Van Cleef Watches

Description

Le Pont des Amoureux is the latest installment of the Poetic Complications line, which began with the Lady Arpels models introduced in 2006 in honor of the company?s centenary. Jean-Marc Wiederrecht, the watchmaker behind these complicated yet poetic mechanics, explains that his collaboration with Van Cleef & Arpels began in 2003 with a complex men?smodel. It was only for the celebratory timepieces of 2006 that he was entrusted with the task of creating the Lady Arpels Centenaire model. ?This is the fi rst Van Cleef & Arpels watch forwhich one used the expression ?poetic watch?,? he explains.The themes presented in each timepiece derive from the high-jewelry collections, the phenomenal pieces with which Van Cleef & Arpels made its name and for which the company primarily remains known to this day. Using the theme of the four seasons, Wiederrecht created a dial making one slow rotation lasting a full year. ?This creates the poetic impression of a dial turning almost imperceptibly,? explains Louis de Meckenheim, the marketing and product manager for watches at Van Cleef & Arpels. The 2006 Lady Arpels Centenaire timepiece is fitted with a fixed white mother-of-pearl base that hides the lower part of the dial and makes the entrance of the miniature seasonal gardens rotating leisurely over a 365-day period match the actual season dramatics. The motifs of the departing season are progressively hidden by the base. Van Cleef & Arpels and Wiederrecht chose to use Jaeger-LeCoultre?s caliber 849 as the base for this novel concept. ?The module comprises an annual calendar disc, the wheels, the connection for the setting of the upper enamel disc turning at the rate of one rotation in 365.25 days, and the medium for the date correction,? Wiederrecht explains. This white-gold model is additionally set with diamonds for even more emotion ? though it is hardly necessary given the aesthetics of the four scenes that include stylized butterfl ies, Roses, snowflakes, and dragonflies. The poetic idea of the endless parade that portrays time through the seasonal changes is put into tangible hand-wound mechanics by Wiederrecht. ?It was necessary to optimize the functions of the movement: Jaeger-LeCoultre?s caliber 849, a 9-ligne extra-flat movement [with a height of 1.85mm], does not provide much additional torque to drive the complication. The result we obtained, however, is excellent, and the loss of power reserve is extremely minimal [with a maximum of one hour].? The breathtaking concept became a popular one, not only for its easily understood mechanics, but also for the fact that the enamel dials allowed for cultivated aesthetics making each model unique. ?In effect, it is the dial that is the determining factor at Van Cleef & Arpels,? explains Dominique Baron, the gifted master enameler whom Van Cleef & Arpels collaborates with on the Poetic Complications. ?The creations by Van Cleef & Arpels effectively give another dimension to time because its representation across the Poetic Complication watches is, above all, an aesthetic one, approaching more of an artistic oeuvre telling a story that one wears on the wrist rather than a watch.?