‘Dance, as an art form, is very diverse, with a lot of different influences,’ says Serge Laurent, Van Cleef & Arpels’ director of dance and culture programmes. ‘The main issue is managing the relations with the audience. When you are a curator, you are making a mediation between artists and audiences.’

This relationship is key to the rich programme of the Dance Reflections by Van Cleef & Arpels festival, which is held across the world, from New York to London, Hong Kong, Seoul and Kyoto. It is a natural initiative for Van Cleef & Arpels, which continues to build on strong foundations in dance that were first established in the 1920s. They were later reinforced in the 1940s, after Claude Arpels friendship with choreographer George Balanchine led to Balanchine's ballet Jewels, first performed in New York in 1967.

It is a history which continues to be relevant. This year, the Second Edition of the Dance Reflections Festival in New York encompassed 16 shows across nine venues across the city, presenting a considered blend of contemporary works. ‘It's very important to be eclectic, because as a curator, I don't want to tell you who or what is the art of today,’ Laurent adds. ‘An artwork exists with the eyes of the audience. People may feel uncomfortable because they think it’s not for them, but this festival is an invitation to live an experience, and discover new ways of creating.’

The New York Dance Reflections festival intertwined these influences into a blend of classic and contemporary works. One particular highlight, Mycelium, performed by the Lyon Opera Ballet, encompasses this pioneering spirit. ‘Mycelium has been a very special piece for the company,’ says Cedric Andrieux of Ballet de Lyon. ‘When it was created in 2023, it was the first time that [Greek choreographer] Christos Papadopoulos was working with dancers outside of his company. It has become one of our signatures over the past three years. It's something that we've been able to tour all over the world, and we’ve been very happy about how the audience responds. It's a radical piece, but also very powerful and accessible. It doesn’t keep the audience away, it draws them in.’

For Benjamin Millepied, who presented two pieces with LA Dance Project, Reflections: a triptych, and Romeo & Juliet suite, the festival is a chance to introduce classic works to a new audience. ‘My work is so related to music, and the idea to have access to this level of composers, conductors, musicians and acoustics is something that I absolutely love,’ he says. ‘Without the support of Van Cleef & Arpels, nothing like this would have been possible over the last 12 years. It's incredibly fortunate that we have this vision by Nicolas [Bos, CEO of Richemont] and the vision of Serge, that is incredibly sincere and passionate and real, to the extent that we're all here today. It always takes one person to make a difference, and that's the beauty of it.’

The next festival performance – Colossus by Stephanie Lake – will take place in June at London’s Southbank Centre, dancereflections-vancleefarpels.com

This article appears in the June 2026 Issue of Wallpaper*, available from 7 May in print on newsstands, on the Wallpaper* app on Apple iOS, and to subscribers of Apple News +. Subscribe to Wallpaper* today

Van Cleef & Arpels looks to poetic inspirations at Watches and Wonders 2026, blurring the lines between watches and jewellery in a host of new releases. Watches, in aventurine glass and embossed enamel, in moonlight and retrograde minutes, bring a romantic spin to traditional time-telling.

Midnight Jour Nuit Phase de Lune

The moon has been a reference point for Van Cleef & Arpels since 1929, when the maison first fitted a pocket watch with a moonphase complication. Nearly a century on, the Midnight Jour Nuit Phase de Lune brings that fascination to a 42mm white gold case, where two complications operate in layered concert. There is an evocative 24-hour Jour/Nuit, with a disc animating the passage of sun and moon, and a second disc completing one rotation every 29 hours, 16 minutes and 27 seconds. For the non-astronomers out there, this tracks the moon’s actual 29.5-day cycle with the precision of a true astronomical complication.

The sky itself is rendered in black Murano aventurine glass, a departure from its usual navy blue lustre. It has been developed by Van Cleef & Arpels’ Innovation Department to achieve a depth of colour and a bronze-toned shimmer that captures the quality of a clear night. A guilloché golden sun and a white mother-of-pearl moon take turns emerging from, and retreating behind, a guilloché mother-of-pearl horizon, painted in a gradient from black to white. When the moon is hidden below that horizon, a button on the case rim triggers an on-demand animation: the dial rotates 360 degrees over approximately ten seconds, revealing the lunar phase in its current state against a field of acrylic-traced stars.

The movement took four years of development at Van Cleef & Arpels’ Watchmaking Workshops in Geneva, and required a particular engineering solution, as Rainer Bernard, watchmaking research and development director, explains: ‘The key challenge lay in developing the on-demand animation. To avoid any inaccuracy in the moon phase, we had to take account of the changes that must occur during the course of the animation, since the discs are performing an additional full rotation.’ The caseback continues the narrative: an engraving evokes the moon’s topography in white gold, while the sapphire crystal over the oscillating weight features a miniature enamel rendering of the Earth, surrounded by miniature painted planets on a guilloché ground.

Midnight Heure d’ici & Heure d’ailleurs

Where the Jour Nuit Phase de Lune looks upward, the Midnight Heure d’ici & Heure d’ailleurs turns its attention to the horizontal plane of the globe. The 38mm rose gold Midnight case houses a fully redeveloped automatic movement with a 65-hour power reserve, displaying jumping hours alongside retrograde minutes for two simultaneous time zones. The Heure d’ici appears in the upper window; the Heure d’ailleurs in the lower. Two sector gears synchronise both discs and the retrograde minute hand, so that at the moment the hand sweeps back from 60 to zero, both hour displays jump forward together in deceptive simplicity.

The dial was created by Van Cleef & Arpels’ enamel workshop in Geneva, after artisans spent months arriving at a colour that captures a particular optical phenomenon: the dichroism of precious stones such as rubies, which appear warm or cool depending on the light that falls on them. The result is an amber-brown enamel whose nuances shift between warm and cold accents across the day, applied over a mirror-polished gold ground that amplifies reflections within the material. Stunning, evocative and setting a high bar for VC&A watchmaking in 2026 and beyond.

vancleefarpels.com

Retrospection at Paris Design Week

Anna Solomon, digital staff writer

It’s Paris Design Week, and across the city the doors of showrooms and ateliers have been thrown open, revealing brands’ 2026 collections. I spent a highly condensed day criss-crossing arrondissements and dipping in and out of studios (I comfortably hit my 10,000 steps – let’s leave it at that). Several clearly emerging design trends stood out: a growing emphasis on versatility and customisability to suit the demands of modern life (something I also observed at Feria Hábitat València back in October), alongside a sort of creeping nostalgia. From renewed interest in craft and artisanal traditions to a wave of heritage reissues, the past is very much informing the present. You can read all of my insights here.

A new voice emerges

Charlotte Gunn, director of digital content

This week I’ve been listening to ‘Not Today’, the new single from Kim Gordon’s upcoming third solo album, Play Me, out on 13 March. More melodic – dare I say poppier? – than her recent work, Gordon says of the track: ‘I started singing in a way I hadn’t sung in a long time. This other voice came out.’ Produced by Justin Raisen (who also worked on Charli XCX’s 'BRAT'), it’s a reminder that at 72, Gordon is still happily mixing things up.

A taste of home

Sofia de la Cruz, travel editor

Whenever I crave the flavours of my motherland, I head straight to one of the restaurants of José Pizarro – a Spanish expat, just like me. He has just transformed the storied Keeper’s House at the Royal Academy of Arts into a vibrant dining destination, which made the perfect excuse. Who would have thought you’d find Spanish cooking nestled among the RA’s neoclassical grandeur?

Inside, there’s a compelling dialogue between old and new, warm and convivial – prime time is undoubtedly lunch. Deep reds and burnished oranges, inspired by traditional Spanish interiors, set the tone for a menu of Iberian classics with edge: gordal olives stuffed with orange, octopus with potatoes and capers, lamb ragù over silky mash. And for dessert? Either lose yourself in the eclectic curation of art – works by Frank Bowling, Marina Abramović, David Remfry and Picasso lithographs, alongside original paintings by Eileen Cooper – or surrender to the olive oil and almond cake with sharp PX sherry compote.

A perfect pilgrimage

Anna Fixsen, US editor

On a recent visit to my UK in-laws, my husband and I hopped on a train to Winchester, England. We drank ale in a pub from 1002 AD, admired what’s supposedly the original Round Table of Arthurian legend, and took a stroll along the River Itchen. The highlight, by far, however, was a tour of the spectacular Winchester Cathedral, with its breathtaking blend of Norman, Gothic and Perpendicular Gothic architecture.

Here, you can genuflect at the grave of Jane Austen (the author just turned 250 years young), descend into the depths of a waterlogged Norman crypt – now home to a sculpture by Antony Gormley – and appreciate a host of historic oddities, from memento mori and mortuary chests filled with jumbles of royal bones to one peculiar attraction known as the ‘Holy Hole’, where pilgrims could once touch the relics of St Swithin.

Written in the stars

Bill Prince, editor-in-chief

On Thursday I took myself off to the Nomad Hotel in London’s Covent Garden for the launch of a new Poetic Collection of Zodiaque jewellery by Van Cleef & Arpels, which depicts the 12 star signs in medal form – a hand-stamped signature of the 120-year-old maison since the 1950s. The new pieces are available in white gold and on yellow gold bracelets, and their talismanic beauty was underlined by the presence of two astrologers on site, eager to reveal what our own star signs hold in store for 2026. (Of course, Wallpaper* readers already know, thanks to our 2026 design horoscope.)

A practice in motion

Ellie Stathaki, architecture & environment director

Catching up with architect Guy Hollaway and his managing partner, Alex Richards, this week, I found out about one of the studio’s biggest recent wins: the London Golf Club. Promising to be a key hospitality and sporting destination on the outskirts of London, the new and extensive Kent campus has just been awarded planning approval. Meanwhile, a wealth of schemes are about to complete or are on the drawing board at the vibrant Kent- and London-based architecture practice – including, but not limited to, a number of private residences and a personal favourite, Brompton’s new global headquarters and factory in Ashford. Looking forward to seeing more.

The world of jewellery is rich in specialist skills, yet the professions behind it are rarely visible to those outside the industry. From stone-setting to polishing, these storied métiers are seldom presented as viable career paths to younger generations, a disconnect that ‘de mains en mains’, an initiative launched by French jeweller Van Cleef & Arpels in 2021, sets out to address.

Now in its sixth edition, ‘de mains en mains’ opens up the broad mix of jewellery crafts to a wider audience. Alongside year-long educational support, the event, held in Lyon, invites students to engage directly with different artistic and technical skills through hands-on workshop sessions.

Central to the initiative is the Parcours des Savoir-faire, an immersive workshop designed to demystify the jewellery-making process. In small groups, students are guided by craftsmen from the maison’s workshops and introduced to the full sequence involved in creating a piece of jewellery. Over the course of the experience, they try their hand at six different professions – jeweller, stone expert, stone-setter, 3D designer, polisher and enameller – gaining insight into each skill, and even making their own Alhambra motif, the brand’s iconic four-leaf clover design created in 1968. Since its launch, the programme has involved 310 of the brand’s employees and welcomed more than 1,500 student participants.

What distinguishes ‘de mains en mains’ is its long-term approach to jewellery education. Throughout the school year, a team of Van Cleef & Arpels experts visit partner schools to deliver presentations embedded into the national curriculum, using jewellery as a lens to explore subjects such as history, mathematics, literature and language. Public-speaking workshops later help students articulate what they have learned, culminating in presentations delivered to families, teachers and Van Cleef & Arpels employees.

The annual Lyon event also opens these worlds to the general public. Visitors can observe craftspeople collaborating on the creation of a Coccinelles clip, a ladybird-shaped jewel that brings together multiple crafts, offering a rare, close-up view of setting, polishing and enamelling. An accompanying exhibition, ‘Les métiers autour d’une création d’exception’, places historical and contemporary jewellery pieces alongside the Naissance de l’Amour automaton, a high jewellery object featuring a Cupid rising from a feathered basket, highlighting the collective effort behind each creation.

The latest edition, held in November 2025 also drew together Van Cleef’s wider educational commitments, including the work of L’École, School of Jewelry Arts, the educational institution established in 2012 with the support of Van Cleef & Arpels, which will present the reconstruction of a Gallic-era necklace discovered in the Tarn region of southern France.

An initiative quite like no other, ‘de mains en mains’ is, at its core, about bringing some much-needed hands-on exposure to jewellery crafts, passing this centuries-old knowledge from one pair of hands to the next.

Van Cleef & Arpels workshops in Lyon are held annually, vancleefarpels.com

It is 1925, and Paris is in the midst of an art deco love affair. The International Exhibition of Modern Decorative and Industrial Arts, uniting 15,000 exhibitors from more than 20 countries, is in full swing on the banks of the Seine. The avant-garde showcase of jewellery, art and design is the pinnacle of art deco, championing a movement heavily inspired by African art and defined by a stylised geometry. For French jewellery house Van Cleef & Arpels, which scooped a Grand Prize for innovative jewellery design, it was a recognition of its mastering of the decorative arts.

Marking the event’s 100th anniversary, the maison is revisiting this watershed moment with an exhibition held at the former residence of Prince Asaka, now the Tokyo Metropolitan Teien Art Museum. The epitome of art deco style, the palace was built in 1933 in Tokyo’s Shirokanedai district for Prince and Princess Asaka, who had recently returned from three years in Paris. They had visited the 1925 art deco exhibition; inspired by what they saw, they asked Henri Rapin, who had overseen the interior design of the event’s pavilions, to bring his characteristic style back to their main residence. Among the artists he employed to bring his vision to life was glassmaker René Lalique,whose beautiful light fittings can still be admired in the building today. After the war, the palace became the official residence for Japan’s prime minister and foreign minister, before becoming an art museum in 1983.

An elegant marriage of French art deco and minimalist Japanese design, the space was named after the lush gardens that surround it. Faithfully maintained, in 2014 the museum gained a new annexe, designed by architect and photographer Hiroshi Sugimoto, which encompasses modern exhibition spaces, as well as a café and shop.

