Nowadays, amidst all the waitlists and derivative designs, it can feel as though true creativity is valued less and less in the watch world. Indeed, the pessimists among us might go so far as to say that inspiration has become nothing more than a marketing concept, much like the idea of ‘Luxury” itself. Those inclined to such a view have likely never seen what the masters at Van Cleef & Arpels are capable of.

In a continuation of their release earlier this year, featuring a broad demonstration of the métiers d’art, Van Cleef & Arpels’ expands their Poetic Complications and Extraordinary Dials collections. As an aside, it’s a bit humorous to describe either of these collections as the “Poetic” one or the “Extraordinary” one because, frankly, they are both poetic and extraordinary.

Visually, the Lady Arpels Brise D’Été Watch is a successor to the critically acclaimed Lady Arpels Heures Florales, as both share a similar motif of summer flowers and fluttering butterflies. Technically, they’re quite different, as the Lady Arpels Brise D’Été is a little less mechanically complex — though equally charming. The plique-à-jour butterflies on the dial serve as retrograde markers for hours and minutes most of the time, but when the on-demand animation at eight is activated, the wings of these beautiful creatures flutter to life, and on top of that, the flowers and stems themselves sway, as if moved by a summer breeze. It’s an ingenious use of watchmaking prowess and a wonderful example of how Van Cleef & Arpels use both artistic and creative techniques to tell stories of the poetry of time.

Movement: Self-winding mechanical movement featuring an automaton module
Functions: Retrograde hours and minutes, on-demand animation
Case: 38-mm case in white gold, diamonds
Dial: Mother-of-pearl, tsavorite and spessartite garnets, mother-of-pearl,
miniature painting, plique-à-jour, champlevé and vallonné enamel
Strap: Self-interchangeable alligator leather bracelet

The Lady Arpels Jour Nuit arrives in two new variations, one in 38mm white gold and one in 33mm. A rotating disk which serves as the backdrop to the dial features sun and moon ornamentations and glides along over the course of 24 hours. Combined with diamond set stars and aventurine glass, the watches are incredibly elegant, if slightly traditional in their overall impact. As these are both more formal timepieces, that is certainly not a bad thing – the two are simply stunning.

Movement: Self-winding mechanical movement featuring a Day/Night module
Functions: Hours, minutes, day/night indicator
Case: 38-mm case in white gold, diamonds
Dial: Aventurine glass, mother-of-pearl, white gold, yellow gold, diamonds, yellow sapphires
Strap: Self-interchangeable alligator leather bracelet

Movement: Self-winding mechanical movement featuring a Day/Night module
Functions: Hours, minutes, day/night indicator
Case: 33-mm case in white gold, diamonds
Dial: Aventurine glass, mother-of-pearl, white gold,
yellow gold, diamonds
Strap: Self-interchangeable alligator leather bracelet

Where things really begin to get interesting, if not outright wild, is with the Lady Arpels Jour Enchanté and Lady Arpels Nuit Enchanté watches. The former, sunny version is an absolute kaleidoscope of ornamentation, technique and whimsy. Within the 41mm white gold case, the wearer gazes into an enchanting scene where a white gold fairy is seen gathering flowers under the resplendent rays of the sun. The Nuit Enchanté offers a nocturnal take on natural beauty, offering a view of the moon inside a rocky crystal cave; the dial is made from rock crystal, diamond and plenty of enamel. The combination of gem setting, sculpture, and three distinct enameling techniques on this pair of watches becomes almost overwhelming the deeper you look.

While scenes of such cornucopian grandeur are certainly not new to Van Cleef & Arpels’ offerings, one of the techniques utilized here is entirely new – the Façonne Enameling, where three-dimensional sculptures of enamel are set like gemstones to form the structure of the flower pedals. Now, when one considers the difficulty and fragility of plique-à-jour enameling (where the enamel is applied to an open frame with no back to bond to) it would seem out right impossible for such an enamel structure to be stable enough to exist.

According to Rainer Bernard, Head of Research and Development for watchmaking at Van Cleef & Arpels, creating three-dimensional sculptures in enamel has long been a dream of the team. “It was always our dream to be able to create 3D objects, little tiny objects, flowers, beads, types of imaginable objects in 3D in enamel, but we didn’t know how.” Thus, over the course of more than two years of intensive work and testing, the entire process for forming, heating, and cooling the enamel had to be rethought.

“The secret is we created a new type of enamel, which is actually a new way to prepare the enamel to be able to be worked. Classical enamel when you work it and when you try to actually take material off by hand, by when you’re grinding, et cetera, it’s very brittle. It will break like glass.” By carefully controlling the heating and cooling of the enamel material, and maintaining specific temperatures for long durations throughout the process, the enamel itself begins to take on new properties. “What we ultimately take out of the oven is a material which can be worked on, and then we use the classic traditional engraving and sculpting techniques that we use for gold because the material now has been prepared in a very specific way. It’s a combination of two crafts.”

Once the sculptures, in this case the flower pedals, are sculpted into the desired shape, they are put back into the oven again and heated to yet another specific temperature to remove and signs of tool markings, resulting in a smooth, candy like finish. It is agonizingly specific work, with only the slightest variations resulting in disaster. “It took us quite a while because you have to master the temperature. If you a couple of degrees off, it doesn’t work. It just shatters.”

Movement: Manual-winding mechanical movement
Functions: Hours, minutes
Case: 41-mm case in white gold, diamonds
Dial: White gold, yellow gold, colored sapphires, spessartites grenats, diamonds, turquoise, plique-à-jour enamel, façonné enamel, setting in enamel, lifted setting
Strap: Self-interchangeable alligator leather bracelet

Movement: Manual-winding mechanical movement
Functions: Hours, minutes
Case: 41-mm case in white gold, diamonds
Dial: White gold, rose gold, sapphires, rock crystal, diamonds, grisaille, plique-à-jour and façonné enamel
Strap: Self-interchangeable alligator leather bracelet