A Precious Box

Each Poetic Wish timepiece is presented in its own extraordinary cabinet made of precious woods and mother-of-pearl inlay. The boxes tell the story of the Poetic Wish watches and, when they are put together, the young lovers from within the story are re-united. The cabinet’s interiors have been conceived following the tradition of stringedinstrument makers so as to enhance the sound of the Poetic Complications. The watch, placed in its customised box, becomes a collector’s piece.

Read the story here:

Once upon a time, Van Cleef & Arpels asked a diamond fairy to transform the colours of time. Thanks to her, complication movements, so precious to watchmakers and to watch lovers, became poetic. This was in 2007, Van Cleef & Arpels presented a Poetic Complication: the Lady Arpels Féérie watch, equipped with a retrograde movement.

A diamond fairy indicated the hours with her wand, the minutes with the tip of her wings. Her dazzling wand had granted another wish: to a baby girl in her cradle, she promised happiness, love and joy. A few years later, Van Cleef & Arpels added another chapter to its Poetry of Time with the Une Journée à Paris watch.

The child had become a girl and she discovered the City of Romance thanks to a series of symbols on the watch’s dial: the place Vendôme column, the giant Ferris wheel of the jardin des Tuileries… and the Eiffel Tower.

In 2010, the girl was back in Paris with the Pont des Amoureux watch. Two young people, on a summer’s night, walked along a bridge on the Seine river. The young woman’s steps indicated the hours; the young man’s marked the minutes.

Slowly but surely, they came closer to finally exchange a kiss at midnight. Since then, the two young lovers have stayed in Paris and a new chapter of The Poetry of Time has been written for them. The Lady Arpels Poetic Wish and the Midnight Poetic Wish symbolize this never-ending love story.

A story where the passing of time, and its precious hours and minutes, casts a spell of eternal renewal.