The current exhibition, ‘Timeless Art Deco with Van Cleef & Arpels High Jewelry’, unites 250 pieces of historical jewellery, watches and precious objects, including the Grand Prize-winning ‘Entwined Flowers, Red and White Roses’ bracelet. Many of the pieces on display, some for the first time, were crafted between 1910-1930, uniting distinctive design details, such as sharp geometrical lines, intricate openwork, sculpted gold and luscious enamel. The emergence of an aesthetic can be traced throughout the displays, from the stylised floral motifs paying homage to Asian influences, through to the graphic diamond three-dimensional forms, designed to snake their way fluidly around the wearer. In other pieces, functionality rules, such as in a sleek minaudière vanity case created in 1933, or in the ‘Zip’ necklace, an innovative design, patented in 1938, that celebrated the usually hidden inner workings.

The design of the exhibition itself is also crucial to a story that marries form and function. It was something that preoccupied architect Tezzo Nishizawa, founder of his eponymous Tokyo-based practice, who oversaw the scenography. ‘Consider the scale between the architecture of the museum and the small jewellery pieces,’ he says, on the challenges of creating an immersive and enjoyable environment. ‘We have to eliminate this gap naturally, so we were thinking about how we can harmonise the two. There was a wish to have the exhibition cases neutral, but that usually becomes white or black. Here, there are so many colourful and decorative pieces, monotone would distract from the beauty of the jewellery. It became a very good opportunity for me to think about the new definition of neutrality, and it resulted in the main theme of this scenography and of the exhibition itself.’

Nishizawa draws parallels between the worlds of jewellery and architecture, creating forms and shapes that emphasise both but without distracting from the experience. ‘The team at Van Cleef & Arpels all follow the same philosophy and have the same mission. Working with them has greatly inspired my own work. I have discovered that art deco is very accessible to everyone, even today, and it is flexible enough to accept different perspectives and different definitions of beauty.’

‘Timeless Art Deco with Van Cleef & Arpels High Jewelry’ is on show until 18 January at the Tokyo Metropolitan Teien Art Museum, teien-art-museum.ne.jp, vancleefarpels.com

This article appears in the December 2025 Entertaining Issue of Wallpaper* , available in print on newsstands, on the Wallpaper* app on Apple iOS, and to subscribers of Apple News + from 6 November. Subscribe to Wallpaper* today

Dubai Watch Week [19 - 23 November] has opened its doors in its new Dubai Mall venue, safe from the storms that nearly washed out the 2023 edition. Going inside and increasing the space naturally gives more prominence to the bigger brands, notably, Rolex (whose 2025 story remains the era-defining Land Dweller), Van Cleef & Arpels, starring the incredible Brasséede Lavande table-top automaton, and the LVMH stable, including Bulgari and TAG Heuer.

Given the location and the wealth concentrated in the city, it’s no surprise that the exhibitor list is full of what you might call alt-Pateks, the brands to catch your eye before or after your number comes up for that coveted Nautilus or World Time Calatrava. Of note this year is the concentration of technically ambitious (and correspondingly pricy) makers such as Ferdinand Berthoud, Greubel Forsey, HYT and de Bethune, as well as more craft-focused makers such as Chopard, H Moser, Parmigiani and Laurent Ferrier.

Meanwhile, there’ll always be strong interest in the independent sector, however loosely defined, and Dubai Watch Week is a chance for those brands to get in front of the watch-buying public on more equal terms. What is notable is that the value range extends right through to the likes of Ming, Oris and Studio Underdog.

Dubai Watch Week 2025 highlights

Van Cleef & Arpels

The Brassée de Lavande is a new table-top automaton featuring a central lavender bouquet that opens to reveal a butterfly with orange plique-à-jour enamel wings, diamond accents, and black enamel contours. The butterfly’s body is crafted from tiger’s eye with amethyst cabochon eyes and diamond-tipped antennae. Detailed lacquered buds and an integrated carillon mechanism complete the piece

Chopard

The new L.U.C Grand Strike from Chopard is as technically ambitious as it comes: a highly complex chiming watch with a minute repeater and both grande and petite sonnerie functions, all using sapphire crystal gongs. Developed over 11,000 hours and protected by ten proprietary patents (five created specifically for this watch), it is the most intricate timepiece Chopard has ever produced – the culmination of a decades long adventure in sonnerie watches.

Parmigiani

Parmigiani are showing an ‘Arctic Rose’ edition of its PF Tonda Rattrapante, a sort of slow-food chronograph that unfussily allows you set a time interval with its extra minute hand. But it’s less about what it does and all about how beautifully it’s done–the subtlety of the finishes, (particularly theGrain d’Orge guilloché treatment on the dial) and the perfectly fluid shape of the case and bracelet take care of that.

Louis Vuitton

The Escale gets a gorgeously 70s makeover with two new stone dial editions that are being unveiled at Dubai. The new 40mm watches have dials and case rings in turquoise and malachite respectively, and are matched with platinum versions of the trunk inspired case that Louis Vuitton refreshed in 2024. Matthieu Hegi, Louis Vuitton’s Watch ArtisticDirector, promised at the 2024 launch, that a multitude of colours and materials would star in the new Escale and these two watches are that promise delivered.

Pérpetuel Gallery

Away from the Dubai Mall, the Pérpetuel Gallery will be hosting a stellar cast of top level makers including Roger Smith, Fiona Kruger and star of the future, Renaud Tixier. The Monday Watch, first seen last year, gets new dials to compliment the exceptional marriage of innovation and craftsmanship that Dominique Renaud and Julien Tixier have brought to the project.

For A/W 2025, high jewellery encompasses bold and colourful forms. From Fernando Jorge's fluid silhouettes to Buccellati's pop of colour and Hermès' intricately rendered cuff, it's all about the details.

For Louis Vuitton, silhouettes are oversized, while Cartier's delicately sized earrings champion the pared-back. Van Cleef & Arpels and Tiffany & Co demonstrate their mastery of embellishment, while Piaget's delicate watch swinging from a necklace of precious stones rewrites jewellery rules entirely. Taken together, these pieces make for high jewellery that is exciting, bold and very modern.

This article appears in the November 2025 Art Issue of Wallpaper*, available in print on newsstands from, on the Wallpaper* app on Apple iOS, and to subscribers of Apple News + from 9 October. Subscribe to Wallpaper* today

A lively lunch

Ellie Stathaki, Architecture & Environment Director

Margaret Ravenscroft and I met for lunch this week at the recently refreshed Audley in Mayfair – the 18th-century establishment that was relaunched a couple of years ago, now showcasing a curated selection of art interventions. We enjoyed heart-warming pub food beneath the colourful ceiling – an installation by British artist Phyllida Barlow – and caught up on life and work. Margaret is head of engagement and cultural programmes at HGG London, the City-based, design-led developer helmed by Dicle Guntas. I learned more about their exciting new initiative, Forefront, which they developed in collaboration with Professor Sadie Morgan. Focused on injecting culture and creativity into the capital's underused spaces, it’s an initiative we’ll no doubt be hearing more about soon.

Jewellery in Japan

Hannah Silver, Art, Culture, Watches & Jewellery Editor

This week, I’ve been in Tokyo to celebrate the opening of Van Cleef & Arpels’ ‘Timeless Art Deco’ exhibition at the extraordinary Tokyo Metropolitan Teien Art Museum. Marking the centenary of the 1925 International Exhibition of Modern Decorative and Industrial Arts in Paris, the show features a remarkable collection of 250 pieces of jewellery and objects – many of which have never been seen before.

An autumn-inspired menu

Ailis Bickford, Digital Project Manager

This week, I indulged in a seasonal lunch to celebrate the continuation of the collaboration between New York restaurant and aperitivo bar, Dante, and Claridge’s. The success of their summer residency has led to an autumn iteration that is no less delicious. Linden Pride, Dante’s co-founder, brings New York flavour to London’s Mayfair streets, combining apple, pumpkin and sage with braised lamb and NY strip. My personal highlight, however, was the dessert selection, which includes a dangerously rich chocolate cake. We finished with an espresso martini, set against the backdrop of Claridge’s Art Deco dining room, with black-and-white photography inspired by Dante’s West Village interior. Autumn has well and truly arrived in London. You can book a table to experience ‘Dante Takes Claridge’s’ until 31 December 2025.

A Soho staple

Anna Solomon, Digital Staff Writer

A breakfast meeting is rather wasted on me. In a world of pancakes and açaí bowls, all I can manage at 9am is a humble scrambled egg. That said, I can confirm that Dean Street Townhouse – the setting for this week’s meeting – does an excellent rendition of the classic. For those more adventurous than I, there’s Lorne sausage with tattie scones, grilled Manx kippers, and kedgeree on offer, alongside an all-day menu. All of it is served in elegantly eclectic surroundings that nod to the building’s Georgian heritage, blended with the sophisticated members’-club ambiance you'd expect from a Soho House outpost.

A dreamlike display

Jamilah Rose-Roberts, Social Media Editor

North London always feels like an expedition, but sometimes the pull is strong enough to make the trip – and for me, Kudzanai-Violet Hwami was worth it. At Victoria Miro’s canalside gallery, her exhibition 'Incantations' pairs large-scale paintings with photographic wall vinyls, turning the rooms into something that feels almost cinematic. Gorgeous online but so much better in person, I was amazed by her brushstrokes – the way she shifts between oil and acrylic paint, printmaking, pastel, pencil, and charcoal, pulling together intimate and political themes in a single frame. Drawn from family photographs, religious iconography, and mythological narratives, the works unravel stories across generations, moving between the unconscious and the communal, tenderness and defiance. Saturated in electric blues, acid greens, and deep reds, they oscillate between fragility and power, grounding spiritual and historical legacies in lived memory. On until 1 November 2025.

A jolly good laugh

Charlotte Gunn, Director of Digital Content

On Monday, I attended Notting Hill pub, The Fat Badger's inaugural comedy night. The surprise billing boasted Michael Odewale and Jack Whitehall, the latter of whom joked at length about never feeling more at home at a gig full of 'Telegraph readers'. It was true; the clientele gave the whole experience a bizarre edge. The compere 's usual 'And what do you do?' shtick fell flat when it emerged that almost no one in attendance actually worked. A man in a gilet did some decidedly unfunny heckling as Made In Chelsea's Jamie Laing watched on with delight.

But to The Fat Badger's credit, you'd be hard pressed to find a comedy venue with a better menu. They're currently taking requests for which funnyman to book next (the night runs every other Monday). I, for one, would pay good money to see Stewart Lee work that room.

At this year’s Watches & Wonders, Van Cleef & Arpels unveiled Naissance de l’Amour, a one-of-a-kind automaton featuring the figure of Cupid rising from a feathered basket to the sound of a carillon.

Carved from white, rose and yellow gold, and decorated with coloured lacquer and diamonds, it turns gently on itself before disappearing once more, uniting jewellery craftsmanship with intricate mechanics. At its heart is the work of François Junod, the Swiss automaton-maker who has been collaborating with the French Maison since 2017.

Junod was born in 1959 in Sainte-Croix, Switzerland, a village in the Jura mountains with a long tradition of mechanical craft. 'I was born into a family of mechanics,' he says. 'My father, grandfather and great-grandfather all grew up in this mechanical environment.' His formal training combined studies in micro-mechanics at the École Technique in Sainte-Croix with a sculpture and drawing degree from the Lausanne Art School. That dual focus is reflected in his work today, which merges engineering with visual storytelling.

He first encountered the world of automatons as a teenager, apprenticing under a French craftsman named Michel Bertrand, who moved to the village in the 1970s. 'It started with a meeting,' Junod recalls. 'Michel Bertrand came to settle in my village through his son Frédéric Bertrand who was in my class at secondary school.' That early encounter shaped a career now spanning more than 40 years.

Junod’s work is defined by a refusal to hide its mechanisms. 'In old automatons, the mechanism was often hidden to avoid revealing the secrets of their manufacture,' he says. 'Today, I prefer to show the mechanisms as much as possible – to see the spectacle that is kinetic poetry.' His automata make visible the gears and cams driving their motion. 'The poetry of movement is seen through the finish of the components, the design and symbolic aspect of certain pieces, the proportions and the finesse of execution.'

His collaboration with Van Cleef & Arpels began with Fée Ondine, an automaton unveiled in 2017. A fairy perched on a lily pad animates alongside a butterfly and blooming flowers, with all components working in precise harmony. 'The most challenging part was designing the mechanisms related to jewellery, such as the butterfly and the fairy,' says Junod. 'It was necessary to achieve smooth movements with fairly heavy materials like gold, but also to design articulations without revealing the mechanism. To maintain the poetry and enchantment, the synchronisation of the movements between them had to be perfect, as did the opening system of the two corollas.'

Junod’s latest automaton, Naissance de l’Amour, continues this blend of disciplines. Around 30 centimetres high, it centres on a sculpted Cupid with fluttering plique-à-jour enamel wings, who emerges from a basket of feathers with a lacquered colour gradation before retreating into a shell-like chamber. The basket rests in a bowl carved from petrified palmwood, supported by a base of iron eye stone. Time is indicated by a rotating ring at the base, using two lacquered feathers set with diamonds and fixed in place by a diamond-set bow. The mechanism was developed in Junod’s workshop in Sainte-Croix in collaboration with the Maison’s craftspeople, and follows a series of automatons created with Van Cleef & Arpels, including Rêveries de Berylline, Éveil du Cyclamen, and Bouton d’Or.

'My personal projects don’t allow me to do high jewellery,' Junod says. 'It’s a separate profession, but the two together allow me to create extraordinary objects.' The partnership with Van Cleef & Arpels fulfilled a long-held ambition. 'It’s a dream I’ve had since I was young, when I used to stroll around Place Vendôme,' he adds.

Each piece begins with an idea, not a blueprint. 'It is first and foremost an artistic vision with a story to tell,' he says. 'I often start with several ideas that I put together, like a chef preparing a new recipe. Then comes the technical concept, with one or more magic effects. It takes a certain amount of imagination to visualise an automaton in your head before it's built.'

