Van Cleef & Arpels Extraordinary Dials Collection: Lady Arpels Jour Enchanté and Lady Arpels Nuit Enchantée
Van Cleef & Arpels expands its Extraordinary Dials collection by introducing the new Lady Arpels Jour Enchanté and Lady Arpels Nuit Enchantée watches.
The Extraordinary Dials collection merges métiers d’art with the Maison’s jewelry and watchmaking expertise. Limited and numbered, the new Lady Arpels Jour Enchanté and Lady Arpels Nuit Enchantée watches have been designed as miniature works of art.
With Lady Arpels Jour Enchanté, the Maison brings to life a graceful silhouette picking flowers under the early morning sun.
Light passes through generous leaves of white gold, plique-à-jour enamel and diamonds harboring a field of flowers aglow in dazzling colors. Set with yellow sapphires, these blossoms are rendered in relief thanks to a new technique developed by Van Cleef & Arpels to offer the illusion of a boundless flowerbed: façonné enamel.
Meticulously hand-sculpted, the feminine figure in white gold spreads her wings made from sparkling, pearly-white plique-à-jour enamel for a luminous transparency effect.
In the background, affixed to a sky exhibiting three nuances of turquoise, the sun gleams with the radiance of its precious stones: spessartite garnets, colored sapphires, or diamonds. Its rays are secured with a lifted setting, an innovative technique that creates the impression of stones suspended like dewdrops, with no visible attachment.
The story continues on the back of the case, through an engraved decor illustrating the fairy taking flight.
Model: Lady Arpels Jour Enchanté watch
Case
41-mm case in white gold, diamonds
Dial
Dial in white gold, yellow gold, pink and yelllow sapphires, spessartite garnets, diamonds, turquoise, plique-à-jour enamel, façonné enamel, setting in enamel, lifted setting
Movement
Manual-winding mechanical movement
Strap
Self-interchangeable alligator leather bracelet
Van Cleef & Arpels Lady Arpels Nuit Enchantée Watch
Upon a moon-kissed flowerbed, the fairy momentarily rests her graceful silhouette inside a cave of dazzling crystals. The fancy-cut sapphires with their pink and purple nuances, as if cut from the cave walls, impart a sense of shelter and serenity.
Cradled by the moon and stars illuminating the sky thanks to the glimmering grisaille enamel technique, the white-gold fairy sparkles. Her wings, fashioned in glitter plique-à-jour enamel with a pearlescent effect, exalt the silhouette of this feminine embodiment of nature’s beauty and power. Façonné enamel gives shape to the yellow sapphire-set flowers.
To round out this mysterious tableau, a rock crystal set with rose gold hour markers bespeaks the meticulous detail with which the ornamental stones are sculpted. The magical story continues on the back of the case, expressed through varied volume-generating engraving and polishing techniques that show the fairy enthralled by the beauty of the night sky.
Model: Lady Arpels Nuit Enchantée watch
Case
41-mm case in white gold, diamonds
Dial
Dial in white gold, rose gold, sapphires, rock crystal, diamonds, grisaille, plique-à-jour and façonné enamel
Movement
Manual-winding mechanical movement
Strap
Self-interchangeable alligator leather bracelet
To give full expression to a miniature sculpture of delicately defined contours, Van Cleef & Arpels developed several complex techniques in 2023. These approaches include a means of façonné enamel – which took 16 months to perfect – and setting in enamel –which required 24 months.
Façonné enamel
The material is gently poured onto a stainless-steel medium and then sculpted through whittling motions, sliver by sliver, to produce a three-dimensional form. After low temperature firing to eliminate the tensions induced in the material, the enamel is carefully glazed at high temperature. Its surface becomes smooth and luminous as if polished. The full process creates a striking visual effect of volume and transparency.
Setting in enamel
This technique involves setting precious stones within the plique-à-jour enamel with no other metal components. To perform this aesthetic exploit, the stone is exactingly positioned in an indentation deftly carved in the enamel. The piece is then re-fired according to a highly precise temperature curve to seal the composition. This process generates a remarkable “floating” effect that accentuates the glow of the precious stones.
Lapidary
The work of lapidary craftsmen begins with the selection of an assortment of gemstones that meet stringent criteria. The stones conform to the needs of the piece, particularly with regard to shape and color. Following this selection, the lapidary undertakes a veritable puzzle to render the design of the dial as faithfully as possible, each stone endowing the watch with its unique character.
For the creation of the Lady Arpels Nuit Enchantée watch, the sapphires were cut in such a way as to sublimate the material, thus preserving the rugged aspect of the cave.
