Enchantment for its own sake is a central theme of Van Cleef & Arpels’ narrative. Throughout its 110-year history, the house has also applied its materials expertise to the creation of rich interior art pieces,
mostly with a functional purpose.
Van Cleef & Arpels is adding to its highly jewelled and complicated Poetry of Time family
with a Lady Arpels Planétarium timepiece.
The Lady Arpels Planétarium watch illustrates the Sun and the closest planets: Mercury, Venus and fnally Earth, along with its natural satellite, the Moon. Each heavenly body moves at its actual speed, orbiting the dial in 88 days for Mercury, 224 days for Venus and 365 days for Earth.
In a key innovation for this piece, the Moon itself rotates around the Earth in 29.5 days.
The 'Lady Arpels' case, 38-mm in diameter and set with diamonds in the bezel and sides of the case, houses a movement redesigned for this smaller size, with an exclusive module developed in collaboration with Christiaan van der Klaauw.
All of this animation is thanks to Christiaan van der Klaauw and a module he developed, exclusively for Van Cleef & Arpels, based directly on the Midnight Planétarium. The complete automatic movement holds 40 hours of power reserve and, curiously enough, also has a calendar indication that is displayed through apertures on the caseback.
While it’s not mentioned whether the timepiece will be produced as a limited edition, it’s not hard to imagine that a watch that encompasses such a variety of craft and technical complexity , will not be made in a large volume. The watches, will however, be produced in a numbered series.
Technical Specifications: Lady Arpels Planétarium Poetic Complications Watch..
Movement
Self-winding movement; time given by shooting star; movement of Mercury, Venus and Earth, along with Moon around the central Sun; calendar indication on caseback; 40-hour power reserve.
Case
38mm, case in white gold set with diamonds, bezel set with diamonds and crown set with a diamond.
Bracelet/Strap
Blue glitter alligator strap with a white gold pin buckle set with diamonds or white gold bracelet
set with diamonds.