Van Cleef & Arpels has a long history of creating mechanical objects, from powder compacts and beauty accessories to kinetic sculptures. These latest automatons continue that lineage, reviving a tradition from the late 18th century that had largely disappeared. 'Automatons were often created by renowned clockmakers, with support from painting, sculpture, or jewellery,' Junod explains. 'They disappeared with the advent of electricity. I like the idea of restoring the nobility of this forgotten art.'

He never expected automaton-making to re-emerge. 'I’m delighted this is happening, after more than 40 years practising this fascinating craft. Reviving an extraordinary art gives real meaning to my quest for perfection.'

vancleefarpels.com

Flowers have long been integral to the history of Van Cleef & Arpels, and it is a love that has bloomed outside the parameters of jewellery. In 2023, a partnership between Van Cleef & Arpels and The King’s Foundation (a UK educational charity founded by Kind Charles and spanning sectors from sustainability to agriculture, arts and crafts, architecture and urbanism) was formalised when the maison was announced as the Principal Patron of The King’s Foundation Gardens and Estates.

It is a natural move for Van Cleef & Arpels, which has marked the partnership with both a floral-inspired new collection and a commitment to preserving the natural surroundings of two of the foundation’s historic locations, Ayrshire’s Dumfries House, and The Castle and Gardens of Mey in Caithness.

Amid the rose bushes of Dumfries House, then, was the perfect launch location for the ‘Fleurs d’Hawaï’ jewellery collection.

‘We are really always celebrating our heritage, at the same time as bringing a touch of modernity and a contemporary eye to a new collection,’ says Catherine Rénier, Van Cleef & Arpels’ CEO. ‘This collection presents a very naturalistic expression of flowers, in the flow of the petal and the colours.’ The collection is also a tribute to the maison’s ‘Hawaii’ jewellery, first introduced in 1938, and now rethought with new workings and a modern design.

‘Our heritage [is preserved in] our archives, which are our source of inspiration,’ adds Rénier. ‘It comes back in cycles and rhythms, and there is always a new way for us to express ourselves. Here, a new setting protects the stones while leaving them to be free and light, so they look really like petals and the gold disappears.’

There is a fluidity to rings, necklaces and earrings complete with rhodolite, citrine, amethyst, peridot and aquamarine petals. The pear-cut gems, in sorbet shades, appear to float over their reworked settings, encapsulating a lightness and easy wearability.

Also joining the jewellery is a ‘secret’ watch, composed of citrine petals clustered around a mother-of-pearl dial. The strap can be easily slid off, with the jewelled dial also able to be worn separately. ‘The maison looks at watchmaking with the eye of the jeweller,’ says Rénier. ‘We like our watches to be an expression of jewellery. And it's the case here, where you can also wear it as a pendant. We like our watches to tell stories. We can choose if we want a watch, or if we'd rather have a jewel.’

vancleefarpels.com

For all that mechanical watchmaking is usually about miniaturisation, sometimes its masters like to display their talents on a grander scale. In 2025, brands and collectors alike have been enticed by the showstopper appeal of the most incredible clocks –statement pieces that bring the best attributes of today’s watchmakers to room-filling stature.

It has been the same story in the vintage market. In May, Phillips sold nine Cartier clocks that it described as ‘museum grade’ across its Hong Kong and Geneva auctions. The star lot was Portico Clock No.3, a 101-year-old ornate table clock in the ‘mystery’ style for which Cartier became famous. It sold for CHF3.9m (£3.5m), and still wasn’t the top story in an auction that also saw independent watchmaker FP Journe acquire a clock it had made for Breguet in 1991, the Sympathique no.1, for CHF5.5m (£5m).

That masterpiece is destined for FP Journe’s forthcoming museum in Geneva. But others are headed for – or already reside in – private collections. At Watches and Wonders in April, Chanel showed the Diamonds Astroclock, a contemporary take on a classic planetarium style that was produced by specialist clockmaker L’Epee 1839 (recently acquired by LVMH). With the movement housed in a glass sphere, the clock celebrated the constellation of Leo, both in its timekeeping display and with a white-gold lion sculpture set with 5,037 diamonds at the clock’s base.

Astronomical timekeeping was a popular theme: Panerai showed an updated version of its Jupiterium, a 100kg perpetual calendar planetarium that celebrates the discoveries of Galileo. As brooding and modern as the Chanel piece, it features the constellations of the zodiac picked out in green Super-Luminova, in keeping with the brand’s tool-focused aesthetic.

Van Cleef & Arpels, meanwhile, opted for a more ornate approach to what it calls its latest ‘extraordinary object’. The giant table-mounted planetarium is an evolution of a decade-old design, with a stylised shooting-star motif inlaid into the pale wood and the most impossibly detailed depictions of the planets, which orbit atop a celestial plane of lapis lazuli, accompanied by a mechanical melody as a gem-set shooting star emerges from a hatch to tell the time.

It is possible, however, to create a sensational clock without amassing enormous weight or complexity. Piaget’s latest clock is described as a ‘high jewellery mobile’, and sets a golden oval, set within it a smaller oval of opal, against four counterweights, also in gold, three of which are inlaid with semiprecious stones. With each individual clock differing slightly due to the natural variation of the stones, the mobile must be balanced accordingly.

By cutting against the grain of size, heft and mechanical complexity, Piaget has shown that there is more than one way to translate the aesthetic of a fine jewellery brand into a clock, bringing elements of its 1970s and 1980s heyday that are enjoying such a moment in today’s watch market.

Van Cleef & Arpels’ association with the world of dance can be traced right back to the early days, when ballet fan Louis Arpels was a regular visitor to the Paris Opera during the 1920s. It was a passion soon translated into jewellery, with the first ballet clips appearing in the 1940s. With a distinctive rose-cut diamond face, jewelled ballet dancers were wreathed in tulles of colourful precious stones.

In 2022, Van Cleef & Arpels nodded to the maison’s links with choreography first established in the partnership with George Balanchine, co-founder of the New York City Ballet, in the 1960s, with the first edition of the Dance Reflections by Van Cleef & Arpels Festival in London. Now it returns, bigger and better than ever, with a line-up of exciting events across Sadler’s Wells, Royal Ballet and Opera, Tate Modern and Southbank Centre.

‘When I joined the maison, we really started Dance Reflections from zero,’ says Serge Laurent, Van Cleef & Arpels’ Director of Dance and Culture Programs. ‘It was really an adventure, because there was no name, no logo, no team. We decided the idea was first to create a festival in London, and we really wanted to support dance companies and to support institutions to present the works. Now, within three and a half years, we have 60 different partners in 16 different countries. It's really an ambitious project.’

Traditional and contemporary cultures combine in this year’s ambitious programme, composed of performances, dance workshops and artist forums. Excitingly eclectic events, from François Gremaud revisit of the classic Giselle (1841), to Shu Lea Cheang and Dondon Hounwn’s staging of Hagay Dreaming at the Tate Modern and Noé Soulier’s interpretation of dance through video, sit alongside major pieces from George Balanchine’s repertoire - Serenade (1935), Prodigal Son (1929) and Symphony in C (1947).

‘As a curator, it's very exciting to explore this vision of dance,’ Laurent adds. ‘We propose to the audience that the selection of works is like a journey. We select many different performers but they all have a common point. They all found their own voice. In each era, you have some artists who are inventing something, which I respect very much. Pushing the limits is sometimes shocking. As a curator, I try to identify even very young artists, who are contributing to that evolution. It's very important for me.’

Dance Reflections takes place across London until April 8

dancereflections-vancleefarpels.com

Drawing on an eclectic roster of references, high jewellery this year unites historical techniques with rainbows of precious stones. Whether cutting sharp geometrical silhouettes or undulating forms, a bold high jewellery accoutrement calls for statement clothes. Clashing patterns, oversized collars and billowing tops - here are the best partners for a very special collection.

A version of this article appears in the April 2025 issue of Wallpaper*, available in print on international newsstands, on the Wallpaper* app on Apple iOS, and to subscribers of Apple News +. Subscribe to Wallpaper* today

Van Cleef & Arpels take inspiration from a literary classic for its latest high jewellery collection, which translates Robert Louis Stevenson’s adventure story, Treasure Island, into precious stones and metals. Divided into three parts, the collection considers traditional tools of navigation in the first chapter, rethinking the sailor’s knot and painting the colours of the ocean in a gradient of blue hues. Staying faithful to the traditions of the Maison, the second chapter looks at motifs from nature, from seashells, to flowers and trees. In the final chapter, jewellery is imbued with an adventurous spirit, intertwining references from Asia, Columbia and India throughout colourful, considered pieces.

For Van Cleef & Arpels, it is an interesting follow-up to previous high jewellery collections, which have celebrated the spirit of travel and exploration. ‘This spirit of adventure was also an inspiration for Van Cleef when we tackled the Jules Verne universe two years ago,’ agrees Catherine Renier, CEO of Van Cleef & Arpels. ‘So there is a match between the stories we tell, the way we look at a positive vision of life. This adventurous spirit is one that relates to us well. Then it was the wonderful worlds of the depths of the earth, and here it is the very playful aspect of Robert Louis Stevenson’s story. Who doesn't want to remember playing pirates? Who does not want to find a treasure chest? And who doesn't want to dream about adventure? I think the story is such an amazing one that one way or another, it speaks to everyone.’

The collection draws on distinctive Van Cleef & Arpels motifs, seen throughout in transformable jewels, mystery set techniques and playful symbols which nod to the high jewellery heritage of the maison. ‘I feel that we have a responsibility to the craftspeople to talk about what they do, but it’s also important to the maison to keep alive the fantastic creations that they have brought to us. That's why we still do the mystery setting, and that's why we continue to do extraordinary objects like the Onde Mystérieus. It's not an automaton, but it's very deeply in our heritage. And it's important to keep that heritage alive. For us, the protection of craftsmanship, the respect of the heritage and the work of the hand, is very important.’

It is a consideration reflected in the quality of the stones themselves, which encompass rainbow gradients of hues to bring the natural inspirations to life. ‘For us, the stone search is a permanent search,’ Renier adds. ‘We find the most amazing and rare stones on the market, and then it's a case of where we integrate them. Are they relevant to our story? Do they have the character that we are looking for? So we don't start a search for a stone when we start the collection; it's very much a stone has to come to life to adorn this collection. So, as a stone expert, when you see a turquoise coming onto your tray and you know the collection is about Treasure Island and beauties of Caribbean is in the work, this is one that you stop on. It’s the same with the Palmerie merveilleuse, where emerald represents the green of the island.’

Although the collection is rife with playful motifs, a literal translation of the literary work is eschewed for a deeper examination into the symbolism of high jewellery. ‘When you talk about Treasure Island, you probably have a lot of symbols that come to mind. You will think about the pirate with the eyepatch and one leg. If you talk about treasure, you will probably have the image of a chest full of gold and stones. So the new collection is literal to Stevenson’s text – very literal with the pirate clips that are named after three of the book’s characters. But we go beyond this literal aspect of the collection. We want the public, when they discover the collection, not specifically to have read the book. I mean, I hope they have, but it's really for them to discover the resonance between their own world and memories and what the collection symbolises. Because, in the end, it calls to the playfulness and childhood memories that we all have.’

vancleefarpels.com

Bill Prince, Editor-in-chief

'This week I was hosted by Van Cleef & Arpels for the launch of their latest high jewellery collection inspired by Robert Louis Stevenson's Treasure Island at Vizcaya, an extraordinary, mock-Italianate villa on the outskirts of Miami. The work of early 20th century industrialist James Deering, the setting - on Biscayne Bay - and the architecture, faithfully reproducing the style of the Veneto region of northern Italy principally in reinforced concrete, served as the perfect backdrop to a lively evening of entertainment topped off with a hornpipe performed by an athletic troupe of brigands. Not your average high jewellery launch, then.'

Jack Moss, Fashion Features Editor

'Yesterday evening I celebrated the launch of JW Anderson’s somewhat unexpected collaboration with Guinness at a special dinner hosted by creative director Jonathan Anderson at The Devonshire in Soho. The reason for the location? The buzzy Denman Street pub is purportedly the best pint of Guinness in central London (though I’m sure there are plenty of claims to this title – I’m not getting involved). Comprising sweaters and T-shirts adorned with Guinness logos and historic branding, it was first revealed as part of the designer’s S/S 2025 menswear show in Milan this past June. ‘When I was younger, I was obsessed by the Guinness campaign, [the one with] the horses running,’ he said at the time. ‘Not to be cliché and Irish, but there’s something nice about the iconography of Guinness... It’s been the same forever.’ The four pieces are available now on jwanderson.com and the brand’s London store in Soho.'

Hannah Silver, Arts & Culture Editor

'This week I marked the opening of María Berrío's exhibition at Victoria Miro gallery with a special dinner at Michelin-starred Italian restaurant Luca. The art is surreal, the food, sublime - all in all, the perfect London night out.'

Nick Vinson, Contributing Editor

'I spent four days in Vienna, with Wallpaper* Alumni Matt Hranek and Hotel Sacher. We started with a private tour with Carl Auböck IV of the 400 objects on display at Iconic Auböck; A Workshop Shapes Austria’s Concept of Design at MAK Vienna. A visit to Lobmeyr included looking through original sketches by Joseph Hoffmann and Oswald Haerdtl from 1919 and 1925 respectively. That was followed by a dinner in their historic store put on by Hotel Sacher, who got out their special hand painted porcelain from Herend for the occasion, commissioned by Anna Sacher and last produced in 1959. After dinner a quick visit to the 1909 American Bar by Adolf Loos. Saturday we snuffled around the flea market, retuned to the MAK to see Adam Štěch's Elements exhibition, and the Biedermeier and Baroque rooms. Dinner was even more splendid than the night before; Hranek likes to dress up so I donned my Berluti black tie, sipped Ruinart from Hoffmann’s Patrician coupes from Lobmeyr (no stemware works better), ate Beef Wellington off another splendid service from Herend in The Sacher's Grüne Bar and went dancing at Eden, a club built in 1911 by architect Rudolf Erdös. Vienna at its very best.'

