Among the approximately 20 models and stories told through Poetic Complications since 2006, these two watches could sum up the philosophy of Van Cleef & Arpels. From a butterfly feeding on nectar to flowers stirred by the breeze, these two creations illustrate the thinking behind each of these mechanical feats, which although invisible, revealing only the emotion of their stories.
Lady Arpels Papillon Automate: a butterfly in symbiosis
Unveiled in 2017 and honored at the Grand Prix d’Horlogerie de Genève (GPHG), the Lady Arpels Papillon Automate features a 40mm white gold case framing a botanical scene crafted in champlevé, paillonné, and plique-à-jour enamel, enhanced with sapphires and diamonds. But it is the insect nestled among the foliage that makes this piece so distinctive. It all began with a shared desire within the workshops, a common vision centered on the butterfly. It is an essential motif for the Maison, at the heart of its Enchanted Nature universe. Until then, however, it had always remained motionless: flat on a dial, frozen on a brooch. During the meeting, someone brought their hands together and mimicked the beating of wings, suggesting that they could be made to move. The idea evolved during the same discussion. Should the wings beat every second? That would consume too much energy and, above all, look unnatural. A real butterfly, when perched, does not move constantly; it comes to life from time to time. The principle was established: occasional wingbeats, becoming more frequent when the watch is worn.
A wheel with unevenly spaced teeth
At the heart of the system, a wheel completes one revolution per hour. Its teeth are not evenly spaced: some are close together, while others are farther apart. Whenever a tooth pushes a cam, the butterfly awakens and flaps its wings. When the watch is resting, this happens around 20 times per hour, at varying intervals of one, two, or three minutes. Our guide draws our attention to the wheel and invites us to examine it more closely through a magnifying glass. The irregularity is immediately apparent. It is what gives the butterfly its unpredictable behavior, and testing this random wingbeat required the Maison to develop new inspection tools.
When the watch is worn, the oscillating weight comes into play. Turning in the right direction, it accelerates the wheel, which moves from one tooth to the next more quickly. The irregular rhythm then becomes random, and the butterfly can come to life 40, 60, 100, or even 120 times per hour, becoming truly active on the wrist! Simply rolling the watch around the wrist, like a small ball, is enough to see it respond. Once the watch is put down, the butterfly returns to its own rhythm.
A power reserve made of nectar
Dduring our tour of the workshops, we learn that the number of wingbeats also tells a story. The butterfly feeds on nectar, for example. When its energy is low, it beats its wings only once each time it awakens. After two hours on the wrist, it moves to two beats, then three, and eventually four—the maximum—after a full day of activity. This is not part of the Maison’s own terminology, but it could almost be considered a poetic activity tracker. At night, the butterfly consumes its nectar and gradually returns to a single beat. Even winding becomes part of the show: as the mainspring barrel fills, the butterfly flaps its wings, then stops once it is satisfied, signaling that the power reserve is full. On-demand animation has also been incorporated into the design via a pusher that triggers the wingbeats for as long as it is held down. The barrel dedicated to the animation stores enough energy for approximately 3,000 wingbeats. In total, the watch brings together four modes in one: regular, symbiosis, power reserve indication, and on-demand animation, all achieved entirely mechanically.
Behind the poetry, a differential for two barrels
How can both the movement barrel and the animation barrel be wound by a single oscillating weight? The answer lies in a differential, the subject of one of the watch’s four patents. Here, it operates with one input, the weight, and two outputs, the two barrels. The challenge was to control how the energy was distributed, since it always flows toward the path of least resistance. The teams therefore designed the watch so that, when both barrels are empty, priority is given to the movement barrel until it reaches a certain level, ensuring that the time can still be read. Only afterward, once the torques are balanced, does energy also power the animation. Who could imagine such watchmaking expertise beneath the lighthearted charm of this joyful creation?
An architecture designed for the wings
The butterfly is positioned at 8 o’clock, close to the edge, to create volume and to give it the largest wings possible. This choice complicates matters because the crystal slopes downwards at that point. The butterfly therefore had to be lowered, and a dedicated architecture devised: the base movement is shifted toward the crown to free up space on the left, while the mechanics beneath the insect are kept to a minimum. To animate the wings, a connecting-rod and crank system, similar to the mechanism used in steam locomotives, converts linear motion into rotation. It produces a smooth back-and-forth movement, with the acceleration and deceleration of a real butterfly. The entire assembly is based on an automatic ValFleurier movement fitted with an automaton module developed exclusively for the Maison, with a 34-hour power reserve.
Lady Arpels Brise d'Été: making the invisible visible
Seven years after the butterfly, the Lady Arpels Brise d’Été, awarded at the GPHG in 2024, takes the art of animation a step further. Within a 38mm white gold case, against a matte mother-of-pearl background, bluish corollas in undulating enamel with spessartite garnet pistils sit alongside blades of grass set with tsavorites and butterflies in white and yellow gold with plique-à-jour enamel. Three-dimensional miniature painting gives depth to this garden, which the automaton module brings to life on demand, animating the butterflies, flowers, and stems alike.
This creation celebrates the freshness of an early summer morning. The challenge was to animate flowers whose heads are very heavy, supported by exceptionally slender stems. The simplest solution would have been to move the stem to carry the flower with it, but that would have required an enormous stem, which would have been aesthetically unacceptable.
The solution is hidden beneath the dial. Each of the three flowers has its own invisible, sturdy mechanical arm, attached beneath its head. This arm supports the weight of the corolla and brings it to life without putting strain on the slender stem, which is no longer at risk of breaking. One final problem remained: the shaft passing through the dial leaves an opening. The flowers were designed so that they completely conceal it, even at the extremes of their movement, with each flower secretly supported from behind.
The Van Cleef teams also carefully observed how flowers move in the wind in order to reproduce this swaying motion—so the flowers therefore do not oscillate in unison. The length of each arm, the leverage, and the speeds were designed to give each flower its own cycle. Nature is miraculous, and Van Cleef & Arpels does surely it justice.
The Gear Train and the Differential: anything but a breeze
Another feat lies in the transition between normal time display and animation. The butterflies indicate the time, but they can also take flight on demand and circle the garden, as if awakened by a breeze. This time, the differential is used in reverse: two inputs, one output. It allows rotations to be added together, a principle patented by the Maison for the Lady Arpels Ronde des Papillons.
The talented designer of this mechanism explains it through an analogy. Imagine a train traveling around a circular track in one hour. Sitting in seat number one, with your arm extended through the window, you indicate the minutes. If you get up and run a complete lap around the train before returning to your seat, your arm still indicates the correct time. During the 10 seconds of animation, a spring delivers a constant amount of energy, superimposing a 360-degree rotation onto the butterflies’ continuous movement, which is never interrupted. We got carried away and activated the animation many times, yet the watch remained perfectly on time. Magic!
One final detail completes the meaning of the piece. Since the wind is invisible, we can only see its effects on the watch’s leaves and flowers. On the back of the watch, however, the oscillating weight bears an engraving representing the Maison’s interpretation of the wind. On the dial, the breeze animates the flowers and butterflies. On the reverse, it finally takes shape: Van Cleef & Arpels has made the wind visible.
