It goes without saying that Van Cleef & Arpels’ jewelry making heritage is a subject thoroughly studied, mulled and obsessed over by jewelry aficionados all around the world. After all, the maison is unequivocally synonymous with some of the most iconic creations and important contributions to jewelry making. Alhambra, the Zip necklace, the Mystery Setting, the Ballerina brooches, La Boutique … These are designs that would stand resolutely on their own even without their prestigious maker’s mark.

Yet over its 119-year history, Van Cleef & Arpels had been crafting more than just jewelry for adornment but numerous types of objets d’arts including timepieces too. Understandably, the maison’s watchmaking journey is somewhat lesser known than its massive accolades in jewelry, although it is by no means any less fascinating to the horology connoisseur. For more than a hundred years, Van Cleef & Arpels has consistently made a wide variety of timepieces for both men and women, a number of which have gone on to inspire modern incarnations today.

A 119-year history of metiers d’art

Through its latest exhibition entitled Van Cleef & Arpels, Precious Jewels Telling Time, the maison gamely chronicles its numerous horological pursuits. It presents an artful narrative that gradually unfurls through the decades beginning from the early 20th century, lasting well into the 21st when it established a definitive presence in contemporary haute horlogerie.

Touch Wood advertisement, circa 1916, Van Cleef & Arpels archives

As Van Cleef & Arpels was founded in 1906, many of its earliest creations naturally aligned with the Art Nouveau style which flourished from the late 1800s to the early 1900s. One of the first items sold by the then-newly established firm was a diamond heart, and among its earliest private commissions was a table ornament featuring the famed Varuna yacht which now resides among the maison’s archives. But even though it had only just started out, as early on as in 1916, Van Cleef & Arpels expressed its unique creative flair and design audacity with the introduction of a collection called Touch Wood combining 18K gold and precious wood. At this point it was already clear that this was a maison that would go on to blaze its own unique path to greatness.

Its enduring relationship with watchmaking also began during this period. Not many know this but Van Cleef & Arpels has consistently produced timepieces since its earliest years, accelerating in range, variety and style with the arrival of the Roaring Twenties. Needless to say, this was the beginning of the Art Deco era, a fabulous period of immense creativity when some of the most expressive designs were born. Helmed by design and artistic director Renée Puissant, daughter of company founders Alfred Van Cleef and Estelle Arpels, the maison firmly embraced the Art Deco aesthetic as it designed countless pieces characterized by geometric and sober patterns.

Van Cleef & Arpels pocket watch in platinum (1926)

Gentlemen’s pocket watch chronograph in platinum (1932)

This was a time when timepieces played a rather different role than it does today. In the early 20th century, watch styles evolved significantly as both technology and fashion changed. Pocket watches were still the dominant style, worn either on a chain or fob, accompanied by waistcoats. Most pocket watches were made in classic round cases — gold, platinum or silver were the popular choices — featuring ornate engravings, enamel work and gem-setting. In addition to pocket watches, chatelaine watches were also deeply favored, featuring a timepiece set on a decorative hook or clasp worn at the waist by women as well as men.

Both pocket and chatelaine watches are readily found in the Van Cleef & Arpels archives, dating back to the 1920s, exquisitely crafted as they balance style with status, and form with functionality. On exhibit at Van Cleef & Arpels’ Precious Jewels Telling Time were two chatelaine watches which united two distinct savoir-faire, watchmaking and jewelry making. Chatelaine watches were extremely popular throughout the 18th and 19th century, although in the years leading up to the 20th century began to steadily decline in usage as people gradually moved on to wristwatches. As seen with these two examples, the maison’s chatelaine watches present geometrical and refined lines that reflect the principles of Art Deco. Their form complemented the streamlined clothing favored by women of that era.

Men’s guichet style pocket watch in platinum (1929)

Pocket watches have also made regular appearances in the Van Cleef & Arpels archives, capturing the style of the times for its wealthy trendy customers. Guichet watches in particular enjoyed good momentum at the maison, their structured, geometric design keeping well in line with the Art Deco sensibilities of the 1920s. Van Cleef & Arpels currently holds at least two examples within its archives, crafted in platinum with proportions that are slim and elegant. In terms of movements, the maison sourced from movement specialists around the Jura region which most definitely includes ultra-thin specialist Piaget.