Jason Hughes, Creative Director

'Zen surrounding and modern Japanese cuisine at Yakumo Saryo in Tokyo. Owned by renowned designer Shinichiro Ogata, the restaurant is a former Japanese mansion that has been transformed into a dining retreat with tranquil garden view. '

Ellie Stathaki, Architecture & Environment Director

'Having had a sneak preview tour of the new home of Thames Distillers in South London before it opened, for our article, a couple of months ago, I was delighted to join COO George, his wife and Wallpaper* contributor Fiona, and architect Zoe there for a drink earlier this week. It was lovely to see the space alive with action and sample the company's delicious product.'

Hugo Macdonald, Global Design Director

'I’ve been in Milan this week, meeting the great and good of the local design brands. Even after two decades, visiting the HQs of these mighty manufacturers still takes your breath away; their legacies are so much more than furniture. This trip I was charmed by a photo of Giuseppina and Angelo Molteni (the founder of Molteni) on their wedding day in Giussano, 1941. Such cockle-warming happiness and humanity.'

Charlotte Gunn, Director of Digital Content

'On Monday night MJ Lenderman brought his brand of alt-Americana to London's Garage. Lenderman is a wonderful wordsmith. His second, album, Manning Fireworks – one of my favourite of the year – is packed with comic tales of tragic characters from his home in the American south ("Go rent a Ferrari, and sing the blues / Believe that Clapton was the second coming") but there was a sombreness to his performance on Monday. Lenderman's hometown of Asheville was recently hit by a devastating hurricane and he took a break from the 'hits' (see Wristwatch, above) to play an eight-minute charity track, released to raise money for Asheville's residents, and remind us they've been 53 days without water. His delivery is deadpan, he's flanked with a band who look like they'd be better placed in a hair-metal tribute act but, in my opinion, he's singlehandedly making male guitar music interesting again.'

Kris Bergfeldt, social media manager

'I recently visited The Mercer Hotel in New York to see its newly renovated rooms and attend Japanese contemporary artist Yaman Nkymn’s exhibition '(Atomi:)WHITE2BLACK∈division'.

On arrival, I was greeted with big smiles in the hotel's elegant lobby and guest library. The new rooms were minimalist but cosy, with an air of sophistication about them. For the exhibition, they transformed one such space into a traditional Japanese living room, complete with three vintage TVs on the coffee table and stacks of classic Japanese anime VHS tapes. Despite being in the heart of SoHo with the terrace doors wide open, a sense of calm prevailed.

The exhibition itself was fascinating. I learned about Shinto philosophy—a belief that everything in the world possesses a spiritual essence—while exploring the artist’s comparison of the Japanese tea ceremony with anime, separated by 450 years. Rare and valuable items, some dating as far back as 16th-century Japan, were also on display. All in all, a memorable experience.'

The Grand Prix d’Horlogerie de Genève (GPHG) took place in Geneva last night (13 November) with its annual celebration of horological excellence.

This year's categories were dominated by independent watchmakers. But with entries showcasing extraordinary levels of handcrafted complexity, we didn't mind in the slightest. The event was a testament to the artistry and ingenuity thriving in independent watchmaking.

Enjoy the wrist art of our favourite category winners that exemplify the pinnacle of contemporary horology.

Grand Prix d’Horlogerie de Genève 2024: see the winners

Men's Complication - DB Kind Of Grande Complication

De Bethune's DB Kind of Grande Complication is a horological masterpiece that distills 22 years of innovation into a single, exceptional timepiece. This reversible, double-sided watch showcases eight complications—including a perpetual calendar, ultra-light tourbillon, spherical moon-phase indication, and jumping seconds—all integrated within a polished platinum case. On the contemporary side, the watch mesmerises with a 36,000 vph tourbillon and a jumping seconds mechanism, contrasted by the classical side featuring a perpetual calendar and a three-dimensional moon-phase set against the maison's signature starry sky in blued titanium. With 751 meticulously assembled components, it's not just a watch but a true composition that captures De Bethune's spirit of technical mastery and aesthetic excellence.

Ladies' Complication - Van Cleef & Arpels Lady Arpels Brise d'Été

Nature has always been a timeless muse, and Van Cleef & Arpels captures its essence with the Lady Arpels Brise d’Été watch—a celebration of a fresh summer morning. This exquisite piece brings blooming corollas to life within the maison's enchanted garden. White and yellow gold butterflies, crafted in plique-à-jour enamel, not only tell time but also flutter away thanks to an on-demand animation that breathes life into the flowers and stems. The corollas, rendered in vallonné enamel with azure hues and spessartite garnet pistils, are set against a matte mother-of-pearl dial that merges foreground and background into a poetic scene of lush greenery. With champlevé enamel leaves and tsavorite garnet-adorned blades of grass, supported by sculptural miniature painting, it's a bucolic landscape where time ticks by in harmony with nature's eternal cycle.

Tourbillon - Daniel Roth Tourbillon Souscription

Thirty-five years after its founding, Daniel Roth returns with the Tourbillon Souscription—a homage to the original 1988 design embodying the brand's enduring values. Crafted by artisans at La Fabrique du Temps, the timepiece upholds the mantra 'La Montre Objet d’Art.' Housed in an exclusive yellow gold double-ellipse case just 9.2mm thick, it features subtly reshaped hand-soldered lugs for enhanced ergonomics. The solid gold dial with Clous de Paris guilloché pays refined tribute to the brand's heritage, produced in Kari Voutilainen's workshop. Beneath beats the in-house calibre DR001, ensuring artisanal excellence continues under master watchmakers Michel Navas and Enrico Barbasini.

Petite Aiguille - KUDOKE 3 Salmon

Stefan Kudoke's KUDOKE 3 continues the HANDwerk collection's signature of sophisticated simplicity with an unconventional hour display. Minutes are indicated by a blued steel hand, but hours are shown via a triple-armed hand of varying lengths moving between two dials below the upper dial. As one arm completes an hour scale, the next begins, with hours 2, 6, and 10 displayed twice on different scales. The salmon upper dial complements the silver-plated lower dial's wave shape. Four screws at 10, 20, 40, and 50 serve as minute markers, and diamond edges enhance the aesthetics. The infinity symbol, a HANDwerk motif, is woven into the design. Housed in a 39mm stainless steel case with an onion crown, the KUDOKE 3 showcases the hand-wound KALIBER 1 movement through its sapphire case back.

Jewellery - Chopard Laguna High-Jewellery Secret Watch

Chopard's latest marvel from its Red Carpet Collection is a jewellery-watch embodying the magic of 'a secret about a secret.' Hidden within a seashell, this unique piece merges watchmaking expertise with jewellery artistry. Featuring a natural pearl surrounded by sapphires in pastel hues, it captivates with technicolor mystery. Over 1,000 hours of meticulous work entwine ethical 18-carat gold with titanium—a technical feat. Chopard's commitment to sustainability shines through with 100% ethical gold from transparent, traceable sources.

All the winners at The Grand Prix d’Horlogerie de Genève 2024

“Aiguille d’Or” Grand Prix: IWC Schaffhausen, Portugieser Eternal Calendar

Audacity Prize: Berneron, Mirage Sienna

Eco-innovation Prize: Chopard, L.U.C Qualité Fleurier

Chronometry Prize: Bernhard Lederer, 3 Times Certified Observatory Chronometer

“Horological Revelation” Prize: Rémy Cools, Tourbillon Atelier

Iconic Watch Prize: Piaget, Piaget Polo 79

Tourbillon Watch Prize: Daniel Roth, Tourbillon Souscription

Calendar and Astronomy Watch Prize: Laurent Ferrier, Classic Moon Silver

Mechanical Exception Watch Prize: Bovet 1822, Récital 28 Prowess 1

Chronograph Watch Prize: Massena Lab, Chronograph Monopoussoir Sylvain Pinaud x Massena Lab

Sports Watch Prize: Ming, 37.09 Bluefin

Men’s Complication Watch Prize: De Bethune, DB Kind Of Grande Complication

Men’s Watch Prize: Voutilainen, KV20i Reversed

Time Only Watch Prize: H. Moser & Cie, Streamliner Small Seconds Blue Enamel

Jewellery Watch Prize: Chopard, Laguna High-Jewellery Secret Watch

Artistic Crafts Watch Prize: Van Cleef & Arpels, Lady Arpels Jour Enchanté

Ladies’ Complication Watch Prize: Van Cleef & Arpels, Lady Arpels Brise d'Été

Ladies’ Watch Prize: Van Cleef & Arpels, Lady Jour Nuit

“Petite Aiguille” Watch Prize: Kudoke, 3 Salmon

Challenge Watch Prize: Otsuka Lotec, No.6

Special Jury Prize: Jean-Pierre Hagmann

In partnership with L’École, School of Jewelry Arts

For the late French collector and antique art dealer, Yves Gastou, men’s rings held a particular power. Rife with symbolism, Gastou appreciated both their artistry and their aestheticism, amassing an impressive collection of more than 1,000 rings in his lifetime. Now, these pieces are the subject of an exhibition, ‘Men’s Rings, Yves Gastou Collection’, which marks the first time that the collection has visited the Middle East.

Following successful previous visits to Paris, Tokyo, Hong Kong and Shanghai, this fifth show features new additions, with more than 700 exceptional rings on display. Divided into five themes (history, gothic, Christian mystique, vanitas and eclecticism), the rings criss-cross eras and mediums, from precious to mass-produced, and encompass an eclectic selection, from ancient Egyptian rings and 17th-century Venetian doge pieces to memento mori skull rings and 1970s American biker rings.

For more than 40 years, Gastou frequented auction houses, flea markets, workshops and studios in a quest to develop and expand his collection, which was first unveiled to the public in 2018 at Paris’ L’École, School of Jewelry Arts. The school opened in 2012, with the support of Van Cleef & Arpels, and it has continued to build on its mission to introduce everyone from beginners to experts to all aspects of jewellery culture, offering courses in the history of jewellery, the world of gemstones, and the savoir-faire of jewellery-making techniques.

Exhibitions, too, are a chance for the school to reach a wider audience, with this new exhibition being one of four currently on show around the world, alongside ‘Shakudo: From Samurai to Jewelry’ at L’École Asia Pacific in Hong Kong; ‘Paris, City of Pearls’ at L’École France Europe in Paris; and ‘Designing Jewels’ at L’École China in Shanghai. The Yves Gastou exhibition opened in early November in Dubai, its timely arrival coinciding with Editions, the city’s first limited-edition art and design fair. Coinciding with Dubai Design Week in the city’s Design District, the events signal an exciting new direction for jewellery, art and craft in the Middle East.

'Men’s Rings, Yves Gastou Collection’ is on show until 26 April 2025 at L’École Middle East, Dubai

lecolevancleefarpels.com

At the heart of high jewellery collections lies a dedication to showcasing the rarest and most precious gemstones, putting them in the best possible light. For this year’s new releases, high jewellery houses zoned in on colour, eschewing traditional pastels for a generous rainbow of hues, from the muted and abstract to the brilliant and bold.

Shimmering prisms are the central focus for Hermès’ creative director of jewellery, Pierre Hardy, who continues his exploration into the brilliant refraction of coloured stones with his ‘Les Formes de la Couleur’ collection. Hardy, who studied colour theory for his art degree, is a master of illusion, conjuring up geometric plays with architectural cuts of an array of precious stones, including rubies, beryls and sapphires. The collection marks the first time in the house’s history that such a large selection of stones has been used, with semi-precious and precious stones sitting together in a wide-ranging celebration of nuanced gradients. Teasing, modern references run throughout, such as with the ‘Color Icon’ bracelet, the hypnotic patterns of the stones coyly nodding to a pixellated, digital image.

A play on storytelling also characterises Chaumet’s offering. The ‘Chaumet en Scène’ collection is divided into three inspirations, music, dance and magic, with each drawing on the house’s far-reaching links with the arts. Chaumet’s Paris HQ is at 12 Place Vendôme, which was once home to Chopin, and it was here that he was said to have begun his last work, the Mazurka Op. 68, No.4. With this in mind, the sweeping lines of the house’s graphic ‘Mélodie’ necklace reference the grids and curves of a musical composition. For Francesca Amfitheatrof, Louis Vuitton’s artistic director for watches and jewellery, historical references are united with a freedom of spirit. Her latest jewellery collection for Louis Vuitton is epitomised by elaborate ornamentation and rich design detailing, encapsulated in pieces such as the ‘Splendeur’ necklace. Technically accomplished, it can be worn three ways.

Creative freedom also characterises Tiffany & Co’s ‘Blue Book 2024’ collection, which pays tribute to the artistic legacy of French jewellery designer Jean Schlumberger, intertwining fantasy and celestial themes in a romantic mish-mash. Peacocks, shooting stars and whimsical symbols are drawn in a juxtaposition of diamond cuts and thickly drawn gold – in the ‘Flames’ ring, the medley of cuts become a diamond firework, on the point of exploding in the sky.

Traditionally-cut diamonds are the focus of a heritage bracelet by Van Cleef & Arpels. Dating from 1923, the piece is faithful to the style of the time, when a trend for ‘white jewellery’ – a mix of diamonds and platinum – reigned. The house continues to champion these vintage designs in its ‘Heritage’ collection, which unites pieces created between the 1920s-1990s. A classic diamond bracelet is typical of its time, embracing the art deco sensibilities of clean lines and geometric forms, simplifying a floral design into an elegant arabesque.

Alongside diamonds, milky-hued pearls are perennial favourites in the world of high jewellery. They are a natural choice for Tasaki, which has cemented its status as a pearl specialist since its beginnings in the 1950s, when it became experts in both farming and selling cultured pearls. It has continued to build on this reputation in various ways, including collaborations with Ritz Paris, which began in 2016 to commemorate Tasaki’s first boutique in France and the reopening of the hotel.

The design of its ‘Lumineux’ collection nods to the Ritz’s heritage with the curved silhouettes reminiscent of the hotel’s sweeping staircase, once the centrepiece for the grand balls organised by César Ritz for the crème de la crème of Parisian society.

