Van Cleef & Arpels’ Poetry of Time: An Enchanted Vision of Watchmaking

Lovers meeting at midnight on a bridge. Ballerinas are poised in the wings before their performance. A fairy perched delicately on a cloud. These are not scenes from the theatre or the opera — they are the ticking heartbeats of Van Cleef & Arpels timepieces.

This is a Maison that does not merely construct watches. It composes fairytales. Each timepiece is written in the language of rare crafting techniques such as enamel, miniature painting and engraving, all underpinned by extraordinary mechanical artistry. 

Ever since its foundation – following Alfred Van Cleef and Estelle Arpels’s wedding in 1895 – emotion, craftmanship and storytelling have been the soul of the brand.

Love is more than a theme for Van Cleef & Arpels; it is a cornerstone. The first piece the Maison ever sold was a diamond heart. And more than a century later, that spirit of enchantment and poetry endures in its most iconic horological collection: Poetic Complications.

“Each of our creations starts with a story,” says Pascal Narbeburu, Timepieces Métiers Director at Van Cleef & Arpels. When the Poetic Complications collection was launched in 2006, it turned traditional watchmaking over its head. Instead of privileging technical prowess for its own sake, here, emotion, craftsmanship and storytelling become the driving force of the watch, while animations, complications and métiers d’art all come together to paint a vivid picture of romance and poetry. 

Each watch takes up to 5 to 10 years of research and development. It is hardly surprising, then, that throughout the years Van Cleef & Arpels has received 15 awards (eight of them for the Poetic Complications) at the Grand Prix d’Horlogerie de Genève. 

Time to Romance

One of the most emblematic watches embodying the Van Cleef & Arpels spirit is the Lady Arpels Pont des Amoureux. Launched 15 years ago, it features two lovers standing on opposite sides of a bridge, waiting for their reunion. 

Beyond the charming narrative is an ingenious technical feat: she moves with the passing hours; he climbs more quickly, in line with the minutes, to meet her at 12 o’clock. There, they share a kiss lasting a magical three minutes before a retrograde mechanism returns them to their respective places. Since 2019, an on-demand animation triggered by a push-button allows the wearer to replay the scene at will. 

The lovers have returned in various guises over the years. For 2025, Van Cleef & Arpels has brought back the couple in two iterations: the first is a series of four watches where they make a date to rendezvous at the bridge at different times of the day. Then, there is the Lady Arpels Bal des Amoureux Automate watch, where they waltz on the cobblestoned streets of Paris.  

Embodying the very essence of Van Cleef & Arpels’ identity, this collection remains a cornerstone of the brand’s horological storytelling, still highly sought-after by collectors and emblematic of timeless design.

“We have our own vision of time which stays very consistent through the years” says Narbeburu. “That is one of the reasons why the Poetic Complications watches we have created since 2006 are timeless. It is like taking a classic from your bookshelf and reading it to your children. A story never gets old.”

The latest Pont des Amoureux creations for 2025 meld a multitude of artisanal techniques and mechanical feats, showcasing the Maison’s ever-evolving mastery. Narbeburu notes that
Van Cleef & Arpels has been steadily developing its in-house capabilities, especially for mechanisms that serve the storytelling aspect of the Poetic Complications collection. As a result, the Maison is able to develop, assemble and do quality control for its complications in-house. This allows designers, engineers, watchmakers and artisans to create embodiments of the Van Cleef & Arpels watchmaking philosophy; the movements they craft are mechanically ambitious yet always elegant, with decorative techniques applied that serve a narrative purpose. The watchmaking team demonstrates technical finesse in creating advanced complications in the most compact way possible. This is necessary so that the movements can fit in ergonomically optimised cases, making the watches suitable for everyday wear.

From Day to Night 

Lady Arpels Pont des Amoureux Soirée (left) & Lady Arpels Pont des Amoureux Aube (right)

For 2025, the Maison depicts the lovers meeting at different moments of the day, namely dawn, morning, dusk, and moonlight. The dials are a sight to behold, crafted using the coloured grisaille enamel technique. A palette of delicate watercolours depicts the city at various points during the day and night. During sunrise, the rays of the sun permeate through the buildings in a radiant burst of yellows, oranges, purples and pinks, while the sky shimmers in a gradient kaleidoscope of purples, pinks and oranges as the sun sets. 

