Awed By the Stars

At the recent Watches & Wonders 2024 Van Cleef & Arpels celebrated the spectacle of the stars with two new editions of their Lady Arpels Jour Nuit watch, first introduced in 2008. The two new models come in 33 and 38mm models and took three years to design and build. The main draw of the piece is a 24 hour disc in the center of the watch spinning over the course of the day. During the day the aventurine glass face portrays the sun in snow-set yellow sapphires or guilloché yellow gold. At night the moon and stars are represented in diamond-set white gold.
Forging aventurine glass is quite a process and take well over a month from start to finish, including a gruelling heating process, cooling, smashing, and then precisely cutting thin layers with exact uniformity in hue and glitter.

To complete the piece the horizon is made from mother-of-pearl. On the back of the watch on top of the sapphire crystal protecting the movement is a fairy made of an enamel decal admiring the view.

Lady Jour Nuit watch

33-mm case in white gold, diamonds. Dial in aventurine glass, mother-of-pearl, white gold, yellow gold, diamonds. Self-winding mechanical movement featuring a Day/Night module. Self-interchangeable alligator leather bracelet

Lady Arpels Jour Nuit watch

38-mm case in white gold, diamonds. Dial in aventurine glass, mother-of-pearl, white gold, yellow gold, diamonds, yellow sapphires. Self-winding mechanical movement featuring a Day/Night module. Self-interchangeable alligator leather bracelet