However the most captivating and fascinating of all its pocket watches is indisputably the one known as the Chinese Magician. Made in 1927, it has a most intriguing design featuring a sitting Chinese figure and two retrograde scales but no hands. Deeply inspired by the Far East, Van Cleef & Arpels created a timepiece that utilized mechanical automata in its time-telling. Formerly referred to as “arms in the air” but now known as double retrograde movement, this mechanism enabled an automaton placed in the middle of the dial to be operated mechanically. By pressing on the winder (a button hidden in the watch’s bezel) the arms of the Chinese magician move along the retrograde displays, briefly presenting the hours on the left and minutes on the right, before they return to the resting position.

Chinese Magician pocket watch (1927) with a yellow gold frame featuring an automaton etched in osmior, set with rubies and emeralds

This double retrograde display for the hours and minutes, as well as the retrograde complication in general, has become one of the maison’s most distinctive features in high watchmaking. It can be seen in many of the maison’s modern day high watchmaking creations such as Pont des Amoureux, Lady Arpels Féerie, Butterfly Symphony and the latest novelty, Bal des Amoureux Automate. In essence, the retrograde complication enabled Van Cleef & Arpels to bring some of its most exquisite ideas to life, and helped pave the way towards the birth of its Poetic Complications collection, which was undoubtedly a major contribution to contemporary high watchmaking, one that opened the door to a world of new possibilities not just for Van Cleef & Arpels but the industry at large.

Pocket watches remained relevant well into the 1930s as the Art Deco era was in full swing, even though wristwatches were beginning to enter the conversation. Ever the aesthete, Van Cleef & Arpels showed immense out-of-the-box thinking as it married timepieces with jewelry while remaining keenly tuned to the style of the times. The 1930s were a fabulous moment for the maison. Its jewelry style was marked by an overlap of unlimited creativity and unrivalled craftsmanship. Icons like the Ludo and the Cadenas were introduced in this decade, so were such ground-breaking techniques as the Mystery Setting. Its timepieces espoused an aesthetic that was perfectly congruous with its jewelry designs.

One of the biggest cultural shifts in watchmaking technology happened between the 1930s and 40s, when timepieces formally migrated from the pocket to the wrist. The impact of two World Wars and the Great Depression threw all of Europe and the USA into a tailspin. But as the global economy made its steady recovery from rock bottom, people also began to view societal roles, practices and customs through a renewed lens.

Where before, watches were exclusively produced for men, now they were considered for women too, except that the style in which they would be created was completely different. Women’s fashion between the 1940s and 50s were defined by ultra-feminine silhouettes with luxurious flourishes. To accompany this look and adapt to social norms of the time that deemed it unseemly for women to check the time openly, jewelers sought to create timepieces that were finely crafted, ultra-elegant, often set with gemstones, and above all, tastefully discreet. So came the return and subsequent rise of an early 19th century invention, secret watches, which as it happens, are a specialty at Van Cleef & Arpels.

Indeed, Van Cleef & Arpels’ secret watches are a hallmark of the maison’s artistry, blending horology with high jewelry in ever more imaginative and poetic ways. These timepieces conceal their dials within beautifully crafted objects, transforming everyday items into wearable works of art. The Cadenas and Ludo secret watches were especially singular and perfectly encapsulate Van Cleef & Arpels’ identity. Bracelet watches with concealed clasps and diamond-paved closures allow the wearer to discreetly read the time, often on extra- small dials powered by extra-small mechanical movements.

Over the years, Van Cleef & Arpels continually honed its jewelry making know-how, extending it to many of its timepieces as well. For instance, pieces from the 1950s showcased the maison’s exquisite craftsmanship with precious metals and diamond setting. One of the most distinctive aspects of all Van Cleef & Arpels creations can be seen in its gem-setting savoir-faire, so carefully and qualitatively executed that hard metals are reminiscent of the softest silk, with brilliant diamonds flowing in organic, flowing curves.

