SIHH 2018: Stars align for Van Cleef & Arpels’ Lady Arpels Planétarium Poetic Complications watch

Van Cleef & Arpels knows how to win a woman’s heart. The high jeweller and luxury watchmaker has a special talent for creating timepieces that women love to wear.

“Our Poetic Complications start with stories, concepts and projects that are very often feminine and almost always narrative,” says Nicolas Bos, president and CEO of Van Cleef & Arpels. “We then try to use the complications of fine watchmaking to serve these stories. While some of our fellow watchmakers start with the movement and functionality and then aesthetics, we do it the other way round.”

Van Cleef & Arpels’ latest novelty – the Lady Arpels Planétarium Poetic Complications watch, unveiled at this year’s SIHH – is a fine example of this approach.

The exceptional timepiece is a new iteration of the maison’s Midnight Planetarium piece, reimagined for female connoisseurs and collectors. The original watch, unveiled four years ago, comes with a 44mm diameter case, while the women’s version adopts the classic Lady Arpels case, which stands at 38mm in diameter.

The stars are aligned for the timepiece, which adopts an unconventional watch design. The dial depicts the sun and some of the planets, including Mercury, Venus and Earth – and its natural satellite, the moon – which all move at speeds reflecting the motions of the actual planets. Mercury orbits the sun on the dial in 88 days; Venus does it in 224 days; Earth takes 365 days; and the moon rotates round Earth in 29.5 days.

“We don’t simply shrink men’s watches to create women’s watches,” says Bos. “It’s a completely new movement compared to the men’s version.”

Major changes in the design and complication have been made for the women’s watch compared to the men’s version, created in collaboration with Christiaan Van der Klaauw, who designed the mechanical module exclusively for Van Cleef & Arpels.

“Every piece is like a different adventure with a different team and collaborators; it’s very exciting,” Bos says. “Each time we learn from those projects and one project leads to another.”

The original 24-hour time system is swapped for a 12-hour system for the women’s watch; and while the men’s version also features Mars, Jupiter and Saturn, the women’s version has removed these three planets in favour of the moon.