Van Cleef & Arpels has long been enamoured with the world of dance; the poetic movements and elegant lines of ballerinas have inspired myriad pieces, from their famous ballerina clips, which were first created in the 1940s, through to more recent creations, like the Lady Arpels Ballerine Echantée, which debuted in 2013. This year, VC&A continue to tell the story of dance with the impossibly sweet and surprisingly technical Van Cleef & Arpels Lady Arpels Nutcracker Watch.

This creation is, unsurprisingly, inspired by Marius Petipa’s Casse-Noisette, or Nutcracker, a ballet scored by Tchaikovsky and based on the German fairytale, The Nutcracker and the Mouse King. This watch, limited to three pieces, displays a scene from the second act, set in the Land of Sweets, where the ballerina and her prince beautifully realised with rose-cut diamond faces and finely painted; she in her blue-sashed pale dress and him in his military finery. These two figures dance against a complex and compelling confectionary backdrop. Candies and sweets are created with exceptional metiers d’art techniques. There are over 70 colours realised on the dial of this watch. The disc-like candies are embedded in sealed enamel discs, shaped in a technique pioneered by VC&A known as façonné enamel. A rainbow of ornamental stones decorates the dial, including coloured sapphires, blue tourmalines, sugilite, onyx, and of course, diamonds. A swathe of brilliant stones in the foreground stands out from the dial, which when combined with the riot of colours and textures utilised on the rest of the dial, results in compelling scene of surprising depth.

Van Cleef & Arpel’s tagline is ‘The Poetry of Time’, and it’s something they take seriously. Other brands tell stories about innovation or technique first and foremost. For Van Cleef & Arpels, the story comes first, and the innovation (such as the new types of enamelling) and technique (which is very clearly on display in every inch of this watch) are in service of that beautiful, captivating story.