Expressing the high wattage Old Hollywood glamor of the 1950s, many of Van Cleef & Arpels’ creations during this era embraced the opulence of full pavé diamonds on platinum or white gold. The maison also often looked at the world of haute couture for creative inspiration, crafting bracelets resembling feathers and snake chains, or super flexible mesh Tubogas style chains and ornately braided gold cords. 

It is no overstatement that Van Cleef & Arpels truly elevated métiers d’art in watchmaking starting in the early 2000s, culminating in the launch of its iconic Poetic Complications collection in 2006. This marked a pivotal moment when the maison redefined high watchmaking by emphasizing storytelling, artistry, and emotion. Van Cleef & Arpels boldly championed the métiers d’arts, turning the spotlight to hand- enamelling, engraving and guilloché as the hallmarks of haute horlogerie. It reintroduced numerous different styles of enamel painting including lesser known types such as grisaille enamel which effectively saved them from the brink of extinction. This was a salient departure from the purely mechanical feats that dominated traditional horology at that time.

Van Cleef & Arpels Midnight Planétarium Poetic Complication

Before Van Cleef & Arpels coined it, there was no such term as Poetic Complications. High complications either provided an additional function — a chronograph, a repeater or a perpetual calendar — or increased the chronometric performance of a watch (chain and fusée, remontoir d’égalité or tourbillon.) With Poetic Complications, a watch now tells a story, and its complex mechanism exists solely to evoke an emotion.

One of the first Poetic Complication watches was the Lady Arpels Féerie in 2012 which featured a double retrograde mechanism reminiscent of the Chinese Magician pocket watch but certainly with a fresh new iconography. Thereafter, the maison’s repository of double retrograde watches grew steadily, as did the rotating dials series depicting day and night, the four seasons or a beautiful day in Paris. Making frequent appearances in its timepieces are some of the maison’s favorite motifs such as butterflies, flowers, dancers, fairies and the heavenly bodies.

Lady Arpels Féerie (2012)

A casual shot of the Pont des Amoureux housed in the Midnight case, sized at 42mm. The retrograde displays are cast wider and the figures are shorter, with a deep blue background for the grisaille enamel than the Lady Arpels model. (Image by Revolution)

Every Van Cleef & Arpels watch begins with a story, and perhaps its most powerful story of all is that of two lovers on a bridge. The Lady Arpels Pont des Amoureux, first introduced in 2010, was an epic triumph for the maison, marking a proud new milestone as it bagged the maison’s first Grand Prix d’Haute Horlogerie de Genève. It also succeeded in placing Van Cleef & Arpels among the uppermost echelons of haute horlogerie and made Poetic Complications officially a thing.

From this moment, Van Cleef & Arpels would become the industry’s finest benchmark for the traditional métiers d’arts, sweeping countless métiers d’arts prizes at subsequent GPHG ceremonies. The maison’s expertise on this subject extends beyond preserving and mastering the various crafts, but evolving it further than ever thought possible. In 2024, through the Lady Arpels Jour Enchantée, it debuted not one but three ground-breaking new techniques in hand-enamelling including gem-set on plique-à-jour enamel which was never before thought possible.

Lady Arpels Jour Enchantée (2024)

In recent years the maison began incorporating jacquemart or automaton complications within its Poetic Complications, thus producing watches that combined métiers d’arts with exquisite gem-setting and thoroughly finessed automata which are animated with the most fluid, naturalistic movements. Watches such as the Lady Arpels Brise d’Éte would not have possibly been made without the maison’s decade-long devotion to the time-honored crafts, and without its singular vision to create watches that tell a story. Through these creations, Van Cleef & Arpels has redefined luxury watchmaking, proving that time can be told not only with precision, but with poetry. 

Precious Jewels Telling Time

Les Jardins Secrets by Van Cleef & Arpels at the Raffles Hotel, Singapore
28 April to 9 November, 2025
Entry is free upon registration here