Van Cleef & Arpels' Poetic Complications Collection Scripts a Fairytale Through Design
Re-envisioning the idea of dials, Van Cleef & Arpels' Poetic Complications Collection creates poetry in motion, bringing theatre to life on your wrist.
Time flows to the rhythm of nature in the garden of Van Cleef & Arpels as the maison pays tribute to the natural world, which has fascinated the luxury French jeweller since 1906. Drawing inspiration from Carl Von Linné’s floral clock concept (Horologium Florae), hypothesised in his 1715 book, Philosophia Botanica, the Arpels Heures Florales and Lady Arpels Heures Florales Cerisier watches evoke the Swedish botanist's hypothetical garden plan, made up of a broad variety of plants, whose flowers open and close at specific moments of the day to depict time.
Three-dimensional dials offer a whimsically theatric rendition of time through the opening and closing of 12 corollas. The notion of telling time, hence, becomes a spectacle of art, fuelled my ingenious mechanism and the most intricate of craftsmanship. As the flower blossoms open and close, the dial’s scenery is renewed every 60 minutes, emulating the visages of an enchanting, living, breathing, garden, a scene right out of a fairytale.
Up to 166 elements are set in motion, breathing life into the dials thanks to a module developed entirely by the craftsman of the maison’s watchmaking workshops in Geneva. Through the complex, elaborate assembly, each of the garden’s petals is articulated and connected to the watch’s mechanism. With each passing hour, the open flowers close, making way for a new combination.
The next day, the sequence of bouquets that succeed one another from hour to hour will be different. Depicting the ever-changing landscapes that occur in our natural world, it creates joyous entertainment for the eyes as the wearer is presented with a new artistic composition as it seeks out the measure of time between buds and corollas. Telling the time is completed by a minute display visible in a window on the side of the case.
Lady Arpels Heures Florales
The Lady Arpels Heures Florales and Lady Arpels Heures Florales Cerisier watches display a spectacular, whimsically colourful, bejewelled garden encapsulated within a 38mm case, in white and rose gold respectively. Evoking a sense of summer, the first watch features leaves and flowers in refreshing hues of blues and greens, offering a delicate contrast to the white mother of pearl background. The cool tone hues are punctuated by dazzling yellow jewels and intricate gold branches, adding a touch of warmth, hinting at rays of summer sunshine.
Lady Arpels Heures Florales Cerisier
Revisiting the same design, the second timepiece captures the picturesque scenes of blossoming Spring, as the earth springs to life again after the icy winter. Ethereal blue butterflies – symbolic of Van Cleef & Arpels – flutter between pink and red corolla’s accentuating the dials relief effects.
On each dial, no fewer than 266 elements are magnified by the craft and skills brought together at the Watchmaking Workshops in Geneva. Petals and butterflies create a miniature painting as branches sculpted gold and clouds crafted in mother-of-pearl are enhanced by white and yellow diamonds that glisten delightfully alongside one another, creating a true spectacle for the eyes and imagination.
Lady Arpels Ballerines Enchantées
The feminine figure of a ballerina comes to life as if in a dream as different crafts and skills come together to instil a sense of fluid movement, lightness, and refinement. The magic and delight of this delicate yet powerful performance art are presented through two new renditions of the Lady Arpels Ballerine Enchantée.
Born in 2013, the winner of the Lady’s Complication Prize at the Grand Prix de l’Horlogerie de Genève the same year, the Lady Arpels Ballerine Enchantée watch has become one of the maison’s emblematic watchmaking creations, showcasing another one of the maison’s sources of inspiration: Dance.
The newest additions feature in white and rose gold as the silhouette of the dancer is revisited. Her posture takes on a slender, dynamic attitude, while the flounces of her tutu unfurl in new materials and colours. Evoking all the elegance and wonderment of the ballet, the figure is encased in a halo of dazzling white gems, creating imagery of the stage lights that encircle a single dancer as she performs a solo.
