Van Cleef & Arpels / Enchanting Time

Key Highlights

• “Van Cleef & Arpels: Enchanting Time” is presented at the Galerie du Patrimoine in the boutique at 20, Place Vendôme in Paris, from January 16th to June 1st, 2026.
• Over 50 watches, clocks and horological objets d’art from the 1920s to the 2000s are displayed alongside archival documents.
• Highlights include the 1927 Chinese Magician pocket watch, table clocks, secret watches and signatures such as the Cadenas and PA49 watches.
• The exhibition traces the Maison’s approach to time, from early automata to contemporary Poetic Complications®.

At 20, Place Vendôme, Van Cleef & Arpels opens its Galerie du Patrimoine for “Van Cleef & Arpels: Enchanting Time,” an exhibition spanning its watchmaking from the 1920s to the early 2000s. More than fifty creations show how design, craftsmanship and mechanics express the Maison’s view of time.

Through archival pieces and emblematic models, the display reveals a wish not only to measure the hours but to animate them, turning themes such as nature, love, luck and travel into intimate, often secret ways of reading time.

Animating the hours: from Chinese Magician to Poetic Complications®

The 1927 Chinese Magician pocket watch stages a mechanical automaton with a “bras-en-l’air” mechanism, now recognised as a double retrograde movement: when the winder or bezel button is pressed, the magician’s arms rise to show the minutes on one side and the hours on the other.

This principle was later reinterpreted with the Pont des Amoureux watch and became central to the Poetic Complications® collection, where time is read through scenes unfolding on the dial. A movement created for the Maison’s centenary, equipped with a seasonal date module and a disc turning beneath white mother-of-pearl clouds, links the passing hours to cycles of nature.

Horological objets d’art, secret watches and iconic forms

Table clocks from the 1940s illustrate horological objets d’art that revisit themes of nature and love, notably the Birds table clock from 1949 with two emerald lovebirds on yellow gold branches, heart-shaped leaves and ruby corollas, with engravings inspired by 18th‑century pocket watches.

The tradition of the secret watch, begun in 1929, is represented by pieces such as the 1940 Flowers model, which appears as a bracelet whose stylised bouquet lifts to reveal the dial. Emblematic silhouettes further define this vision through designs that merge jewellery codes with watchmaking function.

The Cadenas watch, introduced in 1935 at the initiative of Rachel (Renée) Puissant, daughter of Estelle Arpels and Alfred Van Cleef and then Artistic Director, is known for taut lines, a padlock-like loop and an angled dial. A 1972 model revisits the design in yellow gold and wood, a material used by the Maison as early as the 1910s and again in the 1970s. The PA49 watch adds a technical counterpoint with a skeletonised architecture, yellow gold bridges and central “rollers” that became emblematic of Van Cleef & Arpels watchmaking.

Four gem-set interpretations

Four creations crystallise the Maison’s approach to automata, décor and narrative timekeeping.

• The Chinese Magician pocket watch introduces the automaton “bras-en-l’air” double retrograde display.
• The Birds table clock translates nature and love into gem-set lovebirds on gold branches.
• The Flowers secret watch turns time into a concealed gesture, with a bouquet on the bracelet hiding the dial.
• The PA49 watch underlines skeletonised architecture with yellow gold bridges and central “rollers.”

Why it matters

“Van Cleef & Arpels: Enchanting Time” gathers creations such as the Chinese Magician, the Cadenas, the PA49 and the Poetic Complications® collection to show how a jewellery Maison has forged its own language of time. It highlights a sustained search for ways to fuse mechanics, métiers d’art and emotion into pieces that resonate beyond function.

For collectors and connoisseurs, the exhibition underlines how watchmaking can become a poetic, personal expression, rooted in heritage yet open to narrative and imagination.