To achieve this effect, the craftsman fires each dial around 10 times in the oven, a complex endeavour that captures every nuance and detail of the sky. Each dial takes about 40 hours to create. The scene continues on the caseback, with a sculpted gold case and an enamel decal – making for a true work of art. 

Dancing Under the Stars

The lovers continue their romantic sojourn, off the bridge and on to the cobbled streets of Paris. Inspired by the open-air dance cafes of the 19th century, they lean into each other for a kiss at noon and midnight. However, the Maison pushed the envelope even further for the Lady Arpels Bal des Amoureux Automate, as the two lovers lower their linked arms in harmony – this seemingly simple gesture took
Van Cleef & Arpels four years to perfect, so the movement appears natural, fluid and graceful. 

The scene is ebullient, with a smattering of stars, lanterns and fairy lights evoking an idyllic night out, while two stars indicate the time on the retrograde counter. One of the biggest challenges, says Narbeburu, was to combine all the Maison’s narrative elements inside the limited space of a case. “This watch is almost three-dimensional. On the dial, there are five different layers, including the clouds, the buildings, the figures, and we had to make sure that the watch remained thin.”

This dial requires over 40 hours of work, created using two enamel techniques: the ancient and highly complex grisaille and coloured grisaille, a technique created in-house, so the background is almost hypnotic in its chiaroscuro effect. 

When the Stars Align

What could be more romantic than stargazing with someone you love? For Van Cleef & Arpels, the sky is not the limit, it is a canvas. While many brands have explored astronomical complications, calculating tides and celestial positions with scientific precision, Van Cleef & Arpels’ goal is more emotive: to bring the heavens to the wrist. 

Technical innovation meets artistic ingenuity within the Lady Arpels Planétarium. The beauty lies in the astronomical mechanism, which can track the movement of planets around the dial. It all fits within a 38mm case, making it truly a work of wonder

The Lady Arpels Planétarium watch is a perfect representation of this vision. Set on a dial of deep blue aventurine glass, which shimmers like a night sky, it features seven concentric rings that chart the real-time movement of the planets. Each orb is crafted in a different, exquisite material: Venus in green enamel, Earth in turquoise, Mercury in pink mother-of-pearl, the Sun in sculpted gold, and the Moon as a diamond, which itself revolves around the Earth in 29.5 days. A golden shooting star encircles the dial every 12 hours, pointing to the current time, a touch that adds just the right celestial flair to the timepiece. 

When Horology Meets Horticulture  

In a magical garden, flowers bloom and close, marking each passing hour. In the hands of
Van Cleef & Arpels, nature is captured in a rich and vivid tableau.

The Lady Arpels watch serves as a canvas, allowing Van Cleef & Arpels’ artisans to pay homage to their perennial muse, nature, in all its boundless beauty and bounty. Among the highlights are the Lady Arpels Heures Florales timepieces, offered in two variations and colours, inspired by the 1751 work Philosophia Botanica by Swedish botanist Carl von Linné. In his book, Linné imagined a garden whose flowers opened and closed to reveal the time.

The Lady Arpels Heures Florales timepieces bring this dream to life with a miniature garden where blossoms unfurl to display the hours, offering a delightful surprise as the next flowers to bloom remain a mystery. 

Demonstrating how the team takes a hands-on role for every watch and is constantly pushing boundaries, Narbeburu reveals that they went through a demanding creative process that involved all production teams working on several iterations, each time incorporating an elevated touch of “magic” to the creation.  

One of the “magical” aspects of the garden is that the blooming of the flowers appears completely random. “In the morning, one flower might bloom to indicate 1am; in the afternoon, it will be a different flower; and the morning of the next day, yet another one,” explains Narbeburu. “So, we have three cycles that give the impression of randomness.” 

The minutes are indicated on a lateral band on the case middle, allowing time to be read discreetly. Though poetic and gentle in its expression, the mechanism is a marvel of engineering, representing five years of innovation from concept to creation.

