Rotating discs or butterflies reveal the time of day amid a stroll through a flower-filled garden or a celestial reverie. Going beyond their technical features, these exceptional mechanisms offer precious moments of contemplation, rooted in the Maison's spirit.
Movement as a Source of Wonder
The complications modules used for Poetic Complications timepieces have been developed in-house for many years by Van Cleef & Arpels’ Watchmaking Workshops in Geneva. Technical expertise goes hand in hand with creativity and a quest for enchantment. Automaton movements with on-demand animation or Day/Night display modules make it possible to capture the poetry in every moment.
24-hour movement
This self-winding mechanical movement, featuring a 24-hour rotating disc module developed by Van Cleef & Arpels, gradually transforms the decor on the dial throughout the day. The Maison uses this system to breathe life into stories portraying the celestial ballet, like the sun/moon cycle in the Lady Arpels Jour Nuit and Lady Jour Nuit watches.
On-demand automaton movement
Self-winding “on-demand” movements allow users to enliven the dial like an automaton with the push of a button, according to the wearer's desires. At the end of the animation, the two butterflies adorning the Lady Arpels Brise d’Été watch return to their initial position indicating the time. The orange and blue butterflies, diametrically opposed, alternate at noon and midnight.
Lady Arpels Jour Nuit and Lady Jour Nuit Watches
Awed by the spectacle of the stars, Van Cleef & Arpels is reinventing 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. Featuring a 24-hour rotating disc, the dial revolves almost imperceptibly. 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. A veritable feat of technical design, the aventurine glass presents delicate openwork to hold the diamond-set white-gold stars.
The mother-of-pearl shrouds symbolize the horizon framing the poetry of space. White for the 38-mm case and painted blue for the 33-mm model, they both exhibit a guilloché effect. A sapphire crystal covers the rear of the case and the oscillating weight, adorned with a polished star-studded sky. Decorated using the enamel decal technique, they reveal a protective fairy admiring the winsome ballet of the planets.
Murano Aventurine Glass
Production of aventurine glass in Murano begins with the manufacturing of conventional glass, heated to 2,192°F (1,200 °C). Thanks to the presence of ore in a crucible, the glass takes on a sparkling deep blue color. The crucible must then cool completely before being broken with a hammer. This step in and of itself takes a month.
The pieces of aventurine glass are then cut − an extremely delicate procedure − to extract thin layers. A rigorous selection process is implemented to guarantee uniformity in terms of hue and glitter on the disc making up the dial.
Enamel Decal on Sapphire Glass
Enamel decal on sapphire glass is a time-honored form of savoir-faire that complements engraving work. Extreme precision is achieved through the use of vintage cast-iron machines and specific fitting methods developed by the Van Cleef & Arpels' Workshops. A single sapphire crystal on the back of the Lady Arpels Jour Nuit and Lady Jour Nuit watch cases comprises between 30 and 36 coats of enamel. The complexity of this technique lies in striking the perfect balance between temperature and firing time. Drying period between each coat varies according to the enamels used and the overall thickness.
Two new technical approaches were developed for Jour Nuit crystals: the use of platinum – for the fairy silhouette – and the pointillism technique to create a color gradient, thus infusing the blue background with greater vitality.
Lady Arpels Brise d’Été Watch
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. Created in vallonné enamel, the corollas display azure nuances complemented by spessartite garnet pistils. Against the intensity of matte mother-of-pearl, the dial displays a poetic scene merging the foreground and background to illustrate precious greenery. The flowers, resplendent with their champlevé enamel leaves and surrounded by blades of grass in tsavorite garnets and plique-à-jour enamel, are supported by stems featuring sculptural miniature painting for a depth effect. 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.
Miniature Enamel Painting
An age-old technique that extends back to Antiquity, miniature painting brought acclaim to artists in Medieval times. Like a painter’s palette, an enamel artist uses an assortment of colored enamels made up of silica powder, very finely ground pigments, and oil.
On the Lady Arpels Brise d'Été watch, the craftsman or painter, equipped with a binocular loupe, applies the color to a vallonné enamel flower petal or a plique-à-jour butterfly. Using a thin marten-hair brush, he creates a gradient of hues. The colors are applied one by one, in a highly precise order, from lighter tones to deeper shades: indeed, every hue requires its own firing procedure, with the time and temperature known only to master enamelers. The free-hand drawing calls for accuracy, dexterity, and a true artistic gift; meanwhile, every step in the firing process demands absolute precision.
