{"id":26028,"date":"2021-03-28T08:21:21","date_gmt":"2021-03-28T08:21:21","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.horbiter.com\/the-van-cleef-arpels-poetic-complications-watches-hands-on\/"},"modified":"2023-10-05T22:51:18","modified_gmt":"2023-10-05T20:51:18","slug":"van-cleef-arpels-poetic-complications-2016-sihh","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.horbiter.com\/en\/van-cleef-arpels-poetic-complications-2016-sihh\/","title":{"rendered":"The Van Cleef & Arpels Poetic Complications watches hands-on"},"content":{"rendered":"

If you want to write about women\u2019s watches or jewel watches, you need to be a woman who is able to appreciate both a caliber and fine jewellery-making alike, or else what you are going to write about won\u2019t be taken seriously. This is the reason why this article about the Van Cleef & Arpels<\/strong> novelties is being released with a slight delay if compared to all the other ones. The author of this piece dedicated to the Poetic Complications<\/strong> by Van Cleef & Arpels<\/strong> is a female friend of mine and she is also Horbiter<\/strong>\u2018s Social Media Manager<\/strong> \u2013 GC<\/em>.<\/p>\n

\"VanAA<\/em> \u2013 Van Cleef & Arpels<\/strong> is a non-typical brand existing within the multitude of luxury brands, it is a niche manufacturer within the world of luxury items manufacturing. They originally started as jewellers and artisans of luxury accessories and that\u2019s the exact impression that you get when you land on the website of this company whose name is automatically associated to the word \u201ccreation<\/em>\u201d rather than to the common words \u201cjewel<\/em>\u201d or \u201ctimepiece<\/em>\u201d.<\/p>\n

Van Cleef & Arpels<\/strong> is the only brand taking part to the SIHH whose creations are difficult to collect in one single photographic session (I mean a hands on review) and that\u2019s because their pieces are simply too unique or too extremely rare, like the Special Orders<\/em><\/strong> that the manufacturer used to craft for their clients at the beginning of the 20th<\/sup> century.<\/p>\n

\"VanAt the beginning of January 2016, the company provided a small digital preview to their most important release; the Van Cleef & Arpels Lady Arpels Ronde des Papillons<\/strong>. The video the brand has released is a unique experience, even for those people who have been producing professional videos for years.<\/p>\n

The footage reveals the hidden secrets of the movement and the skillful craftsmanship that make the Lady Arpels Ronde des Papillons<\/strong> an exceptional complicated watch with an original mechanical animation\u00a0consisting of three<\/strong> butterflies<\/strong> flying at different paces and counting the retrograde minutes in conjunction with a swallow that indicates the retrograde hours.<\/p>\n

\"VanWhat striked me the most was not the patented complication per se but rather its delicacy and the foothold of the video produced by Van Cleef & Arpels<\/strong> to tell its story, something that I found completely different from any other promotional video ever watched before.<\/p>\n

This is the main difference between Van Cleef & Arpels<\/strong> and any other brand. The timepiece\u2019s animation is activated by pressing the button located on the white<\/strong> gold<\/strong> case<\/strong> at 8 o\u2019clock, once the button has been pressed down, the three butterflies start flying through the clouds clocking down the time and then, after ten seconds, they fly back to their initial position.<\/p>\n

\"VanThe two timepieces in the pictures above are the Van Cleef & Arpels Lady Jour des Fleurs<\/strong> (on the right hand side) and the Van Cleef & Arpels Nuit des Papillons<\/strong> (on the left hand side.) The butterflies pattern is decorated with diamonds<\/strong> and sapphires<\/strong>; there are 4 rose-cut diamonds<\/strong> that represent the butterfly located at 11 o\u2019clock while sapphires<\/strong> and diamonds<\/strong> cover the whole dial. Diamonds have been inserted in the case-middle too.<\/p>\n

\"VanTo craft the multi-coloured dial of their Lady Jour des Fleurs<\/strong>, Van Cleef & Arpels<\/strong> chose spinels<\/strong>, yellow<\/strong> and pink<\/strong> sapphires<\/strong> coupled with spessartite<\/strong> and tsavorite<\/strong> garnets<\/strong>. The name \u201cspessartite<\/em>\u201d derives from the Bayern<\/strong> city of Spessart<\/strong> where the spessartite garnet was first discovered, beside being a very\u00a0rare gem the spessartite garnet has a very high refrective index that makes it extremely sparkly.<\/p>\n

\"VanTsavorite<\/strong> garnets<\/strong>, on the other hand, are those green precious stones that are set in the dial, they were chosen instead of emeralds<\/strong> for their hardness and they are also extremely rare since they can only be found in Kenya<\/strong> or Tanzania<\/strong>.\u00a0Both timepieces feature a 33 mm<\/strong>\u2013diameter<\/strong>\u2013case<\/strong> made of gold that contains a manual<\/strong> caliber<\/strong> that guarantees up to 40 hours of power reserve<\/strong>.<\/p>\n

A very particular characteristic of both watches is that the coloured precious stones are actually set in a disc that completes two laps in one day, this is how Van Cleef & Arpels<\/strong> interprets the Poetic<\/strong> Complications<\/strong> on two items that can be considered two examples of fine jewellery-making<\/strong> rather than watch-making<\/strong>.<\/p>\n

\"VanThe last chapter of this article is dedicated to the Van Cleef & Arpels Lady Arpels Jour Nuit F\u00e9e Ondine<\/strong>; Ondine the fairy beholds a water landscape complete with water lillies while sitting on a leaf decorated with green tsavorite garnets. The dial is a mixture between two different types of materials; enamel with champlev\u00e9<\/em> e plique-\u00e0-jour<\/em> and a complex setting of sapphires<\/strong> and garnets<\/strong> that form a motif depicting a sun<\/strong> and a moon<\/strong> that complete a lap in 24 hours.<\/p>\n

\"SIHH2016The final effect is a bright<\/strong> and iridescent<\/strong> dial that, thanks to the presence of the enamel and its plique-\u00e0-jour<\/em> working, gives this timepiece a transparent and lengthening effect that makes the dial appear deeper.\u00a0Many maisons are able to come up with jewel-watches but none of them can do that with the same delicacy and originality as Van Cleef & Arpels<\/strong>\u2018 creations.<\/p>\n

Their working techniques, their animations, the choice of their precious stones and their setting, even their press-release documentation are clear signs of this manufacturer\u2019s extreme care, class, elegance and total originality.<\/p>\n