Read all about Van Cleef & Arpels' new watches for 2024!

Van Cleef & Arpels has been creating unique timepieces, leveraging its jewellery sensibility and jewellery techniques. 2024 saw the release of a number of timepieces that embodied the brand's unique worldview. Based on the theme of "Métiers d'Art," the new lineup features supreme timepieces that incorporate the brand's outstanding expertise, from new models in the "Poetic Complications® Collection" to the "Apparitions des Baie Automata" automata.

Lady Arpels Jour Nuit watch

　As a French Living Heritage Company (intangible cultural heritage company), Van Cleef & Arpels has long been committed to preserving the traditions of Métiers d'Art. The 2024 Watches & Wonders Geneva event will be themed around "Métiers d'Art," and the brand will be showcasing a number of new models that pay homage to the specialized techniques cultivated in its ateliers. One of the most prominent models is the Lady Arpels Jour Nuit watch.

　This is a reinterpretation of the Jour Nuit watch, first released in 2008. This latest model is part of the Poetic Complications® collection, which combines the Maison's exceptional watchmaking techniques with rare materials and traditional savoir-faire to tell poetic stories on the dial.

　This work depicts the sun and moon, who pursue each other in the depths of space, never meeting each other. The disk rotates once every 24 hours, depicting the stars moving across the sky and conveying the passage of time.

　The moon and stars are made of diamonds, the sun is set with yellow sapphires in a snow setting, the sky is made of Murano aventurine glass, and the white mother-of-pearl that covers part of the dial represents the horizon where the poetry of the universe is born.

　The mechanical movement with a 24-hour module was produced in collaboration with Valfleurier, a member of the Richemont Group.

　It comes in two versions: one with a shiny alligator strap and one with a diamond-paved 18K white gold bracelet, both of which can be swapped out by the wearer.

Lady Jour Nuit watch

　Like the Lady Arpels Jour Nuit watch, this model features a sun and moon on a disc that rotates once every 24 hours, expressing the majestic passage of time with the transition between day and night. This model has a smaller case size of 33mm in diameter than the former. The ground plane is guilloched and made of blue-painted mother-of-pearl, giving it a more elegant finish. The sun is depicted in guilloched 18K yellow gold.

　This model also features a mechanical movement with a 24-hour module, created in collaboration with Valfleurier. The dial, featuring a rotating disc that rotates once every 24 hours, is made of delicate openworked aventurine glass and is inlaid with white gold stars set with diamonds.

　Aventurine glass is Murano glass, produced on the island of Murano in Venice, Italy. Its production begins, as with traditional glassmaking, by heating the material to 1200°C. The mineral contained in the crucible gives the glass its shimmering, deep blue color. Once the crucible has completely cooled, it is broken with a hammer. This process alone takes a month. The aventurine glass is then cut into thin layers. This requires meticulous work, undergoing a rigorous selection process to ensure the discs that make up the dial have a uniform color and luster.

　The case back is made of sapphire crystal and is marked with a serial number, indicating that each piece is a special model.

Lady Arpels Breeze d'Ete Watch

　This on-demand module vividly expresses the abundance of nature, which has been a constant source of inspiration for Van Cleef & Arpels since its founding. Set in a garden on a refreshing summer morning, the piece features blooming flowers and dancing butterflies. The idyllic landscape conveys one of the Maison's themes, "Poetry of Time," and represents the flow of time in the eternal cycle of nature.

　The 38mm white gold case features a mother-of-pearl dial. A butterfly, crafted from plique-à-jour enamel in white and yellow gold, takes flight thanks to an on-demand module, chiming the hours with its swaying flowers and stems. This poetic scene is evoked by the refinement of artisans and precious stones. The azure-blue petals are adorned with varone enamel and feature a spessartite garnet pistil inside. The leaves, crafted from champlevé enamel, as well as tsavorite garnet and three-dimensional plique-à-jour enamel, are supported by a stem of miniature painting, evoking volume and depth.

　Miniature enamel painting is one of Van Cleef & Arpels' specialties. For the Lady Arpels Breise d'Eté watch, the artisan or artist works under a binocular magnifying glass. This includes freehand drawing with a tallow brush. Each color requires a firing process, the duration and temperature of which can only be judged by a skilled enameller.

Lady Arpels Jour Enchanté Watch

　Van Cleef & Arpels Extraordinary Dials™, a collection that brings to life the enchanting world of the Maison's jewellery and watchmaking arts, has been added to the collection with a vibrant depiction of a graceful fairy picking flowers in the morning sun.

