It was a cold, wet, and windy autumn day when Van Cleef & Arpels invited a few other journalists and I on a boat ride along the Seine river through central Paris. We passed the City of Light’s most beguiling sights – the Jardin des Tuileries, Musée d’Orsay, Square du Vert-Galant, Notre-Dame de Paris, and Hôtel Lambert – while crossing beneath countless bridges such as the Pont Royal, Pont du Carrousel, and Pont des Arts, where lovers once attached padlocks and threw away the keys as declarations of love.

Upon arrival at our destination at the Garde Républicaine headquarters, the scene was set with interiors recreating the streets of Paris and its world-famous monuments from the Eiffel Tower and Place Vendôme to the Arc de Triomphe and Moulin Rouge. This represented a voyage to the fictional Pont des Amoureux (French for “lovers’ bridge”) and the brand’s reinterpretation of this model first seen in 2010 in the Poetic Complications family in new versions for the female wrist.

Van Cleef & Arpels Pont des Amoureux Printemps

Recognized for its beautiful enameled dials with 20 dedicated enamelers working in its manufacture, Van Cleef & Arpels introduced not one but six different enamel dial scenes with two lovers standing on a bridge in carved gold with the buildings and skies of Paris in enamel as the backdrop.

The original Pont des Amoureux showcased a retrograde display, in which the woman indicated the hours on the left and the man the minutes on the right, both inching closer to one another to meet at the top of the bridge at either midday or midnight when they kiss. The new Lady Arpels version additionally allows the user to press a button to have them kiss on command at any time of day or night and as often as desired.

Van Cleef & Arpels Lady Arpels Pont des Amoureux Printemps

As the kinetic energy for the kiss is generated by the wearer pushing the button, there’s no reduction in the movement’s 36-hour power reserve.

The Agenhor-modified ValFleurier Q020 movement of the Van Cleef & Arpels Pont des Amoureux

This whimsical watch is powered by an all-new automatic movement based upon a ValFleurier Q020 movement rather than the original manual-winding Jaeger-LeCoultre base. The new retrograde and on-demand animation module were developed exclusively for Van Cleef & Arpels by Jean-Marc Wiederrecht, founder of Swiss boutique movement maker Agenhor, who had already created the module for the first timepiece.

Van Cleef & Arpels Pont des Amoureux dial (photo courtesy Van Cleef & Arpels/Johann Sauty)

The kiss lasts exactly three minutes every 12 hours, after which the man and the woman separate and return to where they first started on opposite sides of the dial. The movement takes into account these three elapsed minutes and restores the indications to the correct time after the smooch.

Like all of the brand’s Poetic Complications the complication was developed to serve the story, so the original ten-second kiss has been prolonged to enhance the romantic narrative, and there’s a suspenseful pause before each touch of golden lips.

When the on-demand button is pressed, the lovers come in for a quick ten-second kiss before resuming their original timekeeping positions.

The world’s only watch with kissing automatons also shows off expert craftsmanship in other related arts. There’s an option for bracelets featuring stunning gem-setting, and the dials are hand-painted with a very fine brush in the sixteenth-century French grisaille enamel technique using white enamel powder known as “blanc de Limoges” on a dark background – effective at producing light and shade effects to best show off the moonlit Parisian night.

Matching colors for the miniature paintings on the dial of a Van Cleef & Arpels Lady Arpels Pont des Amoureux

For the first time, Van Cleef & Arpels has applied colored grisaille enamel: delicate pink and blue enamels were placed against a white backdrop to evoke daylight. The enamel work alone required up to 40 hours, with each dial fired some ten times to achieve the desired result.

The original Pont des Amoureux dials were created by late master enameler Dominique Baron and upon her passing seven years ago, her workshop, including all its tools and paints, was integrated into the brand’s Genevan atelier.

Van Cleef & Arpels Mythical Couples and Extraordinary Dials

Eight Mythical Couples secret timepieces with concealed dials continue the theme.

Van Cleef & Arpels Mythical Couple Aphrodite & Adonis secret watch (closed and open)

Set with colored gems, hard stones, and diamonds, they represent water, gardens, leaves, and flowers recalling legendary lovers from literature, mythology, and opera such as Aphrodite and Adonis, Ulysses and Penelope, and Tristan and Isolde.

