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Van Cleef & Arpels And Ladies Watches: The Love Story Continues
Posted: 04 Mar 2010 04:43 AM PST
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Four years on from the birth of the highly desirable Poetic Complications series, luxury jeweler Van Cleef & Arpels has held a special event at their exquisite boutique in Place Vendôme, Paris Âto celebrate the release of three new evolutionary additions to this stunning range. We were fortunate enough to receive an invite to attend this exclusive event and we were not disappointed. To put it simply, the new pieces are absolutely breathtaking!
A Special Presentation
The spirit of these new pieces remains the sameÂ: Van Cleef & Arpels is intent on providing women with a new way to observe the passing of time. Timepieces created in a style which has been especially designed for her, and not just a simple variation of an existing model originally designed for men. Laurent Picciotto, founder of Chronopassion and ambassador of the collection, is here to make sure of that. His thoughts on the matter are quite clear, “ForÂtoo long, Switzerland has been misogynous and macho”.
No arguments here.
![]()
In order to achieve this noble ambition, the brand has adopted a slightly different approach from traditional watchmakers. From the beginning, the focus is on design: one doesn’t start from a technical perspective, but instead from a creative idea. Then, they see if it’s realizable.
“Consequently, everything starts in the designer office”, underlines Louis de Meckenheim, Watch Marketing Manager, Van Cleef & Arpels. “The conception starts with jewellers and designers, and then we turn to to the movement makers, to see what is feasible, and what could become an issue”.
The brand offers poetic variations around time, realized through timepieces for which pure technics are pushed into the background. Love, magic, Paris, a starry sky, are just some of the variations of these Poetic Complications, allowing every woman the opportunity to comprehend time according to her own sense of style and sophistication.
And by all accounts the range of customers is quite diverse.
“It would be very difficult for us to define the average standard of our clients. Our youngest have less than 20 yearsÂ!”, smiles the jeweller. “Even if we thought we were offering a single purchase experience to our clients, we see some of them coming year after year to discover what we had created for them as variations around the theme of time”.
Today, Van Cleef & Arpels offers about twenty references in its Poetic Complications range, each presented in limited quantities of around 100 units per year.
![]()
Nevertheless, do not allow yourself to be fooledÂby the stunning beauty of these pieces: whilst the sense of poetry created by each watch remains the focal point, the technical complexity of these pieces is equally as impressive.
A fact that is sure to appeal not only to the lucky owners but also their male counterparts, who often accompany their beloved when they are considering buying a sophisticated watch.
Thus, most of the models presented today, mainly built on an ETA base, include a fly-back complication. However, we are not talking about a flying-back swords here. Not at all! Swords don’t exist in the Poetic Complications world. Here we are talking about magic wands, butterflies, stars and fairy wings. At Van Cleef & Arpels, we don’t just look at the hour, we watch the passing of time. The two are not the same thing at all.
“We wanted to create watches that could go with our clients in their changing vision of time during their life”, analyses de Meckenheim. “Ladies don’t have the same link to time at 30 as they do at 60. Thus, our models are designed to offer different levels of time interpretation, in order to stay in perfect harmony with the life of our clients”.
![]()
Conceptually therefore each client will discover, as the years go by, a multitude of details designed by Van Cleef & ArpelsÂ: from the ruby that will appear only one time per year on a given day in May, to the slightest vibration of the butterflies when hitting the first second of each minute, through to the fleeting kiss of lovers, each watch contains its own hidden secrets waiting to be discovered along the years.
The Final Word
It’s hard not to be completely drawn in by Van Cleef & Arpels presentation of its Poetic Complications. It’s now a mature collection, remarkably made and combining the best qualities of the brand’s jeweller and watchmaker DNA. Each piece offers a unique poetic proposition, encompassing a subtle and rare elegance, with its own personality integrated at the same time into a consistent collection.
