Van Cleef & Arpels

LUCKY SPRING

When nature awakens...

Spring, a season dear to Van Cleef & Arpels, evokes the awakening of f lora and fauna in a surge of renewal. Born in 2021, the Luck y Spring collection pays tribute to it with jewelry creations that reflect the Maison’s positive vision of life. This year, Van Cleef & Arpels is introducing a new butterfly motif in yellow gold and ornamental stones. A new Poetic Complications watch gracefully accompanies this composition.

Lucky Spring: an ode to nature’s vitality

The Luck y Spring collection features a ladybug alongside plum blossoms, lily-of-the-valley buds, and delicate foliage This ensemble welcomes this year the butterfly into its midst, a motif that has been part of the Maison’s heritage since  1906. Expressing the notion of vibrant nature, it reveals dazzling materials—blue agate and lapis lazuli—illustrating Van Cleef & Arpels’ enduring taste for ornamental stones. Their intensity is heightened by the Maison’s signature double beaded contour.

The Lucky Spring collection, previously consisting of pieces in rose gold, is now enriched with five new creations in yellow gold: a long necklace, a five-motif bracelet, a clip, a Between the Finger ring, and a pair of earrings. On the long necklace, the butterfly appears three times. Represented alternately in profile and frontally, it seems to flutter lightly along the chain, creating a sense of vitality and asymmetry. The butterfly’s body and antennae are crafted in polished gold, testifying to the Maison’s attention to detail. The piece is made using the ancestral technique of lost-wax casting, which is then reworked by hand by the jeweler. Finally, at every stage of the production process, each piece is polished on both the front and back as well as on the double beaded contour to reveal gold’s radiance.

Previous page: Lucky Spring Butterfly clip, yellow gold, lapis lazuli, blue and green agate, white mother-of-pearl

Left: Lucky Spring Butterfly long necklace, 15 motifs, yellow gold, lapis lazuli, blue and green agate, white mother-of-pearl

Lucky Spring earrings, yellow gold, white mother-of-pearl

Lucky Spring Butterfly Between the Finger ring, yellow gold, lapis lazuli, blue agate, white mother-of-pearl Lucky Spring Butterfly bracelet, 5 motifs, yellow gold, lapis lazuli, blue and green agate, white mother-of-pearl

The materials that embellish the butterfly and the plant elements are carefully selected, perpetuating Van Cleef & Arpels’ tradition of excellence. The new Lucky Spring creations feature agate: blue on the upper wings and green for the foliage. The Maison selects only a tiny proportion of stones, those that are the most uniform and homogenous in color, in a palette of blues and greens ranging from light to intense. Van Cleef & Arpels only picks gems that present an even, brilliant hue to create harmonious ensembles. The pieces are enhanced by the iridescence of white mother-of-pearl, an organic material beloved by the Maison. The mother-of-pearl selected by Van Cleef & Arpels presents a rare luster and subtle reflections that shimmer in the light.

An emblematic Van Cleef & Arpels piece, the Between the Finger ring offers a charming tête-à-tête. Nestled on the hand, a plum blossom and a lily-of-the-valley bud in white mother-of-pearl converse with a butterfly. Open-winged and tilted outwards, the butterfly appears ready to take flight. The motifs are arranged on different levels to imbue the piece with volume and movement. Outlined with yellow gold, the piece appears as if caressed by the first rays of spring sunshine. This composition also graces the clip, which, embellished with foliage in green agate, reveals an elegant and vibrant palette of colors. Lastly, the earrings feature two plum blossoms that gracefully frame the face, while a polished gold pistil within each motif accentuates the roundness of the piece. This variety of blossom has the characteristic of flowering in winter, and this burst of vitality is expressed in the elegant iridescence of the white mother-of-pearl.

