When celebrating its centenary in 2006, Van Cleef & Arpels caused a sensation with the launch of the Poetic Complications™ collection. It upended the traditional codes of contemporary watchmaking by offering watches –destined first and foremost for women – that tell a story not only via their decoration but also through their mechanism… in an extraordinarily discreet manner. By means of complications, developed exclusively for Van Cleef & Arpels, these poetic dials - entirely worthy of the brand’s heritage - spring to life in unexpected ways. So it was that the Lady Arpels Pont des Amoureux, introduced four years after the collection’s launch, astounded audiences with its extraordinary creativity. A reminder that the founding of Van Cleef & Arpels stemmed from the marriage of Estelle Arpels and Alfred Van Cleef, it depicts two lovers meeting on the Pont des Arts in Paris. A man and a woman move towards the middle of the bridge – the former in step with the minutes and the latter with the hours – before instantly returning in opposite directions. Their fleeting encounters take place just twice a day, at noon and at midnight. The retrograde display system behind this animation represents an impressive feat. The figures had to be integrated into the mechanism instead of the customary hands, while ensuring that the additional weight would in no way disturb the regularity of its operation. The nocturnal backdrop to the figures and bridge, all relief sculpted in white gold, stems from another innovation, albeit this time purely decorative. Van Cleef & Arpels cultivates artistic crafts in watchmaking as assiduously as it does their counterparts in jewellery, and in this instance has used a modern interpretation of grisaille enamel that was created specially for the occasion. Against a perfectly smooth black enamel background, white blanc de Limoges is applied, playing with different thicknesses to produce contrast and hand-drawing fine lines with a needle. Van Cleef & Arpels returned to the Lady Arpels Pont des Amoureux in 2019. Once again, the woman glides slowly across the bridge towards the rendezvous while her beau crosses his half in 60 minutes. This time, however, Van Cleef & Arpels has included an on-demand module: a press of the pusher in the caseband brings the two lovers together at any moment. What began as a single watch became a collection with the introduction of the Lady Arpels Pont des Amoureux Jour in pink gold set with diamonds. The dial, in coloured enamel, depicts Paris by day. Both models are proposed with an interchangeable gem-set bracelet. Expanding on this romantic theme, four other versions show the four seasons on miniature-painted enamel dials, with a sculpted gold bridge. In addition to retrograde movements, Poetic Complications™ encompass 24-hour movements (disks rotating in 24 hours), ‘seasonal’ calendars (disks rotating in one year), movements with automatons, striking mechanisms and, since 2017, an ultra-sophisticated three-dimensional automaton movement. Each in its own way gives life to dreamy tableaux, designed to tell the ever more impressive stories of Van Cleef & Arpels.

• Poetic Complication™: retrograde display, exclusively developed for Van Cleef & Arpels • Grisaille enamel dial base, crafted using an innovative modern technique