Van Cleef & Arpels Extraordinary Dials Romance Parisienne Promenade

The Extraordinary Dials series – composed of three Charms Romance Parisienne quartz creations in numbered editions and three unique Lady Arpels Poème pieces – emphasizes Van Cleef & Arpels’ virtuosity in combining traditional crafts such as enameling, miniature painting, mother-of-pearl sculpting and painting, engraving, and gem-setting as well as curved plique-à-jour enamel.

Van Cleef & Arpels Extraordinary Charms Parisienne Rencontre

A technique created especially for Van Cleef & Arpels, curved plique-à-jour allows the transparent enamel to follow the relief of the plant motif to heighten the dial’s depth.

Bringing together the talents of its team of enamelers, painters, sculptors, engravers, lapidaries, and stone-setters, to adorn the watches the maison chose crafts in which its master artisans excel.

And this new watch collection will undoubtedly steal the hearts of those who dare to fall under its spell.

Questions and answers with Nicolas Bos, president & CEO of Van Cleef & Arpels

Quill & Pad: Tell us about the maison’s founding theme of love and why love has been one of Van Cleef & Arpels’ best-known signatures throughout its history, evolving from jewelry to watches.

Nicolas Bos: Van Cleef & Arpels was born out of a love story: the marriage of Alfred Van Cleef to Estelle Arpels in 1895 was indeed the first step toward the creation of the maison in 1906. To give you an anecdote, the first creation to be entered into the sales book in 1906 was a diamond heart. Since then, love has been a major source of inspiration for Van Cleef & Arpels.

The maison has also accompanied several legendary love stories of the twentieth century such as the Duke and Duchess of Windsor and Grace Kelly and Prince Rainier of Monaco. These jewelry enthusiasts liked to collect and offer to their beloved exceptional creations that were sometimes engraved with personal messages. Today, the maison perpetuates this founding theme through its high jewelry and watchmaking creations.

Poetic back of the Van Cleef & Arpels Lady Arpels Pont des Amoureux

Q&P: Why have you decided to create a new watch collection inspired by love stories today? How did you decide on which specific love stories to highlight?

NB: Love has always been a source of inspiration for art and literature. Decorative arts have also interpreted this infinite theme in many ways. With its distinctive vision of time, the Poetry of Time, Van Cleef & Arpels has chosen to explore love through several prisms from Paris, the city of love, to mythical couples from mythology, opera and literature.

Intricate miniature painting on the dial of a Van Cleef & Arpels Lady Arpels Pont des Amoureux

Q&P: Why are you revisiting the iconic Pont des Amoureux timepiece nine years after its creation? And tell us about the retrograde and on-demand animation module developed exclusively for Van Cleef & Arpels.

NB: The first version of the Pont des Amoureux watch gave life to two lovers meeting on a bridge in Paris at night. This year, Van Cleef & Arpels wanted to make this couple evolve in different scenarios: during daytime but also through the four seasons. The retrograde movement, which was exclusively developed for Van Cleef & Arpels, animates the lady indicating the hours and her beloved showing the minutes. When we developed these new versions, the idea was also to offer a new on-demand animation that allows the two characters to kiss on the bridge at any time, not only at noon and midnight, but at any hour. The wearer just has to press a lateral button on the case.

Yellow sapphires and spessartite garnets combine with diamonds to create the Van Cleef & Arpels Lady Arpels Pont des Amoureux Été bracelet

Q&P: Among the watches Van Cleef & Arpels is presenting, which ones are the highlights?

NB: These new Pont des Amoureux watches give Van Cleef & Arpels the opportunity to show the expertise of its craftsmen in enameling, miniature painting, and engraving. For instance, the traditional grisaille enamel has been revisited with colored enamels that adorn the dials of the Jour and Saisons versions. On the latter, the stone setting on the bracelets is particularly delicate, turning them into real jewels.

Regarding the high jewelry watches, each of them are unique pieces featuring exquisite gems and representing Van Cleef & Arpels’ singular know-how. If I have to point out only two of them, Aïda & Radamès and Philémon & Baucis are good examples. Each of them totals around 3,000 hours of work.

Van Cleef & Arpels Pont des Amoureux

Q&P: In your creative process for this new collection, how did you decide on the combination of different artistic crafts to adorn each timepiece, particularly in the Extraordinary Dials Poèmes en Fleurs watches?

