Poetry of the Heavens

As of 1929, it designed a pocket watch fitted with a complication showing phases of the Moon. In the 1950s, Van Cleef & Arpels once again turned its gaze to the night sky, especially with the Meteor secret watch.

This year, the Maison is observing the Moon’s subtle variations through a new Poetic Complications timepiece. The hours of Poetic Astronomy tick by in harmony from one time zone to the next, within an elegant setting highlighting the art of enamel. Meanwhile, Van Cleef & Arpels’ jewels that tell time interpret the boundless depth of the sky in rare materials. Finally, the Extraordinary Dials collection welcomes two new watches—legendary tales of love set against a celestial backdrop.

Van Cleef & Arpels is expanding its Jour Nuit collection, launched in 2008 and revisited in 2024, with the introduction of a new creation in honor of the Moon, a long-standing source of inspiration for the Maison. The watch features two overlapping complications housed within the case. The first animates the eponymous Jour/ Nuit display, while the second "astronomical" complication illustrates the current Moon phase, a feature that entered the watchmaking history of Van Cleef & Arpels in 1929.

Within the 42-mm white gold Midnight case, the dial beams with the intense sparkle of a black Murano aventurine glass sky. Van Cleef & Arpels Innovation Department took part in developing this component, achieving a deep color and a shimmering bronze-toned effect that calls to mind the full beauty of the night sky. Over the course of the day, the guilloché golden Sun gradually gives way to a Moon fashioned in white mother-of-pearl and surrounded by acrylic traced stars. The two heavenly bodies thus emerge and disappear behind the horizon, represented by a guilloché mother-of-pearl shroud painted in a gradient of shades from black to white. Their daily pursuit is made possible by the movement of a 24-hour rotating disc, characteristic of Jour Nuit creations. This first display is enhanced by a subtle shift in the appearance of the Moon, echoing its eternal 29.5-day cycle. The phenomenon remains visible on demand even when the Moon is hidden behind the shroud, thanks to a button on the rim of the watch. When the animation is prompted, the dial rotates 360° for approximately 10 seconds, revealing the Earth's satellite in its star-studded decor.

The story continues on the back of the case, with an engraving in white gold that evokes the Moon's topography. The Earth is represented in enamel tracing on the sapphire crystal positioned atop the oscillating weight. The crystal itself is adorned with planets in miniature painting, gently sparkling against a guilloché background. The rear of the watch inverts the perspective offered on the dial, portraying the cosmos as observed not from the Earth, but from the Moon.

Featuring a dual-time zone movement, the Midnight Heure d'ici & Heure d'ailleurs watch offers a refined and poetic interpretation of time in two different corners of the planet. Every glance at the dial becomes a boundless invitation to wander, a window open onto the world.

The design of the 39-mm Midnight case accentuates the harmonious balance between the polished, satiny rose gold of the case and hour markings, and the subtle tones of the embossed enamel making up the dial, its brown nuances taking on warm or cold accents depending on the light. The dial presents a guilloché aesthetic radiating out from a piqué motif recalling the Van Cleef & Arpels hallmark. Pure lines resonate with the asymmetry of the decor, a paragon of the Maison's style, in which the flowing letters spelling out the name of the piece pay tribute to the poetry expressed in the words. The back of the case illustrates an engraved Moon basking in the glow of a guilloché Sun.

This Van Cleef & Arpels Midnight case houses an automatic mechanism to display jumping hours alongside retrograde minutes. The Heure d'ici—the baseline hour presented in the upper window—and the Heure d'ailleurs, the hour displayed in the second time zone window located on the bottom of the dial, advance simultaneously thanks to a single sector gear that synchronizes the two discs and the retrograde minute hand. Once the hand reaches 60 minutes on the graduated scale, it returns to its initial position just as the hour display jumps forward. So begins a new cycle, announcing a new journey. To ensure easy operation, a single crown serves at once for winding the movement and setting the hour for the two time zones, as well as the minutes.

Ludo Secret watches celebrate the timeless elegance of one of Van Cleef & Arpels' signature designs: the Ludo bracelet, created in 1934. Calling to mind a belt, Ludo pieces perpetuate the Maison's distinctive taste for trompe-l'oeil creations. Resonating with the world of couture, they met with great success from the very beginning.

The new sapphire Ludo Secret watch perpetuates this tradition, revisiting a model from 1949. It cradles the wrist with a bracelet composed of mirror-polished yellow gold "briquette" links, carefully assembled and adjusted by hand. Joined in a flexible mesh, they seem to be delicately woven together. The sunny glow of the yellow gold mingles with the intense blue of the sapphires in a harmony of contrasts. Set on the gold surface, the gemstones form generous crescent motifs. Simultaneous pressure on the two sides of the jewelry "buckle" reveals a white guilloché mother-of-pearl dial. As a final touch of elegance, a baguette-cut sapphire serves as the 12:00 marker.

