Jewelry watches Van Cleef & Arpels

Ekaterina Istomina

This year, the French house Van Cleef & Arpels, one of the main exhibitors at the Geneva Salon of Haute Horlogerie (SIHH), showed three updated lines: Charms Extraordinaires, Extraordinary Dials and Poetic Complication. All three lines, in terms of subjects and techniques, are characteristic of Van Cleef & Arpels: the subjects are fabulous, and the techniques are from the Metiers d'Art collection of crafts, so in demand today.

So, Charms Extraordinaires in 2013 includes four models that differ from each other in dial design. The Charms Extraordinaires watch was first introduced in 2008; its design feature is a miniature precious pendant on the crown, that is, a “charm”. Over the years, “charms” naturally took on different forms - snowflakes, butterflies, flowers. In 2013, the House released watches with images of lily of the valley, lotus, dandelion and swallow. The following crafts are used to produce Charms Extraordinaires dials: guilloche, miniature jewelry sculpture, matte, translucent and cloisonné enamel, mother-of-pearl carving and mother-of-pearl painting, classic pavage with precious stones. Charms Extraordinaires models will be released in a limited edition - 22 pieces in each segment.

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In Extraordinary Dials, jewelers Van Cleef & Arpels have once again put butterflies on their dials. These insects are characteristic of the heritage of Van Cleef & Arpels: for many decades, since the 1920s, the House has been preparing jewelry, and in 2010, butterflies became full participants in watch collections. Before the current Extraordinary Dials line, butterflies appeared in the Lady Arpels Extraordinary Butterflies (2010) and Lady Arpels Butterfly Symphony collections (a model from this series received the prize for "Best Women's Watch" at the Grand Prix de Geneve competition in 2011). The choice of a single heroine for the dials influenced the choice of techniques for their manufacture. Van Cleef & Arpels jewelers made sure that techniques were almost never repeated: in the Papillon Extraordinaire model, lapis lazuli marquetry, gold and mother-of-pearl sculptures, and stained glass enamel were used in the manufacture of the dial. The Papillon Rouge Gourmand watch features cabochon and cloisonné enamel, the Papillon Orange Solaire features stained glass enamel and mother-of-pearl carving, the Papillon Noir Argent features paillonne technique and mother-of-pearl inlay, and the Papillon Bleu Nuit features mother-of-pearl inlay, cloisonne, stained glass enamel, and paillonne. Extraordinary Dials also included a miniature Cerf-Volants collection, whose main character was the kite, a variation of the butterfly that many considered a nod to the Chinese market. There is also an important technical difference between Charms Extraordinaires and Extraordinary Dials: the watches of the first series are equipped with quartz movements, and the second - with mechanical calibers. All Extraordinary Dials watches will be released in a limited edition of 22 pieces per model.

And finally, the flagship watch is the Lady Arpels Ballerine Enchantee Poetic Complication, a model that continues the famous series of “poetic complications”. Let us remind you that the Poetic Complication is a complex mechanical watch with retrograde calibers, which are made like jewelry models. The mechanics set in motion Van Cleef & Arpels' favorite characters - lovers, fairy fairies, heroes of Jules Verne's novels, as well as ballerinas. The house of Van Cleef & Arpels turned its attention to dance in the 1940s: then the American branch of the brand, headed by Louis Arpels, launched the production of brooches in the shape of dancers. In 1967, Claude Arpels met George Balanchine and proposed to him the idea for the ballet Jewels.

The Lady Arpels Ballerine Enchantee Poetic Complication is a precious watch made of white gold and diamonds, in the center of which there is a movable gold figurine of a ballerina on a lilac enamel dial. As reported in the House itself, “the jewelers were inspired to create watches by the Russian ballerina Anna Pavlova.” The watch is equipped with a double retrograde mechanism that sets the dancer's skirt in motion. The left side shows the hour, and the right side shows the minutes.

Time of ballerinas and butterflies