A European flamboyance is also prevalent in the ‘Diorama & Diorigami’ collection for Dior, designed by Victoire de Castellane, who drew on toile de Jouy, the patterned cloth featuring pastoral scenes that was popular in the 18th century and a distinctive feature in Christian Dior’s aesthetic (he clad his original boutique, Colifichets, in the fabric). In de Castellane’s collection, the flora and fauna are richly interpreted in colourful precious stones. Meanwhile, at Gucci, the mazes and symmetry of a traditional Italian garden form the inspiration for its ‘Labirinti Gucci’ collection. Striking a balance between meticulous planning and wild beauty, a form of ordered chaos is reflected in the smattering of blue-hued stones and the rigorous diamond grid.

Elsewhere, natural themes take a playful turn in Cartier’s ‘Nature Sauvage’ collection. Animals appear where you least expect them: crocodiles coil around the finger, the sinuous body of a snake splits in two to caress the curve of the neck, a snow leopard picks its way across a diamond and rock crystal icecap, while a turtle rests contentedly on a lapel. We feel the call of the wild.

This article appears in the October 2024 issue of Wallpaper*, available in print on newsstands from 5 September on the Wallpaper* app on Apple iOS, and to subscribers of Apple News +. Subscribe to Wallpaper* today

A new London exhibition is celebrating the fantastical horological world of Van Cleef & Arpels, where fairies and ballerinas flit over watch dials, diamond moons rise and gold suns set, and flowers wave gently in the breeze. The exhibition, entitled ‘Poetry of Time’ ( 26 May-9 June 2024), traces the early days of the maison, following Estelle Arpels’ marriage to Alfred Van Cleef in 1895, which signalled the beginning of a distinctive aesthetic that blurred the lines between high jewellery and watchmaking. Crafts such as the ‘mystery set’ technique, where diamonds appear to hover without the aid of visible settings, and the transformable zip necklace – which actually zipped – set a sharply technical tone.

This jewellery heritage, when married to a watchmaking savoir faire, went on to define the aesthetic of the timepieces. Romance reigned, from the jewelled birds perched on a 1949 table clock to spectacular high jewellery automatons.

Throughout the retrospective – which will be on show at South Kensington’s Cromwell Place gallery – the old meets the new, with traditional crafts sharpened by technical innovation. The process requires a team effort, uniting skills across the maison. ‘We can create our own colours, we are in control of the process,’ explains Rainer Bernard, Van Cleef & Arpels’ research and development director for timepieces. ‘We combine research and knowledge with craftsmanship and artistry. And this combination brings us to new levels.’

The narrative is key, Bernard emphasises. ‘We develop the technique according to the story. First is the story. Then we have to find the balance between aesthetics and what’s technically doable. And when you do something that you’ve never done before, you find technical difficulties. So then we have to talk with the creative team and it will influence the drawing. The design is constantly in movement until we find a concept that satisfies us technically.’

This immersive emphasis is reflected in the exhibition itself. Visitors are able to witness demonstrations from Geneva’s watchmaking artisans and learn about the mechanical process behind each watch, with visitors of all ages able to take part in workshops run by Van Cleef & Arpels’ L’École School of Jewelry Arts. Inside the exhibition, engaging scenography takes visitors through an enchanted forest, with art deco accents nodding to the movement’s significant impact on maison’s the watches and jewellery. Peppered with Murano glass leaves and rich in green, orange and blue hues, the setting is a jewellery box of treats in itself – as it should be, says Bernard. ‘The main actors in the development [of the pieces] are the craftsmanship and the engineering, and then the jewellery – it’s always a piece of jewellery.’

The exhibition title, ‘Poetry of Time’, reflects this taste for the extraordinary. ‘What is poetry?’ Benard asks. ‘It triggers a feeling, or an emotional reaction. We also try to trigger an emotional reaction, not through words, but through the creation itself, and then to animate that creation.’

‘Poetry of Time’ will be on show from 26 May-9 June at Cromwell Place, London SW7

cromwellplace.com, vancleefarpels.com

A version of this article appears in the June 2024 Travel Issue of Wallpaper*, available in print, on the Wallpaper* app on Apple iOS, and to subscribers of Apple News +. Subscribe to Wallpaper* today.

High jewellery, undercut with a rich heritage, is given a modern twist when styled with denim. Here, Van Cleef & Arpels jewels, both archival and current, ably demonstrate the timeless outcome in a marriage of the old and new.

It is a coupling that Van Cleef & Arpels cultivates with its Heritage collection. Composed of almost 200 pieces that have been sourced at auctions or through private collectors, the pieces, dating from 1920-1990, are meticulously examined and authenticated before being accepted. The Van Cleef & Arpels team, meanwhile, constantly on the lookout for archival pieces to join the collection, frequent trade fairs and auctions in an ongoing bid to find historical jewels that offer a taste of the stylistic codes of every decade, from the striking lines of the art deco period through to the whimsicality of the 1950s and the bohemianism of the 1960s and 1970s.

This enduring historical legacy is especially evident when paired with the modern jewellery created today, which faithfully references this rich archive while looking resolutely forward. The timelessness of both the heritage and contemporary pieces is offset by the casual cool of denim; worn oversized, its loose proportions are a relaxed foil for the bold lines of the jewellery.

A ‘Fagot’ bracelet from 1968 borrows from the bright colours prevalent in the 1970s, with the preference at the time for Indian jewellery design inspiring the colourful stones and chunky coral links. Elsewhere, modern pieces continue to nod to the archives. The ‘Ludo’ bracelet, part of the current collection, echoes the modernist lines of 1930s jewellery design, with its hexagonal and geometrical form taking inspiration from couture of the time, its cinched-in silhouette reminiscent of a belt.

A play on proportion is also reflected in the oversized ‘Solerose’ clip and striking ‘Matrimonio’ necklace, in a look back to the symmetrical focus that began to emerge in the 1980s. A contrast to the preceding decade’s free-flowing forms, here a rainbow of precious stones takes centre stage in a swirl of sapphires and diamonds.

A version of this article appears in the May 2024 issue of Wallpaper*, available in print from 11 April, on the Wallpaper* app on Apple iOS, and to subscribers of Apple News +. Subscribe to Wallpaper* today.

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Jewellery culture is alive and well in the hands of L’École, School of Jewelry Arts, and Van Cleef & Arpels, who have recently opened the doors to their newest venture in the heart of Paris. Founded in 2012 with the support of the jewellery house, the school has now opened a vast new location – an exhibition space, bookstore, generously equipped library, and elegant home to a range of courses, offering education on everything from gemology to the history of jewellery and general savoir-faire, including setting techniques and lacquer design.

Located in the neoclassical Hôtel de Mercy-Argenteau, once a private home, L’École eschews entrance fees, and is keen to welcome all through its doors. ‘We aim to provide access to the world of jewellery to the widest audience possible,’ says president and CEO of Van Cleef & Arpels, Nicolas Bos. ‘Our world shouldn’t intimidate or turn anyone away.’

Inside L’École Van Cleef & Arpels

Designer, interior architect and scenographer Constance Guisset (who had a solo show, ‘Surprise Party! Carte Blanche à Constance Guisset Studio’ at Milan’s Fuorisalone 2023) was at the helm of the interior, balancing an intricate compromise between the historical codes of the 19th-century architecture and the modern, fluid layout within. She says: ‘I approach space intuitively: when I enter a space, I prepare myself psychologically so I may understand its volumes. As I move through it, I may consider lowering a ceiling, for varying heights can create a feeling of movement. I may incorporate a recess in a certain area to offer visitors a place to retreat. And then, only after the volumes have been defined, I think about the atmosphere. The shape of the furniture contributes to a feeling of comfort. I try to add soft lines using furniture with rounded edges. I like curves for their graceful, delicate nature.’

Adds Bos: ‘Its façade is so discreet that it creates an element of surprise. Who would expect to find such a beautiful setting upon crossing the threshold of its porte-cochère? The Boulevard Montmartre address feels more accessible than our Place Vendôme location. And the surrounding neighbourhood, while popular, has strong ties with culture and art, thanks to its covered passageways, its theatres, the Hôtel Drouot, and the Musée Grévin. I like the combination of the two. This part of Paris is also associated with jewellery, for jewellery makers and stone merchants are not far away.’

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A version of this article appears in the February 2024 issue of Wallpaper* – dedicated to the Wallpaper* Design Awards 2024 – available in print, on the Wallpaper* app on Apple iOS, and to subscribers of Apple News +. Subscribe to Wallpaper* today

For around 250 years, undertaking a Grand Tour was considered the pinnacle of good taste, intellectual curiosity and artistic learning. Embarked upon by young aristocratic types throughout the 16th to 19th centuries, this round-trip of Europe, sometimes taking years, saw a decline in popularity with the advent of accessible rail and sea travel. Yet we can always take our own version of the trip vicariously, through the Florence of Merchant Ivory’s A Room with a View, the Lake Geneva of Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein, and the Versailles of whichever Marie-Antoinette biopic you happen to love most.

For its latest high jewellery collection, Le Grand Tour, French jewellery house Van Cleef & Arpels is celebrating the romance of this cultural excursion. Naturally, the art-packed cities of Italy are a key reference – the turquoise-rich ‘Chant des Gondoliers’ necklace, from the Venice suite, needs no explanation, while central to the ‘Laurier Impérial’ clip, from the Rome suite, is a third-century intaglio sapphire portrait of emperor Caracalla. But it was the tinkling gold leaves of the ‘Feuillage Mystique’ and ‘Feuillage Enchanté’ pins, with their menacing air of Grimms’ fairy tales, that really drew us in. Part of the Baden-Baden suite, their yellow and rose gold leaves are meticulously formed like marquise-shape gemstones, radiating with pink and blue sapphire buds, while the substantial angel-skin and red coral trunks are carefully honed and polished from their original, organic forms.

The house’s decision to stop off at the lesser-known Grand Tour destination of Baden-Baden highlights the importance of the German spa town in bringing a different point of view to the collection, focusing not on the towering achievements of classical columns, awe-inspiring artworks and grand palaces, but something more esoteric – folkore. The ‘healing’ waters of the city’s natural thermal baths, the ‘magic’ flowers in traditional festival crowns, and the myths and legends of the Black Forest are celebrated in a mesmerising suite of jewels, some of which reference Baden-Baden’s ancient willow, birch, oak and linden trees, particularly those that form a serene presence around the city’s fabled Lichtenthal Abbey.

‘We still travel to widen our perspectives, in a quest for experiences and encounters,’ says Van Cleef & Arpels president and CEO Nicolas Bos. ‘With Le Grand Tour, we took inspiration from Roman, Etruscan, medieval and Renaissance antique jewellery, marrying it with our own heritage, style and craftsmanship to create enchanted souvenirs.’ 

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This article appears in the October 2023 issue of Wallpaper*, available in print, on the Wallpaper* app on Apple iOS, and to subscribers of Apple News +. Subscribe to Wallpaper* today

Van Cleef & Arpels has once again partnered with Jouin Manku studio, this time on the creation of its Seoul maison, in a vast new space nodding to both French and Korean design codes. The striking building is encased in celadon, a traditional Korean ceramic, and cast aluminium, in a considered marriage of the old and the new.

Embracing nature: Van Cleef & Arpels’ Seoul maison

‘Given the importance of closeness to nature in Korean culture, the guiding principle of this project was to create a mountain in Seoul, a small mountain with gardens at different levels,’ says the studio of the Korean influences that run throughout. ‘So, we created this jewel case in the heart of an ultra-mineral city, featuring a delicate, protected, and omnipresent garden, which represents the interdependence between the building and nature.’ 

Nature is also a frequent inspiration for Van Cleef & Arpels, which depicts flora and fauna in brightly coloured precious gems. ‘The main inspiration was obviously the oneiric world of Van Cleef & Arpels, and how to transcribe this atmosphere into the building itself. The idea was for this house to be a fully-fledged Van Cleef & Arpels ambassador for Korean customers, so that they could instinctively understand the very fairytale, natural spirit that defines Van Cleef & Arpels.’

Creating the building during Covid proved challenging, as did shaping the exterior. ‘Getting all the craftsmen to work together was also complex, especially for the facade, which is a technically highly sophisticated object due to the contrast between the celadon and the extruded aluminium structure, which, nevertheless, creates a unified whole in the end. Ceramic is a living material, which is not precise. Because of the firing process, the result is not predictable; it can change colour as well as shape, which is not compatible with placing it on a rigorously rigid structure. This encounter between industry and craft, tradition and innovation, was not an easy one. Another challenge was to bring nature into the heart of the boutique. Thanks to the landscaper STL – Seo-Ahn Total landscape – this challenge was successfully met so as not to be too burdensome in terms of care for the teams on site.’

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The Grand Tour, popular during the 18th and 19th centuries, saw aristocrats embark on adventures around Europe, taking in Paris, Italy, northern France, Switzerland and the German provinces in an embrace of culture and art. Van Cleef & Arpels founder André Suarès took his own trip in 1910, four years after founding the jewellery maison, later publishing his account in Le Voyage du Condottière.

Now, Nicolas Bos, president and CEO of Van Cleef & Arpels, pays homage to this tradition in a vast new high jewellery collection encompassing 70 pieces inspired by the cities of the Grand Tour, as well as Roman, Etruscan, medieval and Renaissance antique jewellery and the heritage of Van Cleef & Arpels itself.

‘When we work with high jewellery, we love to take the opportunity to pay tribute to stories, or to specific themes,’ says Bos. ‘We want to come back to something that's a bit more narrative, more figurative. Last year was abstract, mostly white diamonds; we wanted to come back with more cultural diversity of materials and meticulous elements.

‘The Grand Tour has always been a fascinating story for me. It was not only a nice name,’ says Bos, describing it as somewhere between a form of travel and ‘a cultural artistic historical phenomenon’ that was popular for more than two centuries. ‘There are interesting materials about the Grand Tour – mostly from historians and art historians – where you will discover actually how important it was and how influential it was: the finish of art education on the early conception of museums and museum collection.’ 

This research is intertwined throughout the new pieces, which incorporate intricate goldsmithing techniques as well as faceted gems and exceptional stones, including cabochons, opals, coral, pearls and sapphires. 

