Van Cleef and Arpels
Loving You: Van Cleef & Arpels’s Lovers on a Bridge Returns (Part 2)
Lovers Refined
With a new Pont des Amoureux, the brand wanted to build on the original and enhance it further. Building on what they had made at first, they planned to enhance it with a completely new module, thus transforming the lovers’ kiss from a simple animation to an automaton operation. The first important difference is the 3-minute kiss at midday and midnight, when the two lovers meet on the bridge.
A World of Enamel
At the workshop, which sits over two floors where the original Roger Dubuis workshop existed before Richemont acquired the brand, the lower level is dedicated to enameling and movement design, both for decoration and function, and this is where the brand’s new/old grisaille technique has been developed. In the past Van Cleef worked with the late artist Dominique Baron, but after her passing, the brand acquired her studio and integrated the craftsmen from her firm into their workshop.
From the process of imagining the watch and story, to its final development, it develops the dials, cases and movements all at once, which ensures that the watches are properly formulated in its final outcome. While this is a slower process, taking around 5-6 years to develop a watch, it’s a formula that has yielded excellent outcomes for the brand. Something that’s evident in the new Pont des Amoureux series.