Awed by the spectacle of the stars and the heavens, the French jewellery and watch company pays tribute to celestial wonders through creations that express the full scope of its expertise.
Poetry of the Heavens
For more than a century, Van Cleef & Arpels has pursued the dream of living in time with the cosmos. Awed by the spectacle of the stars and the heavens, the Maison pays tribute to celestial wonders through creations that express the full scope of its expertise.
In 1929, it designed a pocket watch fitted with a complication showing phases of the Moon. In the 1950s, Van Cleef & Arpels once again turned its gaze to the night sky, especially with the Meteor secret watch. This year, the Maison is observing the Moon’s subtle variations through a new Poetic Complications timepiece.
The hours of Poetic Astronomy tick by in harmony from one time zone to the next, within an elegant setting highlighting the art of enamel. Meanwhile, Van Cleef & Arpels’ jewels that tell time interpret the boundless depth of the sky in rare materials. Finally, the Extraordinary Dials collection welcomes two new watches – legendary tales of love set against a celestial backdrop.
Midnight Jour Nuit Phase de Lune
Van Cleef & Arpels is expanding its Jour Nuit collection, launched in 2008 and revisited in 2024, with the introduction of a new creation in honour of the Moon, a long-standing source of inspiration for the Maison. The watch features two overlapping complications housed within the case. The first animates the eponymous Jour/Nuit display, while the second ‘astronomical’ complication illustrates the current Moon phase, a feature that entered the watchmaking history of Van Cleef & Arpels in 1929.
Within the 42mm white gold Midnight case, the dial beams with the intense sparkle of a black Murano aventurine glass sky. Van Cleef & Arpels’ Innovation Department took part in developing this component, achieving a deep colour and a shimmering bronze-toned effect that calls to mind the full beauty of the night sky.
Over the course of the day, the guilloché golden Sun gradually gives way to a Moon fashioned in white mother-of-pearl and surrounded by acrylic traced stars. The two heavenly bodies thus emerge and disappear behind the horizon, represented by a guilloché mother-of-pearl shroud painted in a gradient of shades from black to white.
Their daily pursuit is made possible by the movement of a 24-hour rotating disc, characteristic of Jour Nuit creations. This first display is enhanced by a subtle shift in the appearance of the Moon, echoing its eternal 29.5-day cycle. The phenomenon remains visible on demand even when the Moon is hidden behind the shroud, thanks to a button on the rim of the watch.
When the animation is prompted, the dial rotates 360° for approximately 10 seconds, revealing the Earth’s satellite in its star-studded decor. The story continues on the back of the case, with an engraving in white gold that evokes the Moon’s topography. The Earth is represented in enamel tracing on the sapphire crystal positioned atop the oscillating weight. The crystal itself is adorned with planets in miniature painting, gently sparkling against a guilloché background. The rear of the watch inverts the perspective offered on the dial, portraying the cosmos as observed not from the Earth, but from the Moon.
Illuminating the Moon’s Mystery
The decor of the Midnight Jour Nuit Phase de Lune watch comes to life thanks to the joint operation of two rotating discs, each moving at its own pace. The first, cloaking the bottom of the case, depicts the Sun pursuing the Moon in a 24-hour cycle. The second disc, more discreet, describes a rotation of 24 hours, 16 minutes and 27 seconds, almost imperceptibly transfiguring the satellite, day after day.
The combination of discs displays the Moon phase in precise detail, mirroring its actual appearance in the night sky. Thanks to an automaton, the heavenly body can also be revealed in its current phase during the day. Four years of development were required to breathe life into this astronomical movement, wholly designed by the experts at Van Cleef & Arpels’ Watchmaking Workshops in Geneva.
This technical feat went along with the need to minimise the weight of the rotating discs, facilitating movement and avoiding friction. Over several months of testing, craftsmen were able to create a fluid on-demand animation that lets the wearer consult the Moon phase as often as desired. The different layers making up the dial were thinned down to ensure a compelling view of the creation’s scenery. The fully ergonomic design includes systems to set the time and adjust indication of the phases of the Moon, both controlled from the crown.
Midnight Heure d’ici & Heure d’ailleurs
Featuring a dual-time zone movement, the Midnight Heure d’ici & Heure d’ailleurs watch offers a refined and poetic interpretation of time in two different corners of the planet. Every glance at the dial becomes a boundless invitation to wander, a window open onto the world.
The design of the 38mm Midnight case accentuates the harmonious balance between the polished, satiny rose gold of the case and hour markings, and the subtle tones of the embossed enamel making up the dial, its brown nuances taking on warm or cold accents depending on the light. The dial presents a guilloché aesthetic radiating out from a piqué motif recalling the Van Cleef & Arpels hallmark.
Pure lines resonate with the asymmetry of the decor, a paragon of the Maison’s style, in which the flowing letters spelling out the name of the piece pay tribute to the poetry expressed in the words. The back of the case illustrates an engraved Moon basking in the glow of a guilloché Sun.
This Van Cleef & Arpels Midnight case houses an automatic mechanism, entirely redeveloped with a 65h power reserve, to display jumping hours alongside retrograde minutes. The Heure d’ici – the baseline hour presented in the upper window – and the Heure d’ailleurs, the hour displayed in the second time zone window located on the bottom of the dial, advance simultaneously thanks to two sector gears that synchronise the two discs and the retrograde minute hand.
Once the hand reaches 60 minutes on the graduated scale, it returns to its initial position just as the hour display jumps forward. So begins a new cycle, announcing a new journey. To ensure easy operation, a single crown serves at once for winding the movement and setting the hour for the two time zones, as well as the minutes.
Enamel: A Reinvented Art Form
To bedeck the Midnight Heure d’ici & Heure d’ailleurs watch in a singular hue, Van Cleef & Arpels turned to the craftsmen in its enamel workshop in Geneva. The experts began by considering the optical properties of selected precious stones such as rubies, which exhibit cool undertones despite their warm colour.
Following a long series of tests, they managed to replicate this dichroism in an enamel tinged with a dense, deep amber-brown hue. Its nuances shift with the light, reflected thanks to a mirror-polished gold background that heightens reflections within the dial.
This first daunting challenge went along with the delicate task of imprint
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