Van Cleef & Arpels at Watches and Wonders 2025: A Celebration of Love, Art, and Mechanical Excellence

At Watches and Wonders 2025, prestigious Parisian Maison Van Cleef & Arpels has once again captivated the watchmaking world with an enchanting collection that beautifully fuses craftsmanship, artistry, and technical innovation. This year, the Maison draws inspiration from its birthplace, Paris, and pays homage to the City of Love, unveiling a series of exquisite timepieces and automata. 

A Tribute to Paris: The Pont des Amoureux Collection

The Pont des Amoureux collection, a symbol of romantic storytelling through time, is a long-time signature of the Maison. First unveiled in 2010, this collection has undergone several reinterpretations, with new colour harmonies adding a refreshing depth to the existing designs. 

The collection features a moving scene of a woman and a man on a bridge in Paris, marking the passing hours with retrograde movements. At noon and midnight, the lovers meet for a tender kiss, a moment that seems to suspend time for three minutes before they part ways. This delicate, on-demand animation offers an additional layer of interaction with the watch, allowing the wearer to replay the scene for 12 seconds at will.

This year, four new variations of the Lady Arpels Pont des Amoureux feature precious bracelets set with diamonds and sapphires, enriching the romantic narrative by depicting the couple in scenic moments of the day. These moments are symbolised through dials with colour gradients that evoke dawn, morning, dusk, and moonlight. Grisaille enamel techniques, along with gold sculpting, enhance the depth and dimension of the designs, particularly the finely detailed bridge. 

These pieces are powered by a self-winding mechanical movement, which incorporates a double retrograde mechanism and an on-demand animation feature, as mentioned above. 

The Lady Arpels Pont des Amoureux Aube is presented in rose gold, with a dial that features grisaille enamel and a colour gradient representing dawn, enhanced by a bracelet set with diamonds and pink sapphires. The Lady Arpels Pont des Amoureux Matinée, in white gold, has a dial painted in grisaille enamel with a morning colour gradient; it is paired with a bracelet of diamonds and sapphires. 

The Lady Arpels Pont des Amoureux Soirée is presented in rose gold, with a dusk-inspired dial in grisaille enamel, and its bracelet features diamonds and pink sapphires. Lastly, the Lady Arpels Pont des Amoureux Clair de Lune, in white gold, features a moonlit dial, and its bracelet is adorned with diamonds and sapphires, further elevating the magical atmosphere of the scene. 

All in all, these models retain the Maison’s signature Poetic Complication, with a technical design that incorporates intricate details, including gold sculpting and enamel techniques.

A Fresh Chapter: The Lady Arpels Bal des Amoureux Automate

Continuing the romantic narrative of the Pont des Amoureux, Van Cleef & Arpels has introduced the Lady Arpels Bal des Amoureux Automate watch, which transports the lovers into the joyful atmosphere of a Parisian guinguette. The watch features an intricate automaton movement, where the couple meets and kisses at noon and midnight. As with the previous collection, the on-demand animation allows for a personal replay of this romantic moment.

The watch’s dial depicts a whimsical scene of Paris, with festive lanterns and cobblestone streets in white gold, carefully crafted to evoke a sense of depth using five distinct planes. The technique of grisaille enamel (a traditional method used by the Maison) adds to the charm, creating a chiaroscuro effect that recalls a starry night. 

This watch is also powered by a self-winding mechanical movement, which incorporates a double retrograde complication as well as the on-demand animation mechanism that allows the figures to approach and kiss, powered by the newly developed movement. This new movement was the result of four years of meticulous development by Van Cleef & Arpels' watchmaking experts. The figures move with realistic, fluid gestures, thanks to three articulated points that allow their arms to lower naturally.

The Lady Arpels Bal des Amoureux Automate features a white gold case set with diamonds, complementing the magical display. The bracelet of this piece is also enhanced with diamonds and sapphires, while the dial showcases a scene brought to life by grisaille enamel and the intricate automaton mechanism that creates a lifelike encounter between the figures.

Extraordinary Objects: Time Meets Art

Van Cleef & Arpels’ fascination with artistic timepieces extends beyond watches into the realm of Extraordinary Objects. These creations combine the magic of art with intricate mechanics, offering a unique way to contemplate time. The Naissance de l’Amour automaton and the Planétarium automaton are prime examples, showcasing the Maison’s expertise in combining high jewellery and mechanics to create breathtakingly beautiful objects.

The Naissance de l’Amour Automaton, a 30 cm tall creation, features a figure of Cupid, emerging from a basket of feathers and fluttering its enamel wings to a carillon melody. The mechanism is powered by a manual-winding mechanical movement, which operates the figure’s ascent and descent, while a rotating ring indicates the time with lacquered feathers accented with diamonds. The automaton is crafted from a blend of white gold, rose gold, diamonds, iron eye, and petrified palmwood, with time displayed through a combination of rotating feathers and gemstone-encrusted accents.

The Planétarium Automaton is a grand piece that celebrates the celestial beauty of our solar system. It features the Sun surrounded by planets that move at their actual speeds, including Mercury, Venus, Earth, Mars, Jupiter, and Saturn. The planets orbit the Sun, and a shooting star appears on demand to indicate the time. This extraordinary object is powered by a manual-winding mechanical movement, with 11 modules, including a perpetual calendar and a 15-day power reserve indicator. The materials used in the Planétarium include rose, white, and yellow gold, rubies, sapphires, diamonds, and exotic stones such as lapis lazuli and jet.

The Cadenas and Ruban Mystérieux Watches

Van Cleef & Arpels also brings forward a selection of jewels that tell time, continuing the tradition of creating watches that combine discreet time-telling with the elegance of fine jewellery. Two standout pieces are the Cadenas and Ruban Mystérieux watches, each showcasing the Maison’s artistry and technical prowess.

The Cadenas Watch, first created in 1935, reinterprets the design of a padlock with a fluid double snake chain bracelet. The dial is discreetly positioned on the inside of the wrist, allowing the wearer to “peek at the time”. This new edition features a yellow gold bracelet and a snow-set diamond case, complemented by a row of sapphires on the clasp. The watch is powered by a Swiss quartz movement, maintaining the piece’s understated elegance while ensuring precision.

The Ruban Mystérieux Watch captures the delicate essence of a ribbon gracefully enveloping the wrist. At its heart, a 3.72-carat oval-cut DIF diamond reveals the time through a hand-wound mechanical movement. The piece features diamonds, sapphires, emeralds, and the Maison’s signature Mystery Set technique, wherein the gemstones are set invisibly, adding a seamless fluidity to the design.

Van Cleef & Arpels’ 2025 collection at Watches and Wonders exemplifies the Maison's commitment to blending watchmaking excellence with artistic storytelling. Through intricate movements, beautiful craftsmanship, and poetic design, these timepieces elevate the concept of time to an extraordinary art form.