The CEO of Van Cleef & Arpels, Catherine Rénier, and the head of research and development for watchmaking, Rainer Bernard, speak to us about the Maison’s latest Watches and Wonders showcase.
Every year, Van Cleef & Arpels takes part in Watches and Wonders, the world’s most extensive luxury watch exhibition in Geneva. The event gathers the most illustrious watchmaking brands from around the globe to present their latest innovative techniques, designs and latest timepieces. At Watches and Wonders, brand pavilions are not just spaces to display an array of products but also a space for Maisons such as Van Cleef & Arpels to create enchanting narratives while paying homage to the savoir-faire heritage that serves as the foundational element for forward-thinking innovation.
Canvas speaks to Catherine Rénier and Rainer Bernard about this year’s showcase, entitled Poetry of the Heavens, which saw Van Cleef & Arpels unveil new timepieces: the Midnight Jour Nuit Phase de Lune, inspired by the phases of the moon in the Jour Nuit Collection, as well as two new watches in the Extraordinary Dials collection. Also showcased were the Midnight Heure d’ici and Midnight Heure d’ailleurs, the Ludo Secret watch, which combines a bracelet design from the 1930s with a technical mechanism from the 1940s, the elegant and understated Perlée timepiece and the vibrant Lady Rencontre Céleste and Lady Retrouvailles Célestes.
Canvas: Love stories feature prominently in both new watches in the Extraordinary Dials collection, the Lady Rencontre Céleste and Lady Retrouvailles Célestes. They tell the tale of Vega and Altair (or Niulang and Zhinu). How did you visually interpret a love story in two watches?
Rainer Bernard: First, there is the meeting and the blooming of their love, with Lady Rencontre Céleste, in a medley of blue, because they meet on Earth at night. After being separated by the Goddess of Heaven, who drew the Milky Way between them, the lovers meet again with the help of a celestial bridge created by birds, in the Lady Retrouvailles Célestes, in a universe built out of 13 layers, in glittering tones of pink and mauve. These creations highlight the métiers d’art mastered internally by the Maison in the watchmaking workshops in Geneva, which give depth and dimension. It allows us to interpret different feelings and narrate our stories.
How did you select the perfect material to interpret this narrative in these high-art pieces?
Catherine Rénier: Each of our Extraordinary Dials watches stages a scene in miniature, telling a story with as much relief as possible. The métiers d’art are brought together within the composition to ensure the legibility of each motif. For the Lady Rencontre and Lady Retrouvailles Célestes, we chose métiers d’art that are singular to Van Cleef & Arpels, among them enamel, in several forms. Plique-à-jour enamel lends certain elements a light, airy quality reminiscent of the cosmos and its starry nebulae. This technique allows us to layer colours and give birth to new nuances through transparency.
This collection feels both technically advanced and emotionally soft. What role does experimentation play in the Maison’s workshop?
CR: For each new piece, we chose métiers d’art that are particular to Van Cleef & Arpels, with the expertise of the Maison’s craftsmen and their ability to work within very fine thicknesses and small dimensions. Our internal enamel workshop, settled inside our watchmaking ateliers in Geneva, continually innovates to develop new techniques, such as setting in enamel, while perfecting those already mastered. It is this combination of savoir-faire that gives the dials their depth. They hold a vast palette of established tones, drawn from all the stories the Maison has told. The Creation Studio has a full colour chart at its disposal.
There is also an entire process of colour development specific to each project: new mixes can be created and new tones developed. The joint role of the creative and technical teams is to harmonise these colours, to find a balance between what was envisioned, what was drawn and what is technically possible. It is a constant exchange, during which the enamel workshop proposes colour trials that the Creation Studio compares and pairs with other materials as the piece requires. Developing new tones is a gradual process of exploring new possibilities. Beyond colour, Van Cleef & Arpels also works on texture, which further serves the story told by the dial, through enamels with sparkling finish, mother-of-pearl, varying degrees of transparency or colour gradients.
What exciting new techniques or features will be unveiled by the Maison at Watches and Wonders this year?
RB: For this edition of Watches and Wonders, we are launching six novelties, each expressing in their own way the watchmaking philosophy of Van Cleef & Arpels, called the Poetry of Time. One of them is the Midnight Jour Nuit Phase de Lune, within the Jour Nuit collection. This watch took us four years of research and development to combine two complications: the Jour Nuit 24h display and the moon phase, thanks to the joint operation of two rotating discs, each moving at its own pace. The key challenge here lies in developing the on-demand animation, which allows you to ask for the moon during daytime, a time of the day when the moon is normally hidden. This can be done without modifying the actual moon phase. Of course, it took us a while to find a technical system that would allow it.
How do you balance innovation with emotional sensitivity?
CR: Recent years have been rich in innovation for the watchmaking collections of Van Cleef & Arpels. The Poetic Complications have brought to life stories through entirely new movements. Our automata have celebrated the convergence of art mechanics and High Jewellery, allowing our narratives to unfold on a larger scale. The consistency and continuity that guide our creation are especially important for the Studio’s designers, who must steep themselves in the Maison’s heritage, its archives and its exhibitions. We remain committed to this approach, a narrative vision of watchmaking that moves people through both technical virtuosity and the quality of its decor. We continue to explore the creative possibilities of art mechanics to produce captivating scenes on watches and objects alike.