Summer Breeze

The winner of the Prestigious Ladies’ Complication Prize at the 2024 Grand Prix d’Horlogerie de Genève, the Lady Arpels Brise d’Été watch evokes the lightness of a summer breeze, surrounded by nature. With this piece, Van Cleef & Arpels showcases its mastery of a wide range of artistic crafts, combining techniques such as gem-setting, plique-à-jour, and vallonné enamel. These methods act like brushstrokes painting a vivid landscape: the butterfly wings and blades of grass are rendered in delicate plique-à-jour enamel, giving them a translucent quality, while the flower petals — crafted in vallonné enamel — have a domed, luscious finish.

Each blossom is adorned with spessartite garnets, and the garden shimmers with vibrant green tsavorites. Completing this enchanting tableau, wildflowers gently sway in the summer breeze, while two butterflies gracefully circle the dial to indicate the hours and minutes. Pressing the pusher at 8 o’clock sets their elegant dance in motion.

Fairy Dust

At Van Cleef & Arpels, Haute Joaillerie and Haute Horlogerie often collide, as they are complementary. 

Left: Lady Féerie; Right: Lady Féerie Or Rose 

A familiar figure in the universe of Van Cleef & Arpels, the fairy is a recurring muse, a symbol of lightness, hope and benevolence. She first fluttered into the Maison’s world in the 1940s as a sculpted, gem-set clip. Today, she reappears in the Lady Féerie watch, perched gracefully on a cloud, her wand delicately commanding the minutes.

Left: Lady Féerie Or Rose ; Right: The caseback of the Lady Féerie Or Rose

Her form is sculpted in gold, and she wears a sapphire- and diamond-studded tutu. Her wings are made of turquoise plique-à-jour enamel, while the dial is crafted in guilloché mother-of-pearl. 

A Perfect Dance

Lady Arpels Ballerine Musicale Rubis (left) and Lady Arpels Ballerine Musicale Émeraude (right)

Van Cleef & Arpels has long been both passionate about the arts, and inspired by it, with an affinity for dance. It started with Louis Arpels, a member of the founding family of the Maison, who would often attend the ballet with his nephew Claude in tow. This passion eventually took form in the iconic ballerina clips of the 1940s, pieces that remain beloved to this day.

The Maison continues to dance its way into our hearts with a series of three timepieces, the Lady Arpels Ballerines Musicales watches, which uses gem-setting, miniature painting and a complex animation and a mechanism that combines a music box and a chime to create a sensorial spectacle. Available in a series of three, each iteration, the Lady Arpels Ballerine Musicale Émeraude watch with its green tones, Rubis in red, and finally Diamant in blue, pays homage to the three acts in Jewels. Famously, ballet choreographer George Balanchine developed Jewels in the 1960s following an encounter with Claude Arpels, with whom he shared a passion for gemstones.

Lady Arpels Ballerine Musicale Emeraude

The details of the watch are truly exquisite, from the dramatic folds of the curtain that parts to the revealed hand-painted dancing ballerinas. They pirouette onto the stage, to the tune of the music.  Unlike a minute repeater, this musical box can play a range of notes. Miniaturising this engineering marvel into a wristwatch was truly an extraordinary feat, one that was 10 years in the making.

This being Van Cleef & Arpels, the diamonds on the front of the case emulate the chandelier of a stage and those on the case middle give the impression of curtains – a demand that made the architecture even more challenging, as they muffled the sound, requiring masterful engineering to preserve both the watch’s beauty and its musical clarity.

Curtain call

Van Cleef & Arpels redefines the function of time with its Poetic Complications collection, watches where technical prowess is at the service of the story. As Narbeburu reminds us, “The story is at the center of the creation; mechanics and métiers d’art allow us to tell it.” 

Here, time pauses for a kiss on a bridge or the blooming of flowers in a garden. Blending mechanical ingenuity with artistic craftsmanship, these pieces reflect the spirit of Van Cleef & Arpels, from its inception more than a century ago; it continues to shape the Maison’s unique approach to watchmaking.

“We have our own vision of time which stays very consistent through the years. That is one of the reasons why the Poetic Complications watches we have created since 2006 are timeless. It is like taking a classic from your bookshelf and reading it to your children. A story never gets old.”
– Pascal Naberburu, Timepieces Métiers Director at Van Cleef & Arpels​

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