the bouquet reveals a white-gold, diamond and sapphire bird spreading its wings with lifelike authenticity. After taking flight, the bird finds refuge within the object, and the leaves gently fold back. Once the animation is set in motion, a dulcet melody rings out to accompany this poetic tableau.

Inspired by the Maison’s rich heritage, the Bouton d’Or automaton honours the eponymous jewelry collection, reinterpreting the soft contours of a motif known as “paillette,” created by Van Cleef & Arpels in the mid-1930s. Concave or convex, the paillettes, reminiscent of the sequins used in couture, proliferate to bring to life figurative creations such as a delicately bound gleaming gold bouquet. A fairy, her face suggested by a rose-cut diamond, crowned with diamonds, and clad in a flamboyant rose-gold gown trimmed with blue lacquer, pirouettes in an enchanted dance upon a blooming flowerbed. She twirls thanks to the beating of her plique-à-jour enamel wings, delicately clasping a briolette-cut sapphire between her fingers. Craftsman bring out the gleam of the precious metal while carefully preserving the shape of the motif. 684 caps or discs, lacquered using both airbrush and traditional techniques to intensify the brilliance of every color, were hand-assembled on wispy stems.