The golden beads iconic of the Perlée collection come together in a shimmering circle to create a new watch. This white gold model combines watchmaking savoir-faire and jewelry inspiration to offer a contemporary vision of jewels that tell time. The creation exhibits a round contour bordered with a double row of golden beads, meticulously polished to bring out their full brilliance. Under the gently convex crystal, the dial reveals a decor in aventurine glass, its midnight blue nuances reflecting the boundless depth of the cosmos. The material features a radiating guilloché aspect, an innovative technique that further enriches the interplay of light. Its intense sparkle adds a vibrancy to the passage of time, measured with solid hands.

The diamond-paved edge of the case mirrors the flange, which also features diamonds selected by the Maison's expert gemologists based on the highest objective quality standards. A button on the back of the case sets the time while remaining invisible on the wrist. The watch comes with an interchangeable alligator bracelet, as well as a second bracelet to be selected among the different colors in the collection. Easy to fasten and remove, bracelets can be switched out according to the wearer's fancy.

A founding source of inspiration for the Maison, love sets the joyous cadence of the Poetry of Time, offering a vision of watchmaking suffused with dreams and emotion. This year, the poignant potency of this theme is providing Van Cleef & Arpels with the elan for a duet of Extraordinary Dials. Through consummate mastery of artistic crafts, these new creations tell the story of a legendary couple: Vega and Altair—also known as Niulang and Zhinu. Complementing one another, the watches express the wistful encounter of these lovers and the rapture of their reunion.

A medley of blue, the Lady Rencontre Céleste watch portrays the couple, hands clasped, framed by a star-studded sky. Their white gold silhouette appears behind sparkling clouds adorned with diamonds set in plique-à-jour enamel. Their faces, suggested by rose-cut diamonds, are manifestly engrossed in mutual contemplation. This enchanting tableau glows with the soft light of a Moon set with diamonds.

The background of the dial, glazed in champlevé and grisaille enamel, is further embellished with a subtle sapphire crescent, the setting beads infused with color thanks to the miniature painting technique.

The Lady Retrouvailles Célestes watch also brings this savoir-faire to life in gently glittering tones of pink and mauve. The background of the dial, fashioned in champlevé enamel, hints at the emotions harbored by the two characters standing before a crescent of mauve sapphires. Arms outstretched in longing, they seem to be awaiting their reunion across an aerial bridge of sculpted white gold birds. Clouds and veils in plique-à-jour enamel and diamonds set in enamel round out the tableau, lending the scene striking transparency effects.

The courtship continues on the back of the watches, with the Summer Triangle asterism, formed by three of the firmament's brightest stars—Altair, Vega and Deneb—engraved in the night sky.

True to its poetic vision of life, Van Cleef & Arpels instills an exclusive dimension in watchmaking: an element of dreams and emotions. Technical expertise transforms the measurement of time into a promise of wonderment. The Maison draws from its history and its iconic sources of inspiration—love, couture, nature, astronomy, fairies and ballerinas—to depict a golden moment on each dial.

This philosophical approach to watchmaking is especially seen in the Poetic Complications collection. Launched in 2006, this assortment brings together masterful mechanisms, artistic crafts and High Jewelry savoir-faire, all sources of surprise and enchantment. From the Lady Arpels Centenaire watch, featuring a Quantième de Saison movement, to the Pont des Amoureux, Jour Nuit and Heures Florales collections, each Poetic Complications creation expresses the poetry of the moment.

Throughout its history, Van Cleef & Arpels has drawn inspiration from the spectacle of the stars and the heavens to imagine Jewelry, High Jewelry and Watchmaking creations. One of the Maison's first sales records mentions the 1906 sale of a crescent moon set with a sapphire and brilliants, followed in 1907 by a star brooch in pearls and diamonds. A pocket watch from 1929 displays the Moon's different phases on its dial, while the 1950s saw the creation of the Maison's first Zodiac medallions, as well as the Meteor wristwatch.

In the field of watchmaking, Van Cleef & Arpels pays tribute to celestial wonders through the theme of Poetic Astronomy. Mechanisms, precious materials and expert craftsmanship unite to impart in each dial a sense of depth and fantasy. Animated or stationary, these immersive tableaux shrink the infinitely large to fit in a watch or automaton. They hold the promise of life in time with the cosmos, sweeping every gaze into a world of contemplation and reverie.