Van Cleef & Arpels gets kissy-kissy with the new Lady Arpels Pont des Amoureux watch collection
French luxury jewellers Van Cleef & Arpels has unveiled six new designs of its beloved Lady Arpels Pont des Amoureux watch, which features a pair of lovers who kiss only at noon and midnight – or now at any moment on demand
In the first watch launch since Van Cleef & Arpels left Salon International de la Haute Horlogerie (SIHH), after the annual fair of January 2018, the French maison unveiled six new Pont des Amoureux novelties to represent this passing of time at a special gala in Paris in October.
Van Cleef & Arpels is leaving no morsel of time unexplored with its new collection of Pont des Amoureux timepieces: the design’s mechanised lovers are not only meeting at midnight, as with its 2010 original, but also at midday and across the four seasons. A further addition, the Pont des Amoureux Midnight for men, is scheduled for a later launch.
“When we first designed the [Ponts des Amoureux] it showed one specific location of Paris at night. Actually it's not a specific location but kind of a mix of the bridges. So it's kind of a small fantasy vision of Paris,” says Nicolas Bos, creative director and chief executive officer of Van Cleef & Arpels.
“And now we thought, we would also like to see the passing of time and the passing of seasons; that it would be interesting to see the different colours for day and the different seasons.”
The original Lady Arpels Pont des Amoureux shows a young lady carrying an umbrella and a young man carrying a rose behind his back, making their way across the imaginary Bridge of Lovers. The man’s movement across the dial indicates the minute, while the fairer gender’s movements trace the hour. They meet in the middle at midnight (and midday) and share a tender kiss before the retrograde kicks in and they move back to their places at each side of the dial.
The same replays in the new night edition – also with the white gold casing and diamond bezel – with some subtle changes: the retrograde hour and minute markers are now slightly further apart, allowing the moon to look down at the lovers from higher in the sky.
The day edition takes on a more rosy hue with a rose gold casing and diamond bezel and a pinkish-violet grisaille enamelling dial that shows a different background setting. Both editions come with interchangeable full pave diamond bracelets and alligator leather straps.
Similarly, the four new seasonal editions show the lovers meeting on the same bridge but set against different backgrounds. The Pont des Amoureux Printemps (spring) watch comes in rose gold with a full pave bracelet set with diamonds pink, mauve and purple sapphires. The Eté (summer) version takes on a more yellow hue with a white gold casing and a bracelet of diamonds, yellow sapphires and spessartite garnets.