EFFUSIVE ZEPHYR
In keeping with the delicate poetry of its timepieces, the Parisian company breathes a light summer zephyr out into the blooming garden and the butterflies on the dial of one of its timepieces.
Reawakening a childhood memory, of a walk in a clearing, bare feet sunk in the mossy green carpet, eyes riveted to the sky, capturing it as one would with a camera and then transcribing it, with unprecedented delicacy, onto the face of a watch. Van Cleef & Arpels doesn’t just create timepieces: it keeps hold of time, infusing it with the poetry of a moment to be preserved like a sacred treasure, a moment borrowed from nature like the light breath of a zephyr inviting itself into a garden to make tall grasses quiver, wild flowers dance and butterflies twirl. The exceptional Lady Arpels Brise d’Été bears witness to the beauty of a landscape in motion.
To create this marvelous rural tableau, the Parisian company drew on the talent of the craftsmen and women who work in its Geneva workshops, combining different enameling techniques – plique-à-jour, vallonné and champlevé – with miniature painting and gem-setting, which, in addition to rich hues, confer translucency, brilliance and relief for a striking realism. Two lepidopterans, with blue or yellow wings, follow a graduated arc to indicate the hours. A simple press on the lever located at 8 o’clock on the 38mm-diameter white gold case middle stimulates them to perform a circular movement, while the blue flowers undulate in an imaginary wind. This spectacular animation is made possible by an automaton module grafted onto the self-winding movement responsible for setting the rhythm of the time display.