 ‘We want to create jewels that are going to live forever. They have to exist within the collection, they have to be connected to the story but also to exist by themselves,’ Bos adds. ‘That's very much a point of attention. It all translates: the techniques we use, the way we work with a stone, the transformability and the way we work on certain connections. And considering the nature of representation, because we love figurative drawing, but we don't want to be literal, we don't want to be photographic. You want the landscape of Rome, of Naples to be recognisable, but you don't want to put a postcard around somebody's wrist. 

‘It still has to be a beautiful piece of jewellery that's about the harmony of colour, it almost becomes abstract. If you want to see the inspiration, it is there, but you don't need to review the catalogue to understand the piece.’

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Van Cleef & Arpels revisits playful design codes with new collections of fine jewellery, ‘Lucky Spring’ and ‘Lucky Animals’, putting both animals and cheerful spring motifs centre stage. 

First released in 2017, the ‘Lucky Animals’ collection here rethinks the boldly drawn clips that characterised the original pieces. The teddy bear, fox, dachshund, bichon frisé and frog are sketched in yellow gold and filled in with onyx, malachite, grey mother-of-pearl and carnelian, cutting bold silhouettes.

Van Cleef & Arpels’ new animal jewellery designs

‘The “Lucky Animals” collection echoes the humorous wildlife creations of La Boutique,’ notes Van Cleef & Arpels. ‘Created in 1954, it was intended to enrich Van Cleef & Arpels’ range with more accessible, daywear jewellery: it notably included playful and light-hearted clips, known as ‘‘young jewels’’. Over the years, funny and touching animals, inspired by the first American cartoons, were created. The “Lucky Animals” collection follows this path by embodying the benevolent and generous nature that has always inspired Van Cleef & Arpels. The clips are astonishingly vivid: the animals seem to have been captured in their natural movements, their penetrating onyx gaze full of curiosity. Named Teddy Bear, Fox, Dachshund, Bichon Frisé, and Frog, they reveal delicate combinations of ornamental stones and mother-of-pearl, bordered by golden beads. With their lively expressions, they renew the Van Cleef & Arpels benevolent tradition.’

The animal jewellery joins floral pieces in new additions to the “Lucky Spring” collection, defined by warmer tones of rose gold, white mother-of-pearl, onyx, and carnelian, with the faithful rendering of the pieces requiring a sharply defined technical prowess. 

‘The “Lucky Animals” collection features many combinations of materials and colours,’ the team add, ‘which therefore requires precision and intricacy throughout the creative process. Cutting the stones and mother-of-pearl and polishing the pieces are delicate operations, due to the small size of the components. The fine gold beads that outline the animals’ silhouettes are individually hand-polished, bringing out a precious touch of light. Highly polished gold is used on the legs, ears, and muzzles of the new pieces to bring the animals to life.’

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Van Cleef & Arpels takes a deep dive into its history with a celebration of dance in the exhibition ‘Art of Movement, Van Cleef & Arpels’. Taking place at London’s Design Museum, it intertwines the maison’s exquisite dance-inspired pieces - including Louis Arpels’ favourite Dancer clips - with its support of the arts, most recently expressed in this year’s Dance Reflections Festival.

‘First, we started with the story,’ Lise Macdonald, Van Cleef & Arpels director of heritage and exhibitions tells us. ‘Once we have that in mind, then we look at the space. I like how the museum has managed to turn a fleeting moment into an eternal form. It's about transforming the ephemeral into the eternal. And I would hope visitors feel a sense of amazement, of beauty and poetry. It will transport them into seeing that jewellery making is a true art form of its own.’

Visitors are invited to discover a treasure trove of archival pieces, from the unique Zip necklace designed in the Thirties and produced in 1950, to the textured gold of 1964’s Trois Clochettes clip and Egyptian-style bracelets from the Twenties, which draw lotuses resting on the water in precious gems.

Jewels are set against a swirling, couture-inspired backdrop. The decor, designed by Faire Agency in collaboration with Les Ateliers Lognon, unites jewels with exquisite pleated fabrics in pastel hues. Upon arriving, visitors trace the curves of a ribbon as it unfurls throughout the rooms, uniting the four parts of the exhibition.

‘When we were preparing for the dance festival, we thought it would be interesting to work on this idea of dance and movement, but in a larger sense. And this is how the conversation with the Design Museum started,’ adds president and CEO of Van Cleef & Arpels, Nicolas Bos. ‘I really love this museum, and it is an opportunity to focus on one specific aspect - the significance that movement can have in our world, be it the physicality of movement, when you have mechanisms and moving parts, or the evocation of movement, in a figurative way, like the ballerinas. Or sometimes in a more abstract manner, with pieces from the Sixties and Seventies. It was an intellectual exercise to curate the collections according to one specific aspect of value.’

For Bos, the Design Museum was a natural home for the exhibition thanks to its diverse exploration of design. ‘It's very exciting. It's always one of the objectives that we keep pretty much across all initiatives - to talk to the widest possible audience. Whether we’re talking about joy, or when we talk about dance, when we talk about craftsmanship or nature. Maybe because of the commercial aspect of our world it feels a bit more exclusive, or sometimes intimidating or secret. When we are working on this type of big initiative, you want it to be as open as possible in a museum that's very open. It's free, and there will be some lovers of jewellery but also experts and amateurs, families and children - I really hope they all come and enjoy the exhibition.’

INFORMATION

'The Art of Movement, Van Cleef & Arpels' is on at the Design Museum, London, until October 20th 2022

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Masterpiece London Art Fair, celebrating the best in design from the worlds of art, furniture and jewellery, has returned once again, and with it the chance to experience exquisite craftsmanship. Van Cleef & Arpels, exhibiting at the fair for the eighth time, is showing heritage pieces to mark the occasion, with unique objects and jewels encapsulating Masterpiece London’s savoir-faire spirit.

Highlights from the maison include the Rêveries de Berylline automaton, continuing Van Cleef & Arpels’ tradition of telling the time in a creative way. Named after a species of hummingbird, the bird, set with sapphires, emeralds and tsavorite garnets with a briolette-cut sapphire dangling from its beak, is only revealed when a flower spreads its rainbow petals, showcasing the hummingbird’s beating wings and rhythmic pirouettes.

Other pieces encompass more classic jewellery motifs, with a brooch from 1945 demonstrating an elegant restraint. Created when precious stones were limited due to the Second World War, its design in polished and pierced gold takes inspiration from the ripples of lace, the openwork flower motif itself one frequently revisited by Van Cleef & Arpels.

Gold forms the main part of the design in another brooch, from 1989, which draws on the maison’s history of dance, nodding back to the 1940s, when Louis Arpels first looked to the world of ballet for inspiration. A tulle skirt drawn in fine gold mesh is deceptively light, its slender silhouette appearing fluid, caught in mid-twirl and accentuated only with a delicate sprinkling of diamonds on the ballerina’s crown, waist and bouquet.

The pieces form part of a wider collection shown at this year’s Masterpiece London Art Fair, taking place at the Royal Hospital Chelsea until 6 July.

INFORMATION
masterpiecefair.com

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Van Cleef & Arpels has delved into its dreamlike archives for this year’s new horological releases, which encompass both watches and exquisite timekeeping objets d’art. For this year’s offerings, the jewellery house builds on a history of creating one-of-a-kind objects that stretches back to 1906.

The first piece looks to the heavens and celestial traditions, with the sun, the moon and planets drawn in precious gems in the new Planétarium automaton. Moving at their real speed of rotation, the planets carry out their complete orbits of the sun – 88 days for Mercury, 224 days for Venus, 365 days for the Earth, 687 days for Mars, 11.86 years for Jupiter, and 29.5 years for Saturn. Meanwhile, the moon rotates around the Earth in a 29.5-day cycle. Visual and aural accompaniment, in the form of a shooting star that circles the dial to reveal the hours, and music created with Swiss musician Michel Tirabosco, completes the experience.

In the Fontaine aux Oiseaux automaton, the time is told via a feather on the side of a basin seemingly filled with water, which appears to ripple in line with the piece’s movements. The birds perched on the edge wake up and chirp their song, while a dragonfly rises into the air, beating its wings.

Timepieces, too, imbue organic movements in nature with a functionality. In the Lady Arpels Heures Florales Cerisier watch, the time is told through flowers that bloom on the dial, their number corresponding to the hour. Every hour, the watch’s dial is refreshed with a budding new scene. In other new releases, the ballerina takes centre stage in a nod to dance, one of Van Cleef & Arpels’ major inspirations. Two versions of the Lady Arpels Ballerine Enchantée watch depict the ballet dancer mid-pose, similar to a butterfly in her elegant, gem-speckled silhouette. 

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Van Cleef & Arpels’ history has long been intertwined with the world of dance, beginning with co-founder Louis Arpels’ regular visits to the Opéra Garnier in the 1920s, which was a short stroll from the Place Vendôme boutique. The clips, first created in the 1940s, draw ballerinas in tutus set with diamonds or precious stones, wearing elaborate head ornaments or clutching vivid props. In costumes from all over the world, from the South Pacific islands to the Far East, they are caught mid-twirl or pirouette, spinning over lapels and dresses in an explosion of colour.

The Ballet Précieux high jewellery collection, first introduced in 2006, nods to this history, succinctly capturing the fluidity of the ballerinas’ movement and rich textures of their costumes. ‘From the beginning of the house there was an idea that dance is a universal language; a universal artistic category that you could translate into jewels,’ says president and CEO of Van Cleef & Arpels, Nicolas Bos. In order to conjure up the spirit of dance, designs had to be flexible. ‘When you look at a ballerina you think of movement or lightness before you see it is made of gold and precious stones,’ he adds.

To imbue the designs with realism, the body of the ballerina is drawn first without the costumes, ensuring both the correct proportions and an accurate expression of movement rather than an evocation. ‘Another element we think very important – as it’s the character of a ballerina and not a doll or precise representation of one person – is that they don’t have a precise face,’ Bos adds. ‘The face can be a rose-cut diamond, cut from rough diamonds to specific dimensions, so you are looking at the shape of the body and the movement, not a portrait.’

The collection heralds the launch of Dance Reflections, Van Cleef & Arpels’ festival to be hosted in London in March 2022. ‘There will be 16 choreographies and 18 works in almost three weeks, with the venues at Sadlers Wells, the Royal Opera House and Tate Modern,’ Serge Laurent, head of dance and culture programmes at Van Cleef & Arpels, tells us. The programme will focus on contemporary dance from the 1970s to the present time, featuring both established choreographers and emerging talents. To make the festival as accessible as possible, it will be richly supported digitally. ‘From the pandemic we learnt that online programmes can be useful and efficient; for purposes of education also the digital medium can really help,’ he adds.

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Precious minerals in their rough state have always beguiled and, sometimes, repulsed. Yet, when cut, polished and turned into rings, bracelets and necklaces, their power to seduce is universal. ‘Pierres Précieuses’, a collaborative exhibition from Van Cleef & Arpels and Paris’ Muséum National d’Histoire Naturelle connects the dots, exploring the link between mineralogy, gemmology and jewellery.

The exhibition, three years in the making, has been designed with an educational bent. The collaborator-in- chief is François Farges, professor of mineralogy at the Muséum. ‘Mixing gemstones and objects is a French tradition, pairing beautiful things and placing them close to the natural minerals. People are intrigued by the wonder of nature, its different shapes and beauty. The duality of our approach helps people learn in a different way.’

The dialogue between the philosopher Roger Caillois and the Surrealist poet André Breton also informs the story. ‘Breton placed crystals above everything as the perfect expression of art,’ says Farges. Caillois, who viewed natural stones as ‘the shore of dreaming’, left a significant collection of them to the Muséum.

‘This exhibition tells a story of the creation of earth and stones, and how minerals come to life in a cut gem,’ says Nicolas Bos, CEO and president of Van Cleef & Arpels. Adding to this magical journey is the exhibition design, created by long-term house collaborators, architects Jouin Manku. ‘They have played with ancient materials and textures so it feels as if you are inside the earth, like a child going into a forest,’ says Bos.

INFORMATION

‘Pierres Précieuses’, 16 September – 14 June

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This article originally appeared in the October 2020 issue of Wallpaper* (W*258)

‘Unlike old romantic black and white depictions of the skies, all the recent imagery show it’s actually amazingly colourful,’ says CEO and president of Van Cleef & Arpels, Nicolas Bos. The cosmos is the inspiration for the new high jewellery collection, Sous les Etoiles, which draws galaxies, curving comets and celestial figures in brilliant precious stones. ‘If you look at those pictures with the eyes of a jeweller, you see stones,’ he adds. ‘The constellations immediately make you think of sapphires or opals, lapis lazuli, pyrite.’

Bos brings this wealth of colour to life for the new collection which returns to celestial themes a decade after Les Voyages Extraordinaires, the collection which drew its inspiration from a Jules Verne novel. The heavens have long fascinated the maison, from the chic black enamel cigarette cases of the Twenties to the romantic complication watches this century.

These new pieces bring together pyrite-flecked lapis lazuli with chalcedonies and tanzanites cast into hyponisting forms, with mauve sapphires and coral adding a heavenly pop to a bracelet. In the Saturne clip, rings of diamonds circle a half-sphere of hammered yellow gold, with threads of yellow gold under the rings bringing the piece to life. ‘Drawing is two-dimensional, the challenge for the jeweller is to use expertise to bring in a third dimension and give the feeling of movement,’ say Bos. ‘You’re working with the hardest materials that exist – it’s why they last forever – but to use these materials to create feelings of life and movement is a challenge. In this brooch, it could be a flat representation but we work on the volume and play with the reflection of the stones to bring real depth.’

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While watch and jewellery designers tended to embrace the warm, coppery tones of rose gold in the last decade, the primal power of yellow gold has risen once again. In ancient times, this gleaming earth-born metal was thought to possess mystical powers, with ancient cultures believing it to emit the energy-giving power of the sun.

Bauhaus colour theory, too, recognises the enduring allure of yellow chroma – for Kandinsky, who associated shapes with musical notes, yellow, with its bright nature, was both a middle C on a trumpet and a sharp, uncompromising triangle in form.

