Known for its artistic flair and exquisite designs, Van Cleef & Arpels launched novelties that included complicated timepieces exhibiting the brand's watchmaking skills. 'To have a Van Cleef & Arpels watch is to experience time through romanticism,' said Benjamin Vuchot, the brand's Asia-Pacific president, at the SIHH presentation earlier this year.
Looking to the aesthetics of the California landscape, the delicate art of Japanese lacquer and the romance of a midnight rendezvous for inspiration, the new timepieces evoke a sense of tranquillity and nostalgia in accordance with the brand's chosen theme for this year - Poetry of Time.
The two most memorable novelties - Le Pont des Amoureux and Butterfly Symphony come from the Poetic Complications collection and make use of the retrograde movement as a design element.
Le Pont des Amoureux, one of the highlights at this year's fair, features on its dial a scene in which two lovers are standing on each side of a bridge under a moonlit sky. The retrograde hours function on the left causes the woman to move forward one step every hour, while the man on the right progresses towards the centre of the bridge with the help of the retrograde minutes function. The couple finally come together at midnight and enjoy a full minute sharing a kiss before the retrograde functions send them back to opposite sides of the bridge.
According to Van Cleef & Arpels vice-president and creative director Nicolas Bos, this watch 'embodies the best of both worlds - high jewellery and fine watchmaking'.
'Le Pont des Amoureux is a tremendous watchmaking work of art,' he says. 'Thanks to the mechanical retrograde movement developed specifically for Van Cleef & Arpels by one of the most talented contemporary master watchmakers, Jean-Marc Wiederrecht, the movement allows the two lovers to meet and kiss on the romantic Parisian bridge.'