NB: We chose different crafts to give life to the dials’ scenery in the most poetic way. For instance in the Pont des Amoureux watch, grisaille enameling creates an interplay of light and shadow that intensifies the night scenery. This year, for the first time, to adapt to the new Jour version, the Maison has used colored grisaille enamel to recreate the tender light of dawn on the dial.

Regarding the Extraordinary Dials Poèmes en Fleurs timepieces, exceptional crafts have been gathered to express the delicacy of seventeenth-century love poems: miniature painting, enameling (grisaille, plique-à-jour, paillonné, and champlevé), engraving, and stone setting.

Van Cleef & Arpels Lady Arpels Pont des Amoureux Hiver

Q&P: How long did the new collection take to make and how many people worked on it?

NB: Both our high jewelry and watchmaking workshops in Paris and Geneva have worked on these creations, but also several other teams such as the creative studio and research & development department. The accomplishment of this collection is the result of collective work that started four years ago involving hundreds of people.

For more information, please visit www.vancleefarpels.com/en/nanosites/poetry-of-time/love-stories.

Quick Facts Van Cleef & Arpels Lady Arpels Pont des Amoureux and Lady Arpels Amoureux Jour
Case: 38 mm, white or pink gold set with diamonds, crown set with a diamond
Dial: grisaille enamel, sculpted gold
Movement: automatic ValFleurier Q020, 36-hour power reserve
Functions: hours and minutes shown by retrograde automatons; on-demand animation
Variations: gem-set bracelets, including high-jewelry versions that are named for the seasons
Price: $119,000 (Pont des Amoureux Jour), $138,000 (Pont des Amoureux), $198,000 (diamond-set bracelet)

Quick Facts Van Cleef & Arpels Lady Arpels Pont des Amoureux Printemps
Case: 38 mm, pink gold
Movement: automatic ValFleurier Q020, 36-hour power reserve
Functions: hours and minutes shown by retrograde automatons; on-demand animation
Gemstones: case snow-set with diamonds, bezel set with diamonds, crown set with one diamond, bracelet snow-set with diamonds and pink, mauve and purple sapphires; total 1,565 diamonds (20.56 cts), total 200 sapphires (3.42 cts)
Price: $349,000

Quick Facts Van Cleef & Arpels Lady Arpels Pont des Amoureux Été
Case: 38 mm, white gold
Movement: automatic ValFleurier Q020, 36-hour power reserve
Functions: hours and minutes shown by retrograde automatons; on-demand animation
Gemstones: case snow-set with diamonds, bezel set with diamonds, crown set with one diamond, bracelet snow-set with diamonds, yellow sapphires and spessartite garnets; total 1,359 diamonds (19.81 cts); total 132 sapphires (2.32 cts); total 60 spessartite garnets (1.39 cts)
Price: $349,000

Quick Facts Van Cleef & Arpels Charms Romance Parisienne Rencontre
Case: 25 mm, pink and white gold
Movement: unspecified quartz
Functions: hours, minutes
Gemstones: bezel set with diamonds and pink sapphires, crown set with one diamond, dial set with a spessartite garnet, rotating charm set with diamonds and pink sapphires
Price: $53,000

Quick Facts Charms Romance Parisienne Promenade
Case: 38 mm, yellow gold
Movement: unspecified quartz
Functions: hours, minutes
Gemstones: bezel set with diamonds, blue sapphires and tsavorite garnets, crown set with one diamond, dial set with diamonds and yellow sapphires, rotating charm set with diamonds, blue sapphires and tsavorite garnets
Price: $71,000

Quick Facts Van Cleef & Arpels Mythical Couples Aïda & Radamès secret watch 1 (not shown)
Case: white, yellow and pink gold set with 1 cushion-cut blue sapphire (5.59 ct), sapphires, turquoise, lapis lazuli, and diamonds
Movement: unspecified quartz
Functions: hours, minutes
Price: upon request

Quick Facts Van Cleef & Arpels Mythical Couples Aïda & Radamès secret watch 2 (not shown)
Case: white and pink gold set with 1 cushion-cut pink sapphire (5.93 ct), 2 pear-shaped blue sapphires (4.37 ct), 2 pear-shaped purple sapphires (1.53 ct), blue sapphires, green tourmalines, lapis lazuli, diamonds, and mother-of-pearl
Movement: unspecified quartz>
Functions: hours, minutes
Price: upon request

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