Lady Arpels Jour Nuit Fée Ondine

A dial that rotates once in 24 hours, now a well-known system at Van Cleef & Arpels, brings to life this Lady Arpels Jour Nuit Fée Ondine which gives pride of place to the artistic crafts of gem-setting, naturally, but also engraving, champlevé and plique-à-jour enamel, as well as miniature painting. Each detail has been thoughtfully studied and executed to portray different moments in Ondine's day through the sun and moon. Varying in intensity from hour to hour, the water reveals its secrets in translucent plique-à-jourenamel. This technique creates a remarkable transparency, thanks to which Ondine's leg can be seen, dipped in the cool water, as can the heavenly orb that continues its course beneath the surface. The sun in yellow sapphires and the diamond moon thus echo one another on either side of the horizon, against a sky of hand-painted mother-of-pearl.