For Van Cleef & Arpels, time has never simply ticked forward – it shimmers, pirouettes, and whispers softly through enamel and gold. At Watches & Wonders 2025, the Maison returns to its Parisian roots with a presentation that reads less like a product showcase and more like an ode to imagination. From celestial choreography to feathered cupids and lovers mid-embrace, this is horology told through the language of dreams.

Pont des Amoureux: A love story in four scenes

First unveiled in 2010, the Pont des Amoureux collection has become emblematic of Van Cleef & Arpels’ Poetic Complications. Powered by a double retrograde movement, the scene plays out on a bridge in Paris, where two lovers – she marking the minutes, he the hours – meet for a kiss at noon and midnight.

For 2025, four new models – Matinée, Aube, Soirée, and Clair de Lune – are introduced, each inspired by a moment in the day. Their dials are rendered in soft washes of grisaille enamel, layered with colour to evoke dawn skies or moonlit nights. Sculpted bridges in precious metals add depth and perspective, while on the reverse, enamel decals and engraved backdrops offer hidden details to discover.

Each piece is set on a fully gem-set bracelet, its diamonds and sapphires graded in tone to mirror the scene on the dial. The movement is automatic, and includes both the retrograde indication and an on-demand animation that allows the kiss to be replayed at will – a romantic gesture made mechanical.

Lady Arpels Bal des Amoureux Automate: A new rendezvous

A fresh chapter unfolds with the Lady Arpels Bal des Amoureux Automate, where the iconic lovers are reunited in a new setting – a guinguette, the open-air dance cafés of 19th century Paris. Here, the dial becomes a miniature stage, with five separate layers creating a scene alive with detail: hand-enamelled lanterns, cobbled streets in white gold, and chiaroscuro skies.

A newly developed automaton movement – four years in the making – allows the lovers to lean in with lifelike articulation, their arms moving in tandem thanks to a complex mechanism concealed beneath the dial. A double retrograde display, marked by golden stars, tells the time, while the animation may be activated at any moment with the push of a button.

Naissance de l’Amour Automaton: A cupid in ascent for Extraordinary Objects

A continuation of Van Cleef & Arpels’ beloved automaton creations, Naissance de l’Amour introduces Cupid himself, rising from a basket of feathers, wings beating delicately in plique-à-jour enamel. He turns, then disappears – only to return again in his own time.

Standing nearly 30 centimetres tall, the piece is composed of white, rose, and yellow gold, diamonds, and sapphires. A carillon melody accompanies his flight, while the base – carved from iron eye and petrified palmwood – features a rotating ring that indicates the time using lacquered feathers set with diamonds.

Planétarium Automaton: Celestial mechanics in motion

With the Planétarium Automaton, Van Cleef & Arpels scales its watchmaking to the size of a cosmos. Measuring 66.5 centimetres in diameter, the table-top object represents the Sun and seven planets visible from Earth, each orbiting at true astronomical speed – 88 days for Mercury, nearly 30 years for Saturn.

A manual mechanical movement with 11 complications and a 15-day power reserve drives the show. Activate the automaton, and a rose gold shooting star streaks across the heavens to indicate the time. The planets move in poetic counter-rotation, some rising and falling in a celestial ballet accompanied by a 15-bell chime.

Each planet is crafted from ornamental stones – moonstone, jasper, lapis lazuli – and adorned with engraved gold ribbons. The Sun, constructed from more than 500 golden stems set with spessartite garnets and yellow sapphires, quivers on a trembleur setting, catching light with every shift.

Cadenas Watch: A jewel of discretion

A design born in 1935 and reimagined for today, the Cadenas watch returns with its signature angled dial – originally created for discreet glances at time. This year’s version pairs a yellow gold bracelet with a case snow-set in diamonds and finished with rows of princess-cut sapphires.

It’s practical elegance, made poetic: powered by a Swiss quartz movement, but styled like a piece of surrealist jewellery – echoing the readymade spirit of the 1930s.

Ruban Mystérieux: A ribbon wrapped around time

A high jewellery watch that wears like couture, the Ruban Mystérieux curves around the wrist in a bow of white and rose gold. At its centre, a 3.72-carat DIF oval diamond conceals a dial, powered by a hand-wound mechanical movement of delicate dimensions.

The ribbons are adorned with the Maison’s iconic Mystery Set sapphires and emeralds — a patented technique allowing gems to float seamlessly across the surface. Snow-set diamonds finish the look, creating a timepiece that feels less like a watch and more like a secret waiting to be unwrapped.

At Watches & Wonders 2025, Van Cleef & Arpels continues to remind us that time isn’t something to control — it’s something to feel. Whether it’s the tender lean of two gold figures or the weightless turn of a planet, each creation is a quiet celebration of love, artistry, and the poetry that lives in every second.