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Van Cleef & Arpels: Poetry in Paris

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January 2009


VanCleefArpels

Une Journée à Paris – twenty-four hours in the that city of cities, Paris, the city of lights. Imagine meandering through Paris and seeing the sun rise in the Jardin de Tuileries, then at midday making your way to the Ile de la Cité and catch the sun shining through the rose window of Notre Dame, followed by some serious window-shopping in the boutiques of Avenue Montaigne and an early evening trip to the Eiffel Tower to see the extraordinary play of lights on this remarkable structure. From there it’s off to the Opera and a ballet followed by a leisurely walk around the Place Vendôme.
Tiring? Hardly because Van Cleef & Arpels has created a fabulous timepiece, a Poetic Complication that does that very journey for you over a 24-hour cycle. It is a highly creative complication that manages to combine haut horlogerie with a romantic escapade through some of Paris’ most symbolic settings.
The black onyx disc serves as the backdrop for this twenty-four hour cycle on which seven feminine silhouettes and a child are overlaid accompanied by poetic illustration of the places they visit that appear punctually from the mother-of-pearl dial and then slowly disappear to reveal the next emblematic visit.
This poetic creation illustrates Van Cleef’s successful development of combining jewellery concepts with the precision of a complicated automatic watch movement. Une Journée à Paris is in 18 carat white gold with a bezel set with round-cut diamonds and a dial in onyx and mother-of-pearl that contrast and play with the notion of shadow and light. This model comes with a white alligator strap. The watch is also available in 18 carat rose-coloured gold that has pink gold silhouettes and a black alligator strap.
Like Ernest Hemingway’s Paris, Van Cleef & Arpels’ Une Journée à Paris is ‘a moveable feast’.


Source: Europa Star December-January 2009 Magazine Issue