Earlier this year, on the occasion of the SIHH 2014 exhibition, Van Cleef & Arpels presented the Heure d’Ici & Heure d’Ailleurs timepiece – yet another amazing creation designed in honor of Pierre Arpels.
In case you don’t remember, Pierre Arpels was one of the founders and runners of the Van Cleef & Arpels jewelry business and a person who opened the brand's first boutique at 22 place Vendôme. The very first Pierre Arpels watch, introduced in 2012, was a simple and refined timepiece, designed in the spirit of classic watchmaking traditions and after the vintage model that was created especially for Pierre Arpels in 1949. This elegant and discreet model symbolizes the unadorned luxury that Mr. Arpels appreciated more than anything else – “a perfect circle suspended in space on an almost invisible strap.” The original Pierre Arpels model was reproduced for a number of his friends, before it launched commercially in 1971. The revamped model from 2012 was its new, more contemporary, but equally sublime and restrained incarnation. This year, however, Van Cleef & Arpels honors a different aspect of Mr. Arpels lavish persona. Besides being an ingenious creator and a businessman, Pierre Arpels was also a seasoned traveler and a sportsman.
The Pierre Arpels Heures d’Ici Et Heures d’Ailleurs, the most recent model in the Pierre Arpels collection, is a gorgeous travelers’ watch equipped with a second time zone function. For the first time ever, the Pierre Arpels collection welcomes a complication watch with double jumping hours for the dual time function and retrograde-style minutes indication. The inscription on the dial, which is also a name of this romantic timepiece, translates as “time here… time elsewhere.” It reflects the poetic nature of this watch, a beautiful and emotional connection between the traveler and its home.
The reference time appears in the window on top of the dial, while the aperture at the bottom of the dial indicates the time in the second time zone. The scale on the left side of the dial, with a slim baton-shaped hand, is a retrograde minutes indicator. When the hand reaches 60 on the graduated scale, it jumps to the starting position. At the same time, the hour displays advance in full hour increments, simultaneously. The center of the dial is decorated with piqué motif, a quilted pattern that recalls raised parallel cords or fine ribbing of the fabric. This subtle decoration contributes to the formal nature of this watch by making it very classy and wearable, despite of its poetic nature.
To make this watch as slender and elegant as possible, the Maison has decided to fit it with an automatic movement with a platinum micro-rotor. The gorgeously decorated movement, with its snailed bridges and blue-painted rotor that repeats the piqué motif of the dial, is visible through a sapphire crystal case-back. The movement, which is made in collaboration with Agenhor SA (a brand specialized in retrograde and jumping hour complications) is designed to serve the elegance without disturbing the harmonious lines and the timeless aesthetics of Pierre Arpels collection. This is why a single crown is used to wind the movement, set the time zones and adjust the minutes.
Van Cleef & Arpels Heure d’Ici & Heure d’Ailleurs is priced at $41,000. The watch is made of 18-carat white gold, and it measures 42 mm in diameter.
Author: Marina Milojevic Pinterest
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