Van Cleef & Arpels Lady Arpels Brise d’Été Watch

Paying tribute to nature, a source of inspiration for Van Cleef & Arpels since its creation, the Lady Arpels Brise d’Été watch celebrates the freshness of a summer morning.

This new automatic watch for women brings corollas into bloom within the Van Cleef & Arpels garden. White- and yellow-gold butterflies rendered in plique-à-jour enamel not only tell the time, but flutter off thanks to an on-demand animation module that also breathes life into the flowers and their stems.

Created in vallonné enamel, the corollas display azure nuances complemented by spessartite garnet pistils. Against the intensity of matte mother-of-pearl, the dial displays a poetic scene merging the foreground and background to illustrate precious greenery.

The flowers, resplendent with their champlevé enamel leaves and surrounded by blades of grass in tsavorite garnets and plique-à-jour enamel, are supported by stems featuring sculptural miniature painting for a depth effect.

This bucolic landscape offers a vision of the Poetry of Time in which the hours tick by in harmony with the eternal cycle of nature.

An age-old technique that extends back to Antiquity, miniature painting brought acclaim to artists in Medieval times. Like a painter’s palette, an enamel artist uses an assortment of colored enamels made up of silica powder, very finely ground pigments, and oil.

On the Lady Arpels Brise d’Été watch, the craftsman or painter, equipped with a binocular loupe, applies the color to a vallonné enamel flower petal or a plique-à-jour butterfly.

Using a thin marten-hair brush, he creates a gradient of hues. The colors are applied one by one, in a highly precise order, from lighter tones to deeper shades. Every hue requires its own firing procedure, with the time and temperature known only to master enamelers.

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Model: Van Cleef & Arpels Lady Arpels Brise d’Été Watch

Case
38-mm case in white gold, diamonds

Dial
Dial in mother-of-pearl, tsavorite and spessartite garnets, mother-of-pearl, miniature painting, plique-à-jour, champlevé and vallonné enamel

Movement
Self-winding mechanical movement featuring an automaton module with on-demand animation

Strap
Self-interchangeable alligator leather bracelet