Exceptional pieces featuring graceful flowers, ballerinas and fairies by Van Cleef & Arpels are now on display at "The Poetry Of Time" exhibition until Sunday, at M Gallery, The Emporium.
The French maison draws inspiration from nature, couture, dance or pure imagination in creating the alluring watches and jewellery.
Highlights of the exhibition include pieces with the emblematic fairy and ballerina that first appeared in the early 1940s.
One of the brand's Poetic Complications timepieces, Lady Arpels Jour Nuit Fée Ondine boasts a beautiful dial depicting the fairy Ondine seated on a Champlevé enamelled water lily, dipping her legs in the waters created with translucent enamel. The exhibition also features an enamellist demonstrating the savoir faire in hand-crafting stunning dials.
Technical prowess is showcased in the retrograde movement that powers Lady Arpels Ballerine Enchantée to indicate the time with a smooth gesture of the ballerina's veils while Lady Arpels Féerie charms with the fairy's delicate wing and magic wand respectively pointing the minutes and the hours.
Primerose Secrète secret watch.
A sophisticated retrograde movement also makes it possible for lovers to meet and kiss at noon and midnight on a bridge, illustrated on the playful dial of Lady Arpels Pont Des Amoureux.
High jewellery timepieces include yellow gold Primerose Secrète watch, whose hollyhock is paved with white diamonds and pink sapphires. By pressing one of the petals, the secret dial opens via an ingenious mechanism.
The dazzling model may also be worn as a clip when fitted to a mount. Likewise, the jewellery transformation is exhibited by the iconic Zip necklace-cum-bracelet, first produced in 1950 following a suggestion from the Duchess of Windsor, Wallis Simpson.
Along with the antique pieces, The Poetry Of Time exhibition presents latest creations launched at the Salon International de la Haute Horlogerie 2018, held in January, in Geneva.
The new novelties include Lady Arpels Planétarium, which extensively demonstrates how the Paris-based maison can make highly-complicated watches.
The astronomical model fascinatingly illustrates the Sun and closest planets Mercury, Venus and Earth, along with its natural satellite the Moon. Each heavenly body moves at its actual speed, orbiting the dial in 88 days for Mercury, 224 days for Venus and 365 days for Earth.
Moreover, the Moon rotates around the Earth in 29.5 days while a shooting star poetically shows the time on the blue aventurine dial.
