Van Cleef & Arpels presented its Poetry of Time exhibition at Dubai Watch Week 2025, held at Burj Park in Dubai Mall from November 19 to 23, 2025. The exhibition featured four live workbenches where enamellers, engravers, lapidaries and stone-setters demonstrated their techniques, whilst alcoves showcased timepieces organised by theme: ballerinas and fairies, Poetic Astronomy, love stories, and Enchanted Nature.
The Dubai Watch Week exhibition demonstrated Van Cleef & Arpels' commitment to preserving traditional métiers d'art whilst developing proprietary complications in-house. By making the manufacturing process visible through live demonstrations and displaying timepieces alongside automatons, the maison illustrated how narrative, mechanical innovation and centuries-old craftsmanship converge in its approach to haute horlogerie.
Each Van Cleef & Arpels watch begins with a gouache sketch, then develops through collaboration between teams in Paris and Geneva. In-house development can take several years. The maison develops specific mechanisms and complications at its watchmaking workshops in Geneva, where movement experts, watchmakers, and craftsmen work together on retrograde displays, rotating disc movements and planetarium modules.
Van Cleef & Arpels' Key Timepieces at Dubai Watch Week 2025
The Lady Arpels Bal des Amoureux Automate required four years of development. The automaton features characters that come to life at noon and midnight, leaning in and lowering their arms through a translational movement with three joints. Hours and minutes are indicated by two stars set in motion by a dual retrograde system. The dial features grisaille enamel with handcrafted festive lanterns and white gold cobblestones.
The Lady Arpels Heures Florales watches are based on Carl von Linné's 1751 flower clock concept. The three-dimensional dials feature 12 corollas that open and close to mark the hours. A total of 166 elements are set in motion by an in-house module, with each petal articulated and linked to the watch mechanism. The flowers open in three random sequences.
The Perlée Extraordinaire Fruits Enchantés watches use façonné enamel, a technique Van Cleef & Arpels patented in 2023 following 16 months of development. Enamel powder is poured into a mould, fired twice, then polished, carved and glazed at high temperature to create volume and transparency. The dials feature sculpted berries with miniature-painted foliage and sculpted fairy figures.
The Lady Féerie and Lady Féerie Or Rose watches feature 33mm cases with hours displayed in a mother-of-pearl window surrounded by the moon or sun. A fairy figure seated on an iridescent white mother-of-pearl cloud indicates the minutes with her magic wand. The wings combine plique-à-jour and grisaille enamel for the blue watch, and plique-à-jour with opaque enamel for the pink model, with diamonds set after enamel application.
Brassée de Lavande Automaton
Standing approximately 30 centimetres tall, this automaton features 36 lacquered rose gold lavender stems. When activated, the corolla opens to reveal a butterfly with orange plique-à-jour enamel wings, a tiger's-eye body and amethyst cabochon eyes. The base comprises verdite tiers and a howlite bowl. Time is indicated by a rotating ring with gold beads and diamond hour-markers. Two independent mechanisms control the animation and timekeeping.
The automaton was assembled at Van Cleef & Arpels' Art Mechanics workshop in Sainte-Croix, Switzerland. In 2023, the maison supported local initiatives dedicated to mechanical art in Sainte‑Croix, by welcoming apprentices and strengthens collaboration between the maison's workshops in Sainte-Croix, Paris, and Geneva.
