VAN CLEEF & ARPELS: A JOURNEY THROUGH THE POETRY OF TIME

Van Cleef & Arpels highlights their Ludo Secret collection during Dubai Watch Week.

Dubai Watch Week: 16th – 20th November 2023.

Van Cleef & Arpels (VCA) – is among the most prestigious jewellers in the world. In addition to jewellery, they are a serious watchmaker, renowned for their beautiful, bejewelled, poetic, and complicated timepieces. Recently, and for the first time, they celebrated their iconic sources of inspiration at Dubai Watch Week (DWW). They displayed their contemporary creations and pieces from their patrimonial collection, ‘in an immersive environment designed to recreate the charm of Paris.’ Alongside this event dedicated to ‘The Poetry of Time’, Van Cleef & Arpels also held a patrimonial exhibition inside their Salons Dubai Opera Boutique (located at Dubai Opera Plaza), titled: ‘Van Cleef & Arpels, Precious Jewels Telling Time.’

Van Cleef & Arpels timepieces coexist among their Jewellery and High Jewellery Collections and encompass the five collections or ‘cherished universes’: Couture, Love Stories – especially with the Pont des Amoureux collection, Fairies and Ballerinas, Enchanting Nature, and Poetic Astronomy. Each of these collections conveys the ‘Poetry of Time’ which is ‘unique to Van Cleef & Arpels’.

For Dubai Watch Week, Van Cleef & Arpels is highlighting their Ludo Secret collection.

LUDO SECRET

Design:

The Ludo Secret is a ladies timepiece collection, part of their Couture universe. Its design resembles a belt, and the belt buckle – as the ‘Secret’ in the name suggests – discretely opens to reveal a rectangular timepiece dial. A dial which can be clothed in mother-of-pearl, diamonds, and other precious gemstones. The ‘belt buckle’, the two circles around it, and the ‘belt’ or bracelet itself – are the perfect canvas for the master jewellers, gemmologists, and artisans at Van Cleef & Arpels to tinker with designs, combinations, and settings of precious stones. The Ludo Secret – a bracelet – is transformed into a work of pure art and beauty, with a discretely hidden timepiece.

In Van Cleef & Arpels own words, ‘Like a surprise, the watches of the Ludo Secret collection continue the tradition of mystery dear to the Maison. By cleverly hiding their dial, these elegant and inventive pieces allow their wearer to tell time with discretion, making every second a secret.’ Furthermore, ‘A union of purity and refinement, the Ludo collection reinterprets an iconic Van Cleef & Arpels creation from 1934. Playing on the nickname of one of the Maison’s founding members, Louis Arpels, the Ludo bracelet was launched to remarkable success, capturing the imagination of many bold women in the 1930s. Recalling the outline of a belt, this bracelet stands out for its flexible mesh accented by a buckle set with precious stones.’

Versions:

For Dubai Watch Week, Van Cleef & Arpels has introduced a new aesthetic design in guilloche yellow gold, inspired by traditional techniques used by them since the 1910’s on objects, accessories, jewellery, and watchmaking creations.

“Guillochage”, originally associated with tableware, consists of engraving delicate veins on metal, stone, mother-of-pearl or other materials. Arranged in a sunbeam pattern on this creation, the lines foster a subtle interplay of light that evolves according to the time of day, renewed with every movement of the wrist.’

This version is crafted in Yellow Gold, consists of diamonds, guilloche white mother-of-pearl dial, and powered by a Swiss quartz movement.

Price on Request from Van Cleef & Arpels and it is available to order.

Van Cleef & Arpels, as part of its High Jewellery watches, introduced a novelty within the Ludo Secret creation during Watches and Wonders, held in Geneva, Switzerland, during 27 March to 2 April 2023.

A new size of the watch and two combinations of materials: Rose gold with diamonds and rose gold with pink sapphires. Both with a white mother-of-pearl dial. ‘To compose these gemstone ensembles, the Maison’s gemologists gathered their expertise to pair diamonds of similar brilliance and pink sapphires of harmonious intensity.’

This version is crafted in Rose Gold, consists of diamonds or pink sapphires, guilloche white mother-of-pearl dial, and powered by a Swiss quartz movement.

Price on Request from Van Cleef & Arpels. Its style number is VCARPBM100 and at the time of writing this article, they are currently available.