“Poetic complication” is a term that Paris-based Van Cleef & Arpels introduced a number of years ago to help explain the brand’s ethos when it came to developing novel mechanical complications for its high-end timepieces. Rather than the more traditional information-based displays and other similar complications, Van Cleef & Arpels wanted to create positive emotions and beautiful animated displays with the help of traditional mechanical clockwork. The concept of “poetic complication” has been manifested across a number of Van Cleef & Arpels watches over the years (for me, the concept was first epitomized in the 2010 Van Cleef & Arpels Pont de Amoureux watch) and most recently is the thematic foundation for the 2024 Van Cleef & Arpels Lady Arpels Brise d’Été, or in English, the Lady Arpels Summer Breeze. This watch discreetly indicates the time and, upon the press of a pusher on the left side of the case activates a fun dial animation meant to remind the wearer of a warm summer day spent in nature.
The natural world and the human arts are the primary sources of inspiration for Van Cleef & Arpels. Aside from ballet dancers and fairies, the most common themes in the brand’s watches and jewelry are animals and plants. Accordingly, the Lady Arpels Brise d’Été dial features flowers, leaves, stems, and butterflies. All are rendered beautifully via miniature artistic elements crafted by hand and carefully assembled into the three-dimensional display that makes up the Summer Breeze dial. I think it is important to mention that, currently, both the mechanical movement inside of the watch and the artistic work on the dial and case are performed in-house by Van Cleef & Arpels. The brand used to work with some outside contractors (such as Agenhor in Geneva), but according to the brand, all the watchmaking now happens in-house at Van Cleef & Arpels Swiss watchmaking studio in Geneva. Much of the artistry, on the other hand, is performed out of the company’s headquarters in Paris.
No fewer than three types of complicated enamel work are used on the dial of the Brise d’Été watch. The backdrop is a mother-of-pearl face while the plants and butterflies are all colored using hand-painted enamel work. The butterflies and some of the longer grass blade-style leaves are semi-transparent green, done using the stained glass-style plaque-à-jour enameling technique. Some of the leaves use a champlevé enamel technique, which has paint put in between a metal (often gold) structure. This is how the leaves have fine metal lines in them. Finally, traditional vallonné enamel (which, in this instance, is a miniature composition painting) is used for the fine details such as the flowers and many of the green-hued leaves. Further decorating the composition on some diamond hour markers as well as a row of larger brilliant-cut diamonds on the bezel. Other natural stones on the dial of the Lady Arpels Brise d’Été include garnets and tsavorites.
The Lady Arpels-style case is 38mm wide in 18k white gold. You can see how the floral decor extends on the rear of the case where some are painted on the sapphire crystal and some are engraved into the white gold caseback. You can see a view of the automatic rotor – which is blue-colored and guilloché-engraved. It is a nice way to help admire the movement, but in a way that is distinctly feminine as opposed to the more masculine styles of featuring a display caseback that are designed to visually expose mechanics.
I don’t have enough information about the movement to describe its operating specifications but I can explain its operation and what it displays. The movement indicates the time via a single-hour hand. That hand is in the form of a disc, and on it are the two opposed butterfly figurines. The different color butterflies operate as AM/PM indicators and they take turns passing along the 12-hour marker scale on the top part of the dial which is painted into the mother-of-pearl face. As I said before, the movement is a self-winding automatic. The movement also has a relatively sophisticated automata feature which is activated using the pusher located at the roughly 8 o’clock position on the case. I think that pressing the pusher actually generates the energy that powers the subsequent mechanical animation display.
What does the animation do? Purely for fun and visual enjoyment (i.e. a poetic complication), the animation has the butterfly disc spinning around a few times while three of the flowers and some of the grass leaves sway as if in response to a summer breeze. Note that the swaying plants do not follow the same pattern but are designed to each have an organic motion so that the entire composition feels more life-like. I am embedding an Instagram post I made that includes a couple of videos showing how the Lady Arpels Summer Breeze dial elegantly comes to life. It might not be a functionally useful feature, but it is poetic and very charming. If I were the target audience for these watches and could afford it, I would want multiple of these types of watches (Van Cleef & Arpels makes an array of colors and styles across various collections) to wear with different outfits. They are just so visually attractive and well-done, and they make for excellent conversation pieces.
The Lady Arpels case with its single lug structure also has a quick-release mechanism for releasing the strap. The watch comes with a very fine and thin forest green-colored alligator strap. The ardillon-style buckle is in matching 18k white gold and is further decorated with additional diamonds. I modeled the watch for you to see how the size compares to other watches, but as you can see the Lady Arpels Summer Breeze looks best on a woman’s wrist. Could a guy get away with wearing it? 38mm is certainly not considered too small by many… Price for the Van Cleef & Arpels Lady Arpels Brise d’Été watch is about $175,000 USD. Learn more at the Van Cleef & Arpels website.
