Shimmering Lapidary on Feerique Timepieces by Van Cleef & Arpel

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Van Cleef & Arpels dazzles again with two unique designs, the Lady Arpels Nuit Feerique and Lady Arpels Jour Feerique. Both watches feature a hand-wound movement inside a 41-mm case crusted with white gold and diamonds. Designed to represent the duality of night and day, the dials contain layers of precious stones and delicate miniature painting, showcasing the incredible lapidary expertise of these designs.

The Lady Arpels Nuit Féerique has a hollow, diamond-set surface and an openwork dome adorned with sapphires with the backdrop of a graceful fairy illuminated under moonlight. The intricate background of the dial is a harmonious combination of different crafts that showcases the lapidaries’ expertise.

Deep blue aventurine is cut to create the night sky and white gold is sculpted and painted to form the fairy’s costume . Round and tapered-cut diamonds line to form the course of a shooting star and alternately cut solid onyx to illustrates an interplay of clouds. Some of the clouds are also adorned with mother-of-pearl and onyx marquetry, playfully set with sapphires of blue, pink and violet. The gentle gradation of the different shades of buff-topped stones portray the scene of a gentle summer night.

The story carries on, as the back of the watch depicts an engraved scene of a garden with swaying long grass under a starry sky.

The other watch – Lady Arpels Jour Féerique – depicts the image of a sun. A fairy twirls under the bright rays with her hand stretching out in an ethereal pose, giving a sense of life, light and warmth hand stretches in an ethereal pose.

A succession of planes is created with great craftsmanship. In the foreground, the sun is made up of two pieces in relief and hollow with both yellow sapphires and spessartite garnets, giving the orb an intense glow.

The alternate opaque and transparent clouds made of turquoise, mother-of-pearl, enamel and diamonds depicts a early-morning sky that is brilliant yet delicate. Rose-cut diamonds form the face and wings of the fairy, highlighting her ethereal grace. Her dress is hand-painted in a soft gradation from blue to yellow. On the engraved gold back of the case, she reappears sitting on a branch, in a scene haloed by the same rays of sun.

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