The world of dance has permeated Van Cleef & Arpels jewellery-making since the first ballerina clips were created in the early 1940s. Featuring a gold or diamond face with precious head ornament, dancers are depicted with pointe shoes and a tutu set with diamonds or coloured stones.
The dance theme extends to the Extraordinary Dials collection. Housed in a 33mm white gold case, the new Lady Danse and Lady Danse Duo showcase a host of traditional crafts nurtured by Van Cleef & Arpels, which was founded in Paris in 1906.
On the first model, a diamond-faced soloist is ready to enter the stage and perform an arabesque, revealing her shoes in the miniature painting.
Sculpted in relief, her silhouette stands out against a three-dimensional marquetry of ornamental stones. Intricately-cut white mother-of-pearl, turquoise and chrysoprase are carefully assembled side by side for a striking perspective, which highlights the ballerina's movement. Set with rubies and hemmed with gold, her dress recalls 1950s and 1960s fashion.
In these two decades, the bond between the Maison and the world of dance grew even stronger, as Claude Arpels became acquainted with famed choreographer George Balanchine.
Their passion for precious stones led to featuring bejewelled costumes in an original ballet, which premiered in April 1967. Each act of the non-narrative Jewels pays tribute to a composer and a gemstone: Gabriel FaureĢ for Emeralds, Igor Stravinsky for Rubies and Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky for Diamonds.
Ballerina Clip from 1945.
Balanchine was the co-founder of the New York City Ballet. Van Cleef & Arpels drew inspiration from The Big Apple's architecture for the design of the Lady Danse Duo, whose dial features buildings in turquoise and white gold set with diamonds, silhouetted in relief on white mother-of-pearl.
Three dancers perform together; on the other side of the stage, the ballerina in her red tutu has joined her partner for a duet.
In the foreground, the steps leading to the stage are depicted in three-dimensional marquetry of lapis lazuli. For this piece, the strips of deep blue have been assembled on different levels, accentuating the depth of the dial.
Selecting the turquoise, lapis lazuli and chrysoprase for these two Extraordinary Dials watches required attentiveness to the intensity and evenness of the colour, and the stones must be matched in shade and opacity to achieve a harmonious ensemble. The selected white mother-of-pearl also had to display a regular and iridescent surface.
Sketches of dancer clips from Van Cleef & Arpels archives. (Photo: Van Cleef & Arpels)
Moreover, the lapidary must take the specificities of each material into account to obtain motifs of the required thickness and volume for the demanding stone marquetry, which is combined with a sculpture on gold, stone-setting and miniature painting to handcraft the three-dimensional theatres.
The beauty of the dial is achieved by the team of lapidarist, enameler, engraver, miniature painter, and stone setter, among others. Each dial is crafted like a miniature picture while the caseback of each watch boasts an engraving of an interpretation of its dance scene.
On the real stage, Van Cleef & Arpels encourages choreographic innovations via its partnership with the Fedora philanthropic community. Since 2015, the annual "Fedora-Van Cleef & Arpels Prize For Ballet" is awarded for the excellence and inventiveness of a new performance.
Launched last year, Dance Reflections by Van Cleef & Arpels further supports the development of contemporary creations to appeal to the broadest possible audience.
Sketches of dancer clips from Van Cleef & Arpels archives. (Photo: Van Cleef & Arpels)
