Each creation benefits from Van Cleef & Arpels’ High Jewelry savoir-faire, which has been carried on by the workshops’ craftsmen for over a hundred years. This expertise is expressed through a series of patiently completed techniques. With every step, gold and platinum reveal their brilliance, while precious and ornemental stones are skillfully highlighted. From jewelers to stone-setters to polishers, the various skills come together to give each piece an emotion that matches the Maison's exacting standards.
Reflecting the creative boldness and technical innovation that have driven the Maison since its inception, the Mystery Set™ is one of Van Cleef & Arpels’ iconic forms of savoir-faire. This innovation, which was patented in 1933, introduced a new way of setting precious stones that was designed to preserve their beauty. Its secret lies in its gold rails, into which stones – expressly and meticulously cut – are individually inserted, for the most part rubies, but also sapphires, emeralds, and diamonds.
Selecting Mystery Set rubies
Assembling the Pomme de pin clip jewelry structure
Assembling the door of the Mystery Set
Check before assembling, Cascade mystérieuse necklace
Mystery Set on the Passementerie Mystérieuse ring
Van Cleef & Arpels Jewelry and Watchmaking creations are the result of a number of gestures carried out in the Maison's workshops. The fruit of a genuinely collective approach, the creations bring together Van Cleef & Arpels’ emblematic techniques, from design through to the three-dimensional, textured gold working.
A Van Cleef & Arpels' emblematic savoir-faire, mirror polish has been appreciated over the decades on a multitude of clips, earrings, rings, bracelets, pendants and objects. It illuminates the Maison's sources of inspiration, from nature to couture, from love to luck, expressing its enchanting universe with sparkle.
To elicit enchantment, Van Cleef & Arpels draws on its sources of inspiration, its heritage and the expertise of its workshops. Enamel, miniature painting, marquetry of precious and ornamental stones, the art of engraving and sculpture... the métiers d'art are deepened according to the creations while new techniques are developed in the service of a distinctive vision of the passing hours.
Van Cleef & Arpels pays tribute to time-honored enameling techniques in its watch collections. Silica powder and pigments are kissed by the flame of the kiln to produce enamel, a veritable art of fire. A consummate series of steps bring enameled motifs to life, imbuing pieces with intense hues and profound brilliance.
A traditional engraving technique taking its inspiration from goldsmithery and culinary art, the guilloché is used by the Maison since the 1910s on objects, accessories, watches and jewels.
Perpetuating a poetic vision of life, Van Cleef & Arpels explores an exclusive dimension in the art of watchmaking: an element of dream and emotion. The wonders of time-telling technology, engineered in its Swiss watchmaking workshops, compose the stories told on the dial.
Renowned for its jewelry and watchmaking savoir-faire, Van Cleef & Arpels has been prominent in an innovative and enchanting field: that of the objects and automatons of exception. These unique creations have the particularity of combining an aesthetic of great refinement, rare and precious materials and a true function.
Selecting the materials is an essential stage in Van Cleef & Arpels’ tradition of excellence, each stone chosen to embellish the jewelry, high jewelry and watchmaking pieces undergoes a meticulous selection by the Maison's expert gemologists.
Luck is in sight