For jewellers such as Annelise Michelson, thick loops of golden metal pack a powerful sartorial punch when plaited into a bold cuff, while Misho’s huge pear-drop loop earrings offer a glinting fragility, showcasing a more delicate side to the metal’s tough nature.

Paris sculptor Hélène de Saint Lager, meanwhile, synthetically heightens the textural quality of gold in its raw state by way of her signature papier-mâché and resin alchemy. It's the dawning of a shining new era.

Adding to the maison’s rich rollcall of artist collaborations, Nicolas Bos, CEO of Van Cleef & Arpels, was keen to find an artist who could unite the different facets of dance, drawing and high jewellery for the maison's 2019 high jewellery collection, ‘Romeo & Juliet'. Lorenzo Mattotti’s lauded comic book, animation and magazine works, for the likes of The New Yorker, Vanity Fair and Le Monde, caught Bos’ eye.

‘He has a colourful, poetical and contemporary style that was interesting to explore. He is a very singular artist,’ Bos says. His illustrations of classic literature, which respect the traditions of the text while bringing a new, contemporary identity, particularly impressed him. ‘This is what we were looking for in order to express the timeless relevance of Shakespeare’s words,’ Bos says, ‘alongside jewels that were more anchored in aesthetics from the Renaissance.’

For the resulting illustrations, Mattotti was free to develop his own narrative designs, inspired by the jewellery but not restricted by it. ‘There is a link between the colours of the designs and the jewellery; keeping this range of colours was mandatory, but the theme was very free,’ he says. ‘I did a whole series of drawings in a sketchbook, and they chose the ones they liked the most. It was very simple and natural.’ His drawings, as well as depicting the famous scenes between the young lovers in high jewellery hues, also play with movement and lightness. They nod, also, to Van Cleef & Arpels' support of Benjamin Millepied’s new ballet, Roméo et Juliette, the dancers’ costumes of which will be inspired by Mattotti’s drawings.

‘The idea was not to do Romeo and Juliet in Renaissance costumes as it was too obvious, but rather to draw them as if they were young people of our time, with modern clothes; more contemporary, up-to-date and colourful. For the play on the ballet, we really wanted to convey energy, joyful movement and a kind of lightness, the joy of knowing and discovering more about each other,’ says Mattotti.

The illustrator’s stories serve to highlight a new narrative of the jewellery collection itself, which is more abstract than figurative. ‘Each artistic discipline gives a different approach to the story. Drawings and dance, as much as jewellery craftsmanship, widen the vision of this universal love story. Mattotti’s romantic and benevolent portrayal of the lovers seems to us deeply connected to the Maison’s universe,’ Bos confirms.

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Nothing about Antonin Mercier, the founder of horological label Laps, is conventional. Starting with his pocket-sized atelier, a revamped garage just a stone’s throw from the Musée d’Orsay. ‘This is my showroom, and where I assemble most of my watches,’ he says. The space is a hodgepodge of unexpected elements: chunks of wood, crocodile skins, Cuban cigar leaves, a poster from a 1970s Thai monster movie.

And then there are the watches: all the same size and shape – vintage-inspired and discreetly small – and their Japanese-made dials filled with textured materials or miniature pictures. ‘Here is Jacques Chirac jumping the barrier at the Metro,’ says Mercier of one watch face. ‘This is Nakano Takeko, a female samurai from the Edo period. Clyde Barrow at 15. And an S&M picture from the Paris-based Biederer brothers.’ The collection almost feels like a cabinet of curiosities, something he takes pride in: ‘I’m inspired by anyone who dares to be different.’

His background in art history shows through: the son of an auctioneer, Mercier worked for five years in the contemporary art market before deciding to take his career in a different direction. ‘I used to hunt for rare watches on eBay that I took to artisans to repair,’ he says, showing a piece from his personal collection, from the 1968 Nixon campaign, with a picture of the presidential couple inside the dial. As he learned more about watchmaking, he summoned the courage to start his brand. ‘It’s been an exercise in trial and error, especially since I work with materials that are not supposed to be put inside a watch. Laps is pretty much a research lab.’ One that produces wonderfully surprising limited editions and one-off pieces, such as a watch with a dial made out of charcoal rescued from the Titanic wreckage, or the model with a 1970s painting of two cosmonaut chihuahuas.

Mercier clearly has a soft spot for all things kitsch, and a sense of humour. ‘What I enjoy most is subverting the rules of traditional watchmaking. The day a Chinese lady stopped by to take off her €300,000 Van Cleef & Arpels to wear the €120 cosmonaut chihuahua watch with a bubblegum-pink nylon and perlon strap, I knew I had made it.’

For Mercier, it’s not about the price, but about crafting something brand new, ‘an accessory that is unisex, that can be hidden or shown, and passed from generation to generation’. He works with an assistant, and a freelance collaborator who helps assemble each piece. ‘Some models, considering the time they take, are seriously unprofitable,’ he tells me while showing how he presses cigar leaves to reduce their thickness to a minimum so they will fit in the dials. The process is similar with python and crocodile skins, and wood.

‘I use African sapele wood, which reflects the light almost like silk, and an oak that is 2,600 years old.’ Materials that seem even more complicated to source than the rare photographs, but totally worthwhile. ‘I get a kick out of thinking about what happened around that oak tree before it was felled. Maybe there were druids hanging out under it?’ With Mercier, the word ‘timepiece’ takes on a whole new meaning. ‘It’s about being transported in time, space and within your own imagination every time you gaze at your watch.’

As originally featured in the March 2018 issue of Wallpaper* (W*228)

INFORMATION

Limited-edition watches, from €120, by Laps. For more information, visit the Laps website

Precision cuts and non-precious metals are the contemporary take on classic styles
‘Ca Cartonne’ cuff in coated aluminium, titanium and diamonds, by Suzanne Syz. ‘Aria Passionata’ brooch in gold, lacquer, rubies, garnets, diamonds and central 22.51ct rhodolite garnet, from the Chaumet est un Fête collection, by Chaumet. ‘Tiare’ earrings in blackened gold, diamonds and rubies, by Reza. ‘Soothing Lotus’ necklace in gold with rough and polished diamonds and central 6ct diamond drop, by De Beers. ‘Piccadilly’ fabric, £100 per m, by Nya Nordiska. Jewellery prices throughout, on request

Beading and lattice work add a sense of lightness to hard materials
Left, ‘High Jewellery’ necklace in white gold with turquoise, emeralds and diamonds, by De Grisogono High Jewellery. ‘Feather 0011’ fabric, £70 per m, by Kinnasand. Right, necklace in white gold with diamonds and central 19.79ct Ceylon sapphire, from the Resonances de Cartier collection, by Cartier. ‘Diamond River’ earrings in platinum with diamonds, by Harry Winston. Ring in white gold with diamonds and central 4.29ct fancy vivid yellow diamond, from the Swirl collection, by Graff. ‘Feather 0012’ fabric, £70 per m, by Kinnasand

Expert gold techniques add texture to create a beautifully contemporary finish
Left, ‘Blue Shore’ cuff watch in white gold with lapis lazuli dial, from the Sunlight Journey collection, by Piaget. ‘Sailor Tattoo’ cuff in white gold with diamonds, from the Flying Cloud collection, by Chanel Fine Jewellery. ‘Feuille’ brooch in white gold with diamonds, from the Hiver Imperial collection, by Boucheron. ‘Scratch 6787/0001’ fabric, £70 per m, by Kinnasand. ‘Kito CS’ fabric £250 per m, by Nya Nordiska. Right, ‘Cachette des Coccinelles’ clip in gold with diamonds, spinels and central 10.17ct Zambian emerald, from the Le Secret collection, by Van Cleef & Arpels. ‘Divissima’ bracelet in pink gold with diamonds, amethysts and rubellites, by Bulgari. ‘Feather 0010’ fabric, £70 per m, by Kinnasand. ‘Batumi Uni CS’ fabric, £59 per m, by Nya Nordiska

Metal and stones take on the guise of fine fabrics in intricate mesh and ribbon designs
Left, ‘Les Merveilles Meche’ necklace in white gold with diamonds, rubies, pink sapphires and central 10.06ct white diamond drop, by Boghossian. ‘Feather 0011’ fabric, £70 per m, by Kinnasand. Right, ‘Elixir of Youth’ brooch in titanium with diamonds, rubies, sapphires and central 42.39ct jadeite cabochon, by Anna Hu. ‘Bosquet de l’Encelade’ bracelet in gold with rock crystal, diamonds, emeralds, spinels, spessartite and tsavorite garnets, sapphires, Paraiba-type tourmalines, turquoise and central 12.38ct black opal, from the Dior à Versailles Côté Jardins collection, by Dior Haute Joaillerie. ‘Tesori del Mare’ bracelet in white gold and titanium with diamonds, sapphires, rubies, spinels, spessartite and tsavorite garnets, Paraiba tourmalines, and pearls, from the Mediterranea collection, by Giampiero Bodino. ‘Feather 0011’ fabric, £70 per m, by Kinnasand

Daniel Brush is not the first painter, sculptor and metalworker with the enviable knack of excelling in multi disciplines. His seemingly God-given skill for metalwork, however, denotes an artist of lavish talent and skill. Hence, in the past two decades, his fine-art approach has been embraced by the high jewellery universe. The esteemed jewellery historian Vivienne Becker says his talent is ‘sorcery at work’.

Now, for the first time in Europe, a compact exhibition of the New York-based artist’s works are on show at the Van Cleef & Arpels school of jewellery arts in Paris. The show revolves around two installation pieces – ‘Cuffs’ and ‘Necks’.

Image from NECKS, An Artist's poetry book. Photography: Wesley Stringer

The latter comprises a book and a suite of Flavin-like cases containing 117 steel and aluminium colliers de chiens – dog collars – designed for a single ‘unrequited’ neck. Brush has hand-engraved each with his signature abstract patterns and waves, to such an intensely fine degree that steel or aluminium appears to be as fluid as shimmering water.  As Becker puts it, ‘Brush softens steel into silk, turning the metal’s indomitable masculine industrial strength into a feminine moiré ribbon.’

The 'Cuffs' piece comprises 72 metal and diamond-set bracelets inspired by the 'sounds and confusions' that have at one time preoccupied Brush while engaged in his early morning studio floor-sweeping ritual. 'Steel, downtown, radical, out there, bondage, New York, Janis Joplin, Glenn Gould, Barnett Newman’ are just a few references that add up to this cacophony of inspiration. 

The museum quality of Brush’s craft, its strange otherworldliness, makes it almost impossible to relay his work in words or pictures. There’s an unexpected thrill in its perfection, a sheer visceral effect that derives simply from Brush’s lifetime pursuit of it through thousands of hours of handwork. ‘Necks’, for instance, took four years to complete.

Becker, who is currently working on a new book dedicated to the Cleveland-born artist has pulled the exhibition’s narrative strand together. It is she then, who is best placed to sum up Brush’s art: 'The jewels and objects that are conjured from his febrile imagination, via the awe-inspiring dexterity of his hands, possess a pure and powerful, deeply emotive beauty. For those who know how to see and feel, they are infused with the deep spirituality reminiscent of the earliest role of the jewel.'

INFORMATION

’Cuffs and Necks’ is on view until 31 October 2018. For more information, visit the Van Cleef & Arpels website and the Daniel Brush website

ADDRESS

L'École des Arts Joailliers
31 Rue Danielle Casanova

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TELEPHONE

33.1 70 70 36 00

Nothing captures the uncanny wonder of mechanical craft quite like figurative automata. Hand-programmed to mimic not just human movement but often emotions too, these clockwork figures, popularized in 18th-century royal courts, are today mostly seen in museums. So an invitation to visit the automaton maker François Junod, in his studio in the Swiss mountain region of Vaud, is an intriguing one.

Bar a cult following in Japan, Junod is relatively unknown outside the core Swiss watch community (his skill is related to traditional horological engineering). He is one of just a handful of contemporary automata craftsmen. This year, his reputation as a master is being heightened further by a collaboration with Van Cleef & Arpels. Junod was one of 20 remarkable craft specialists invited to collaborate on a unique brief for the French jewellery house: the extraordinary Fée Ondine automaton. The sizeable enamelled table clock is designed to tell a fairytale. Junod created the automated aspects of the entire piece and gave life to its star turn – a lithe-limbed, white-gold fairy around whose lifelike movements the clock’s story magically unfolds.

‘The difference between automata and robots is that automata have soft, organic movements,’ says Junod from his mountain-top studio. Crammed with motors, rotors, hammers, toy limbs, record players, cine cameras, chisels, jukeboxes and much, much more, his Sainte-Croix workshop is a film set waiting to happen. ‘The goal is to put life inside the automaton, to tell a story so that it’s not just a mechanism. That is dependent on the gear cams – the mechanical programming. To get a graceful movement, you have to have precision in the system and you have to regulate the speed. You don’t want the fairy’s wings to start fast then go slow, as she would look really sad.’

Judging by his workshop, Junod’s love for all things mechanical is all-encompassing. ‘I study old cameras to come up with solutions, because the regulator inside them is very subtle,’ he says, gesturing upwards to the row of analogue cameras and cine machines dangling from a jam-packed ceiling beam.

‘Automatons are magic,’ says Nicolas Bos, president and chief executive of Van Cleef & Arpels. ‘We tend to think of them still as products of the 18th century – tinny, dusty characters. On the other hand, contemporary ones strive to be modern, abstract, geometrical, but then the emotion is gone. We wanted a 20th-century evocation, a true character and environment, and that’s how we met François. We spent a lot of time discussing the scenario.’

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. Craft for craft’s sake, however, has never been the driver for Bos in his time at Van Cleef & Arpels. ‘Our mechanics always start with the stories, never the technique,’ he says. ‘If there is a butterfly or a bird, you want it to have its own life. You learn and rediscover techniques as you work. It’s almost a philosophy you can interpret, as in more surprise, more poetry, more three-dimensionality.’