Lady Lucky Spring Butterfly: spring in motion

To celebrate the awakening of nature, the Poetic Complications collection, which turns the passing of time into an enchanting spectacle, is joined by a new watch named Lady Luck y Spring Butterfly. At the intersection of expertise, the creation illustrates the savoir-faire of Van Cleef & Arpels in both watchmaking and jewelry to offer a precious setting for time

The Lady Lucky Spring Butterfly watch features three plum blossoms in white mother-of-pearl, meticulously positioned on several levels to create an impression of volume and relief. The motifs are accompanied by yellow gold worked in different ways: in gold beading around each flower, polished on the branches, and textured on the leaves. Edged with a beaded contour, the aperture in the shape of a lily-of-the-valley bud reveals a disk, also in white mother-of-pearl, displaying the time. This elegant bouquet creates a striking contrast with the dial’s background, which is in guilloché white mother-of-pearl, and painted in a deep blue hue. The interplay of lines enables light to circulate freely, enhancing the reflections of this organic material.

This bucolic scene is brought to life by a self-winding mechanical movement featuring a retrograde minutes display and jumping hours. As the minutes tick by, an open-winged butterfly advances gradually towards its closed-winged alter ego. At each new hour, it returns to its initial position, ready to begin its journey along the dial once again. Every detail—weight, size, material—has been patiently designed to bring this story to life in a 33-mm case. The duo is adorned with enamel, an artistic craft that is dear to Van Cleef & Arpels. Their blue-hued silhouettes punctuate the scene with a bright touch of color.

Lady Lucky Spring Butterfly watch

yellow gold, enamel, white mother-of-pearl, diamonds,

self-winding mechanical movement equipped with a retrograde minutes and jumping hours mechanism.

The piece is further enhanced by diamonds set in several places on the watch. In keeping with the Maison’s tradition of excellence, the gems are selected according to the strictest criteria—D to F for color, IF to VVS for clarity—to illuminate the bezel, hour-markers, center attachments, and crown, as well as the buckle of the strap. The story told on the dial continues on the back of the watch. The gold part is engraved with delicate foliage, while enamel decal adorns the sapphire glass with floral motifs.

The latter reveals the oscillating weight, which features a radiating guilloché effect adorned with a butterfly in miniature painting. Testament to mechanical expertise and métiers d’art, the watch is entirely assembled in the Van Cleef & Arpels Watchmaking Workshops in Geneva.

The butterfly, a motif close to the Maison’s heart since its origins

Expressing the vitality of nature, the butterfly has brightened the world of Van Cleef & Arpels since its very beginnings. A creation dating from 1906 that features this motif in pearl, ruby, and emerald was found in the Maison’s sales records. Synonymous with grace and lightness, butterflies are often depicted with open wings, as if ready to take f light. Over the years, they have lent themselves to multiple interpretations on a wide variety of pieces, adorning precious cases, rings, necklaces, and watch dials. They are particularly prevalent on clips, an emblematic function of the Maison.

he butterfly’s winged silhouette supports the Maison’s creativity and expertise, and offers infinite scope for expression, as demonstrated by the patrimonial Collection. To reflect the diversity of nature, Van  Cleef  &  Arpels has employed a wide variety of materials and techniques over the years, including diamonds, sapphires, coral, malachite, mother-of-pearl, wood, and gold,

as well as the Maison’s beloved métier d’art of enamel. The butterfly is interpreted either

figuratively—its body and antennae, even

its legs, in gold—or stylized. Inspired by

the hippie counterculture of the 1970s, long

necklaces with pure motifs were born.

Butterfly clip, 1960

yellow gold, white gold, rose gold, platinum, turquoise, ruby, diamonds Van Cleef & Arpels Collection

Night butterfly clip, 1966

yellow and white gold, enamel, diamonds

Van Cleef & Arpels Collection

At the same time, Van Cleef & Arpels was adorning its butterfly creations with Mystery Set. This technique, patented in  1933, gives the wings a velvety radiance. The tradition continues to this day in High  Jewelry, with the Kallima ring and the Onde Mystérieuse clip. Like a timeless companion, the motif continues to enliven the Maison’s contemporary offering, from High Jewelry to Watchmaking, and Jewelry to Extraordinary Objects, such as in the Two Butterfly collection and on the Lady Arpels Brise d’Été Poetic Complications watch.

Lacquered Butterfly Fukiyose AM clip

yellow gold, white mother-of-pearl, diamonds

Onde Mystérieuse clip

rose gold, Traditional Mystery Set rubies, diamonds

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