　The lush leaves, which play with light, are adorned with white gold, plique-à-jour enamel, and diamonds. The flowers, set with yellow sapphires, are given a three-dimensional effect using fasonnée enamel, a new technique developed by Van Cleef & Arpels, creating the optical illusion of an endless field of flowers. The female figure, with her shimmering wings spread, is meticulously hand-sculpted in white gold. The pearl-white plique-à-jour enamel accents the transparency of the wings, filtering the sunlight.

　Against a sky made up of three shades of turquoise, a sun made up of precious stones such as spessartite garnets, colored sapphires and diamonds radiates dazzling rays, held in place by a lifted setting, a technique that gives the gemstones a dewdrop-like appearance without revealing any setting.

　To bestow a lifelike expression on the delicate contours of the miniature sculptures, the Maison developed several complex techniques in 2023. The result is fasonné enamel, which takes 16 months to complete, and setting-in enamel, which takes 24 months to complete.

　Fasoné enamel creates a striking visual effect of volume and transparency. The material is poured into a stainless steel plate and then carved away, layer by layer, to create three-dimensional forms. It is fired at a low temperature to remove tension within the material, and then carefully glazed at a high temperature. This creates a smooth surface and a polished sheen.

　Setting in enamel creates a "floating" effect, making the precious stones appear as if they are floating, highlighting their brilliance. This technique involves setting the gemstones in plique-à-jour enamel without the use of any other metal parts. To maximize the beautiful effect, the gemstones are precisely placed in cavities skillfully carved into the enamel. The piece is then fired again, at extremely precise temperatures, to set the whole piece in place.

　The back of the case is engraved with a scene of a fairy taking flight. This piece took two years to develop and approximately 180 hours to assemble the dial, and is a testament to Van Cleef & Arpels' ingenuity.

Apparition de bae automata

　Since its founding in 1906, Van Cleef & Arpels has been renowned for the creation of precious objects. In addition to jewelry, watchmaking, and arts, in recent years the company has combined automata techniques with its object creations. Recent examples include the "Réverie de Berriène Automata" in 2022, and "Floraison du Nénufar" and "Eveille du Cyclamen" in 2023. This year, the brand continues its aesthetic design tradition, unveiling two automata that pay homage to the world of flora and fauna. One of these is the "Apparition des Baie Automata."

　Approximately 27cm tall, these objects are the result of a partnership with François Junot, an automaton maker based in Sainte-Croix, Switzerland, and jewellers, enamellers, engravers and setting craftsmen who bring their ancient expertise to the creation of these timepieces.

　This on-demand piece features a new rotation system developed in-house to open and close the bouquet, underneath which is a mechanism designed by François Junot.

　The object's striking feature is its voluminous, intertwining structure of 112 leaves. Crafted from lacquered rose gold, each leaf was individually airbrushed with lacquer to achieve a subtle gradation of green. Eight coats of lacquer were applied, each one allowed to dry slowly and sanded by hand. The work was created by Catherine Nicolas, a lacquer master awarded the Meilleur Ouvrier de France (MOF).

　These leaves unfold on demand like delicate blossoms, revealing a bird crafted from white gold, diamonds and sapphires that spreads its wings before retreating into the object to rest as the leaves slowly close again.

　The automaton's base is made up of two Dalmatian jasper structures and a bowl of thulite, a rare mineral characterized by its pink color. A white gold butterfly with engraved wings rests on a rose gold twig. The rotating hour ring features yellow gold and diamond hour markers and gold bead embellishments. A melody plays when the animation is activated.

Button d'or Automata

Another automaton piece released alongside the "Apparitions of Baie Automata" is the "Bouton d'Automata." This piece draws inspiration from the Maison's rich heritage. It reinterprets the soft contours of a motif called the "paillette," created by Van Cleef & Arpels in the mid-1930s, paying homage to the jewelry collection of the same name. The paillette is a motif inspired by sequins used in couture.

　In the Bouton d'Or Automata, an on-demand automaton is activated, causing delicately bound, luminous gold paillettes to open like flowers, revealing a fairy with a rose-cut diamond face. Clad in a rose-gold dress, diamond headdress, and rose-gold gown trimmed with blue lacquer, the fairy dances and pirouettes, twirling with a briolette-cut sapphire between her fingers and flapping plique-à-jour enamel wings.

　Each payette is individually lacquered using either an airbrush or traditional brush strokes, again by lacquer master Catherine Nicolas. The base is made of pink hues of thulite, which complement the violet color of the charoite bowl.