New year, new products. As we count down to Watches & Wonders Geneva 2023, WorldTempus interviewed Rainer Bernard, head of watchmaking R&D for Van Cleef & Arpels. We talked about the new launches being prepared by the Maison that marks time in visual poetry.
Last year, Van Cleef & Arpels won the Innovation Prize at the Grand Prix d’Horlogerie de Genève, for the Lady Arpels Heures Florales Cerisier. What innovations can we look forward to at this year’s Watches and Wonders?
This year we wanted to showcase a very special segment within the Maison’s watch collections: jewellery pieces that tell the time. These creations stand at the crossroads of watchmaking and jewellery. We will be presenting the Perlée watch, in pink gold and white gold, set with diamonds as well as a number of Perlée pendant watches featuring different gemstones. We’ve played with colours, with gemmology techniques and setting styles. Take the secret pendant watch with its emerald-set cover: emerald is a fragile stone that’s difficult to set without breaking it. Where this gemstone is concerned, exceptional execution is vital. As far as the Ludo Secret watch was concerned, we revisited the original 1949 version and hid all the technical wizardry inside. The entire mechanism for revealing the time is now concealed, which aligns with the way we currently create watches. All the technical mechanisms are hidden away, and only the inspiration is revealed. This is also a delightful echo of the secret watch tradition, which has been part of the Maison’s output since the 1920s.
As far as the Poetic Complications are concerned, we are unveiling the new Lady Féerie in rose gold. It’s the next chapter of the story that began in 2020 with the blue Lady Féerie in white gold, which won the Ladies Complication prize at the Grand Prix d’Horlogerie de Genève in 2021.
Which piece was the most challenging for you?
In terms of the watch exterior, that would be the Ludo Secret, because hiding the mechanism is far from easy. Also, you have to ensure that the mechanism for opening the cover to reveal the time provides a smooth and fluid experience. These covers are also an exact copy of the aesthetic found on the bracelet with its Ludo links. The name comes from the nickname of Louis Arpels, a member of the Van Cleef & Arpels family.
There’s also a considerable challenge when it comes to choosing the materials and gemstones, but also the colours used for the enamelling in the Lady Féerie, for example. Some colours of enamel are impossible to find, so we had to create them ourselves. That’s the case with the pink enamel we used for the Lady Féerie in rose gold. If an element doesn’t exist, creating it becomes part of our goal, in order to fulfil the creative intention.
Of all the creations unveiled at Watches and Wonders, which was the most artistically stimulating for you?
We held many artistic discussions around the new Planétarium automaton. Each planet is a high jewellery creation representing countless hours of work. In fact, every planet went through multiple designs. First, we began with the general appearance of the planet. Then we created versions with different variations of materials and stones. We also had to take into account the high jewellery decoration that surrounds each planet. So, as you can see, the design of each planet is complex, and was refined over time.
How are the different artistic crafts involved in R&D discussions? What problems or processes do they bring to the table?
At Van Cleef & Arpels, the artistic crafts are involved from the very beginning of the development process. They are an integral part of our stories, of our new creations. We think about the artistic crafts in a very direct and immediate way. We design our watches by placing these skills in centre stage. They are an integral part of the design process. Story comes first, and technique serves the story.
How are Van Cleef & Arpels automata unique, compared with those of your competition?
Our uniqueness comes from the way in which we interpret our stories, how we see things and how we present them. Take the Planétarium automaton, for example. Fundamentally, this is a 17th-18th century table decoration. At Van Cleef & Arpels, our first goal was to reduce the size of the antique object, so we created the Midnight Planetarium and the Lady Arpels Planetarium watches. Then, we decided to move closer to the original, by returning to the concept of an autonomous object. However, our Planétarium automaton is quite different from the original. Although we incorporated the original function of a planetarium, by modelling a faithful representation of the time of rotation of each planet, we also incorporated other functions, such as the hidden shooting star, which completes its circuit accompanied by a melody. Recalling the secret watch principle, the Planétarium automaton offers a user-activated animation that shows the time, thanks to a shooting star decorated using the ‘mystery setting’ technique. The Planétarium automaton is also unique because when the animation is triggered the planets dance around the sun before returning to their exact astronomical positions. These technological improvements, which reflect Van Cleef & Arpels’ singular vision, have never been seen before.
If you had to summarise Van Cleef & Arpels’ 2023 creations in a single word, what would it be?
Emotion.