The Fée Ondine automaton is a continuation of Van Cleef ’s ‘Extraordinary Objects’ series. The time is displayed by way of a tiny jewelled ladybird on the ebony veneer base that supports the animated fairytale above. In the tradition of automata control, the piece is also fitted with a giant key; when turned, it powers the meticulously programmed mechanics that bring the scene to life. As the leaves of a giant enameled lilypad ripple, the fairy awakens and gently moves her arm aside. Tilting her head, she looks on as if in wonder as the lily flower opens to reveal an automated butterfly, slowly flapping its wings. The fairy then bows her head and returns to her repose.

Even with Junod’s expertise in automata, it took years before he could see a way to make the Van Cleef team’s vision a reality. He presented his ideas for the mechanism in matchsticks and, for the enameled leaf parts, in rubber bands and wood. ‘I love to do the prototypes, it’s a real challenge,’ he says. ‘With this project, the dimensions were new to me and required a different method. Also, we were working with two opposite types of engineering – mechanics and jewellery – and they work in different ways.’

Each part of the fairy had to be cast and worked separately by the Van Cleef & Arpels jewellery workshop, which followed Junod’s instruction that every piece of the figure had to move. ‘She’s small, so there are so many components, and she’s gold,’ he says. ‘Gold makes her very heavy, so it is hard to create a smooth movement.’ As Junod worked, so the jewellery workshop had to alter its parameters and develop techniques to respond to his every change. And there were other constraints, too: the added weight of precious stones, the trial-and-error enamelling process, and the demands of remaining true to the Van Cleef & Arpels figurative aesthetic.

The Fée Ondine automaton has been in development for more than five years. It took 20 workshops and many craftsmen more than 12,000 hours of work to create; they used 2,870 components, from gold and silver to precious stones, iron and copper. ‘The art of mechanical systems is very hard – a lot of this work is instinct and experience,’ Junod says. ‘Before the invention of transistors or electricity, we were making cameras, record players. No one learns these skills any more.’

The fairytale scene lasts just 45 seconds. By initiating its creation, Bos is paying homage to the human aspect of exceptional skill – passion. And it would take a proverbial heart of stone not to be enchanted by Fée Ondine.

As originally featured in the Precious Index, our new watches and jewellery supplement (see W*218)

INFORMATION

For more information, visit the Van Cleef & Arpels website and the François Junod website

Adding to Van Cleef & Arpels’ increasingly impressive bibliotheque comes a companion publication to this year’s 'The Art & Science of Gems' exhibition at the Moshe Safdie-designed ArtScience Museum in Singapore.

Page upon sumptuous page of historical jewels display the height of the French house's rich, curious and gorgeously offbeat approach to precious metals and stones. Among the most wondrous are the objet designs of the early 20th century – a carved jade pillbox, gold champagne swizzle, and a quartz and onyx nightlight among them. They are interspersed among more recognisable Van Cleef jewellery designs, such as diamond ribbon collars, clips and cuffs, and figurative pieces.

Gold, pearls, jade, coral, emeralds, rock crystal and diamonds are just some of the rare minerals and gemstones linking natural scientific processes to over a century of exceptional creative interpretation.

Overall, The Art & Science of Gems, with the French National Museum of History as a partner, does much to illuminate the deep cultural seam that renders high jewellery design such an extraordinary art form. At the same time, it once again highlights Van Cleef & Arpels as the most cerebral of the Place Vendôme jewellers.

INFORMATION

The Art & Science of Gems, $75, published by Editions Xavier Barral. For more information, visit the Van Cleef & Arpels website

Architect-designers Patrick Jouin and Sanjit Manku have been defining the architectural character of the legendary French jewellery maison Van Cleef & Arpels since 2006, at the behest of the house’s president and creative director Nicolas Bos. This month, the ambition of this unique decade-long collaboration moves up a gear: a new flagship Van Cleef & Arpels boutique has just been unveiled at Place Vendôme, Paris, while the Jouin-Manku designed exhibition 'Van Cleef & Arpels – the Art of Science and Gems' opens at Singapore’s ArtScience museum.

We took a quick jaunt to Paris find out more about what makes their unique, decade-long partnership tick...

What sets the Jouin-Manku vision of modernity apart?
Nicolas Bos: I’d say that it is in the way Sanjit and Patrick have a strong signature but yet they don’t feel the need to apply that straight away. Here there are unexpected and different materials, colours and shapes that we did not use in previous boutiques.

Which design codes did you pick to reflect the evolution of Van Cleef & Arpels?
Sanjit Manku: There is almost no paint in this boutique. Instead we have focused on stone, cloth and wood: a 21st century stone with a unique identity; smoked oak, velvet cord on the walls, gold leaf and a soft colour palette. Our last Place Vendôme store for VCA made more use of wood and plaster. Sometimes we just do what we feel and add extra codes as we go. There is sequencing here, for instance: the front door leads to the staircase. We have to create chapters then, so as you move through, you get pulled in deeper.

Tell us about the starting point of your idea for the new boutique design?
Patrick Jouin: We designed it in a way that you can feel but you can’t see; approaching it as someone who knows nothing about Van Cleef & Arpels so that they have entered that world in the first few steps. There is an approach to identity that is specifically to provoke. Our design is an in-between mix – historical, modern and new – but without being ironic.

It sounds like the perfect mix…
PJ: When you push the door you want to feel the history but then open to something modern. Luxury 10 years ago was all about branding – now it is all about quality. Because the Place Vendôme is a fusion of military and luxury – that’s its history – it results in a kind of emptiness and that made us decide to design the boutique like a domestic house. The tradition was reflected in our use of hard stone –the creamy, chalky limestone known as ‘the Stone of Paris’, which we reinterpreted it with the spirit of Van Cleef. So, when you walk in to the boutique, that vestibule leads you to grander floors; like the entrance to another world.

Do you create a master plan and adapt the design to suit different territories?
SM: We could replicate what we have done before in cities across the globe but when we design a new boutique we want to give people an individual gift. The atmosphere here is important and it’s our job is to create a feeling; to make people feel a certain way when they step out of the Place Vendôme and into the boutique.

How do you overcome the restrictions of light and scale to create new ways of displaying jewellery?
PJ: The expression of VCA pushes the limits of savoir-faire in everything. They have a rich culture; our job is to develop that culture.

SM: It takes energy and purpose to build to this spec, so it does not make sense to make the boutique a museum of VCA.

NB: Harmony. The starting point is scale. We are not selling handbags or clothes. Jewellery is small – the whole environment must serve that but still be harmonious and consistent. The idea is to create something strong and memorable without obvious factors. The private salon is like the family jeweller; personal – a democratic environment. We don’t want to impose a forest of contours and windows on them, so here we have neutral tones; soft shapes. It’s subtle; it’s the spirit of the house. This is a store; it’s a special store for the people who come here to make it their space.

As originally featured in the May 2016 issue of Wallpaper* Time Supplement (W*206)

INFORMATION

For more information, visit the Van Cleef & Arpels website

Jouin Manku Studio has further strengthened its creative partnership with Van Cleef & Arpels by re-imagining the French maison's New York boutique. The Paris-based studio has designed three major exhibitions for the Place Vendôme jeweller over the past five years in Tokyo, New York and Paris, taking jewellery exhibition design to a whole new level while it was at it. The design for this boutique - a Fifth Avenue landmark since the 1940s - mirrors the curved glass domes used to display the jewels in these retrospectives. But while the exhibitions featured dark velvet rooms and clever lighting, the new store's shiny brass fittings, creamy yellow palette and focus on natural light ensure the airy feeling of a contemporary New York townhouse.

ADDRESS

Van Cleef & Arpels
744 Fifth Avenue
New York, NY 10019
United States

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Watch marques are prone to re-issuing their classic models with new design ticks. At last week's Salon International de la Haute Horlogerie (SIHH) in Geneva - the first major watch fair of the year - the reappearance of Van Cleef & Arpels' 'Cadenas' watch (French for 'padlock') made a welcome return.

Created in 1935, the Cadenas is a shining example of hardware as high jewellery. But it's always hard to improve on a design classic, a challenge that Van Cleef & Arpels' CEO and creative director Nicolas Bos was faced with when he and his team sat down to re-imagine the bracelet-watch for 2015. 

'It has nothing to do with what we know as traditional watch design,' he says. 'We have a heritage of creating bold, innovative objects; transformable jewels, such as our 1950s Zip necklace, which can be deconstructed into several pieces,' says Bos. 'For 2015 we tried to alter the angle of the Cadenas' dial, but then we realised the watch was too difficult to read.' 

As Bos says: 'The Cadenas has a distinctive personality. It doesn't have a round dial and does not sit flat on the wrist.' There is a Cubist influence in its raised faceted case, at odds with the gently curving bracelet. But that geometry is purposeful: the dial was angled to allow women to glance at their wrist without appearing to read the time, a social faux pas in the early 20th century.

'Effectively, we sought to improve the shape of the Cadenas but realised we couldn't,' says Bos. Rather, the team enhanced the watch's readability by enlarging, slightly, its oblong dial and applying 12-hour markers to the crystal cover, making it easier to read. The original double snake chain bracelet remains, as does the hoop of the 'lock', carefully considered to soften the graphic edge of the dial.

The clasp is also updated, with two small ceramic beads inserted to make a more secure fastening. 'We revisited the whole clasp system so that the bracelet makes a satisfying click sound when you fasten it - a technology more in keeping with today,' says Bos. 

Nine new Cadenas models have been launched but the yellow-gold padlock watch with mother-of-pearl dial - which harks back to that simple but brilliant 1930s vision - is the watch that gets our vote as best in show.

Van Cleef & Arpels enlisted long-time collaborators Patrick Jouin and Sanjit Manku to design their exhibition at Les Arts Decoratifs in Paris

Van Cleef & Arpels started working with Paris design agency Jouin Manku six years ago. It was a bold and visionary move for both. The current Van Cleef & Arpels retrospective at Les Arts Decoratifs in Paris clearly shows why.

The thing is, jewellery is notoriously hard to showcase - light shimmying all over the place; intimate scale; intricate forms. And, because the space the museum has dedicated to the exhibition, defined by a high, glass barrel-vaulted roof, is as majestic as one would expect of Paris, Patrick Jouin and Sanjit Manku had their work cut out.

Yet, in making the simple move of suspending a huge, mobile-like sculpture in their signature organic form from the ceiling, the designers have transformed the museum into a new and intimate space, relaxed to the point where you feel naturally inclined to linger longer.

Also, the duo's decision to 'plunge the nave of the museum into the dark' highlights the jewels beautifully, steering the viewer to look at them as mini sculptures from the off. The installation's midnight-blue tones, accented by some seriously clever lighting in varying inky shades, creates a sumptuous, dreamlike feeling.

The showcases - light-filled tubes, wall-mounted glass 'pebbles' - are another beautifully played out visual trick and are so adept at displaying jewellery that you can't but look at it differently.

Then, of course, there are the 400 jewels themselves - ranging from 1906, there are one hundred years' worth of brilliant ideas, realised in super-sophisticated forms and materials by the best craftsmen a century had to offer. The accompanying archive documents, films and drawings also shine a new light on an eon of great change.

So, not only have they succeeded in paying homage to the intensely creative nature of Van Cleef & Arpels, Jouin and Manku have also raised high jewellery to its rightful place as art, a design genre worthy of extensive exhibitions in the world's finest museums. Do not miss it.

The showcases - light-filled tubes, wall-mounted glass 'pebbles' - are another beautifully played out visual trick and are so adept at displaying jewellery that you can't but look at it differently

ADDRESS

Van Cleef & Arpels started working with Paris design agency Jouin Manku six years ago. It was a bold and visionary move..

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It's not often that we feel excited at the prospect of going back to school but when the teacher is Van Cleef & Arpels and the curriculum promises 'an education in taste and visual appreciation', our pencils are sharpened and at the ready. Add to that the fact that classes take place in an 18th-century townhouse on the place Vendôme, Paris, and, naturally, we want to be first in line and top of the class.

Today, Van Cleef & Arpels' school of jewellery - L'École Van Cleef & Arpels - opens its gilded doors for the very first time. Aimed at makers, connoisseurs and those just simply keen to get an 'intellectual and emotional grasp of the soul of jewellery through personal experience', the school will uncover the notoriously secretive world of fine-jewellery via a non-technical curriculum of classes, which will be taught in English as well as French.

That one of the oldest and most revered fine-jewellery maisons in the world is preparing to share a century's worth of knowledge, skill, craft and creative thinking is not only a truly generous endeavor but also something of a shock: fine-jewellery houses are fiercely protective of their patented techniques and distinctive design ticks, not least because they are a long time in the making and are the fundamental characteristics that distinguish one house's style from another's.

But Van Cleef & Arpels takes its role as an 'ardent defender of the artistic crafts' most seriously indeed. Hence it feels a genuine duty to share its knowledge to others with a 'shared love of beauty'.

Highlights of the course include a rare insight into Van Cleef & Arpels' brilliantly conceived micro mechanisms, such as 'mystery' setting, where gems appear invisibly set so that the metal clasps to which they are attached do not show. Also under the microscope will be the iconic 'Zip' necklace, directly inspired by the early 20th century invention of a 'continuous clothing clasp' that we have all since taken for granted but that Van Cleef revisited as a magnificent jewelled modular necklace in the 1950s (it can be worn open as a necklace or zipped closed and removed to function as a bracelet).

There are three modules and seven classes to choose from and there's also the added extra of learning the essence of savoir-fare from the masters.

A quick guide to the L'École Van Cleef & Arpels jewellery course
Each course chapter represents a single class and prices start at 600 euros. The first two levels are flexible and participants can sign up for one or more classes. In order to proceed to Level 3, students must have taken two classes out of each of the previous categories. It's a three-step curriculum:

Step 1: Unveiling
Chapter 1: Stories and Inspirations
Chapter 2: Interpreting the Gemstones
Chapter 3: Jewellery Mix and Match

Step 2: Shedding light on
Chapter 1: Symbol and Power of Jewels
Chapter 2: Admiring Uniqueness and Team Craftsmanship

Step 3: Revealing
Chapter 1: Entering the Van Cleef &
Arpels universe
Chapter 2: Accessing Van Cleef &
Arpels creations