So stunningly exquisite that some would ask why women watches have not been designed like this before…
Van Cleef & Arpels And Ladies Watches: The Love Story Continues
Posted: 04 Mar 2010 04:43 AM PST
Four years on from the birth of the highly desirable Poetic Complications series, luxury jeweler Van Cleef & Arpels has held a special event at their exquisite boutique in Place Vendôme, Paris Âto celebrate the release of three new evolutionary additions to this stunning range. We were fortunate enough to receive an invite to attend this exclusive event and we were not disappointed. To put it simply, the new pieces are absolutely breathtaking!
A Special Presentation
The spirit of these new pieces remains the sameÂ: Van Cleef & Arpels is intent on providing women with a new way to observe the passing of time. Timepieces created in a style which has been especially designed for her, and not just a simple variation of an existing model originally designed for men. Laurent Picciotto, founder of Chronopassion and ambassador of the collection, is here to make sure of that. His thoughts on the matter are quite clear, “ForÂtoo long, Switzerland has been misogynous and macho”.
No arguments here.
In order to achieve this noble ambition, the brand has adopted a slightly different approach from traditional watchmakers. From the beginning, the focus is on design: one doesn’t start from a technical perspective, but instead from a creative idea. Then, they see if it’s realizable.
“Consequently, everything starts in the designer office”, underlines Louis de Meckenheim, Watch Marketing Manager, Van Cleef & Arpels. “The conception starts with jewellers and designers, and then we turn to to the movement makers, to see what is feasible, and what could become an issue”.
The brand offers poetic variations around time, realized through timepieces for which pure technics are pushed into the background. Love, magic, Paris, a starry sky, are just some of the variations of these Poetic Complications, allowing every woman the opportunity to comprehend time according to her own sense of style and sophistication.
And by all accounts the range of customers is quite diverse.
“It would be very difficult for us to define the average standard of our clients. Our youngest have less than 20 yearsÂ!”, smiles the jeweller. “Even if we thought we were offering a single purchase experience to our clients, we see some of them coming year after year to discover what we had created for them as variations around the theme of time”.
Today, Van Cleef & Arpels offers about twenty references in its Poetic Complications range, each presented in limited quantities of around 100 units per year.
Nevertheless, do not allow yourself to be fooledÂby the stunning beauty of these pieces: whilst the sense of poetry created by each watch remains the focal point, the technical complexity of these pieces is equally as impressive.
A fact that is sure to appeal not only to the lucky owners but also their male counterparts, who often accompany their beloved when they are considering buying a sophisticated watch.
Thus, most of the models presented today, mainly built on an ETA base, include a fly-back complication. However, we are not talking about a flying-back swords here. Not at all! Swords don’t exist in the Poetic Complications world. Here we are talking about magic wands, butterflies, stars and fairy wings. At Van Cleef & Arpels, we don’t just look at the hour, we watch the passing of time. The two are not the same thing at all.
“We wanted to create watches that could go with our clients in their changing vision of time during their life”, analyses de Meckenheim. “Ladies don’t have the same link to time at 30 as they do at 60. Thus, our models are designed to offer different levels of time interpretation, in order to stay in perfect harmony with the life of our clients”.
Conceptually therefore each client will discover, as the years go by, a multitude of details designed by Van Cleef & ArpelsÂ: from the ruby that will appear only one time per year on a given day in May, to the slightest vibration of the butterflies when hitting the first second of each minute, through to the fleeting kiss of lovers, each watch contains its own hidden secrets waiting to be discovered along the years.
The Final Word
It’s hard not to be completely drawn in by Van Cleef & Arpels presentation of its Poetic Complications. It’s now a mature collection, remarkably made and combining the best qualities of the brand’s jeweller and watchmaker DNA. Each piece offers a unique poetic proposition, encompassing a subtle and rare elegance, with its own personality integrated at the same time into a consistent collection.
So stunningly exquisite that some would ask why women watches have not been designed like this before…
k
