The Lady Arpels Planétarium by Van Cleef & Arpels does something ambitious. It reduces the vast expanses of space into a women’s watch 38 mm in diameter. To be more specific, the 149,600,000 million kilometres – which is also known as 1 AU, Astronomical Unit – separating the earth and the sun are scaled down…
In this watch by Van Cleef & Arpels presented at SIHH in January 2017, a butterfly on the dial flaps its wings automatically every so often, and on demand using a pusher. There is a long tradition of automaton clocks and watches – principally by Jaquet Droz – but Van Cleef & Arpels can claim…
Van Cleef & Arpels have released news about one of their new watches that they will be presenting at the upcoming show SIHH, taking place in Geneva from 18 to 22 January 2016. The brand specializes in a very poetic depiction of time (their description The Poetry of Time is a registered trademark), in which…
This Poetic Complication piece by Van Cleef & Arpels, Lady Arpels Jour Nuit Oiseaux de Paradis, has a mechanical automatic movement that has a 24-hour module specially developed for Van Cleef & Arpels, driving the dial that features a bird-of-paradise flower and a moon in diamond. The dial rotates once every 24 hours, slowly changing…
At SIHH in January 2015, Van Cleef & Arpels presented two new Poetic Complication watches. This piece, Lady Arpels Jour Nuit Coccinelles, has a mechanical automatic movement driving the hour and minute hands, with an additional 24-hour module powering a disc lying behind the over-dial featuring four-leaved clovers crafted in champlevé enamel. The lower dial…
Company profile: In 1895, Alfred Van Cleef, son of a gemstone-cutter, met Estelle Arpels, daughter of a gemstone dealer. And the consequence was the birth of a business, Van Cleef & Arpels, run initially by Alfred Van Cleef and his father-in-law Salomon Arpels. In 1906, after Salomon’s death, Alfred was joined by Estelle’s brother Charles…
Sometimes, a fruit tree can take on a two-year cycle, cropping heavily one year and lightly the next. Perhaps the same is true for some watch brands. After the exceptional Midnight Planétarium last year, this year Van Cleef & Arpels focused on Cadenas, the bracelet with a small quartz watch, a few one-off high jewellery…
Cadenas looks very different from most Van Cleef & Arpels creations, which are often very French and poetique in their inspiration. Cadenas is, on the other hand, a bracelet-watch that is tough and chunky. Like the Zip necklace, the design was probably inspired by the Duke and Duchess of Windsor – King Edward VIII who…
Van Cleef & Arpels turned their gaze upwards, towards the planets and the sun, with their Midnight Planétarium, and with another piece, they continue their voyage of what they describe as “Poetic Astronomy.” The Lady Arpels Heures Filantes is a 38-mm watch in white gold, with a circular section on the front of the dial…
Van Cleef & Arpels make complication watches, but the complications are always about telling a story. In the Midnight Planétarium Poetic Complication, the story is one of the most beautiful of them all: the planets revolving around the sun. I still think that this piece was one of the highlights of the two major shows…