A Fresh Verse in Time: Van Cleef & Arpels Unveils Its New Poetic Creation at Dubai Watch Week

This morning at Dubai Watch Week, Van Cleef & Arpels unveiled the Brassée de Lavande Automaton, a creation that feels less like an objet d’art and more like a moment suspended between nature and imagination. At nearly 12 inches (30 centimetres) in height, the automaton deepens the Maison’s long-standing dialogue between horological innovation and poetic storytelling.

Since its founding in 1906, Van Cleef & Arpels has distinguished itself through the creation of High Jewellery and precious objects shaped by innovation, craftsmanship, and a distinct lyrical sensibility. A source of wonder since 2017, the Extraordinary Objects collection now welcomes a new chapter in its narrative, which, at first glance, resembles a lavender bouquet swaying in the French breeze. 

‍

Nature's Rhythm

The magic begins when its animation is activated. Lacquered and intertwined gold stems curl outward, as if revealing a secret. As the vegetal dome opens — slowly, organically – a butterfly emerges from the heart of the bouquet. Its wings glow with orange plique-à-jour enamel, their translucence striking against the diamonds and opaque black enamel tracing each contour. Its body — sculpted from tiger’s eye and crowned with amethyst cabochon eyes — carries antennae lightly tipped with diamonds. 

In motion, the butterfly rises in a gentle arc above a cluster of golden beads set with amethysts, hovering in a moment of suspended grace. Then, as if obeying an unseen rhythm, it returns to the heart of the bouquet, where the lavender sprigs fold in once more, enclosing it in a quiet, protective embrace.

‍

A Theatre in Miniature

The base alone is a sculpture: verdite in layered tiers of soft green, topped by a bowl carved from howlite with its marble-like veins. Two snails rest on lacquered rose gold branches, beside a rotating ring of yellow gold and diamonds that tells the time. When the animation plays, a melody rises: light, crystalline, perfectly timed to the movement above. 

What moved us the most, however, is the sheer human effort woven into this small universe. Van Cleef & Arpels’ world of rare crafts stretches from Sainte-Croix to Geneva and Paris, and here it all converges: the automaton makers, the enamel artists, the High Jewellery ateliers. Each discipline working at the edge of its possibilities.

‍

Savoir-faire at the Service of Enchantment 

In Sainte-Croix, two separate mechanisms were assembled — one that choreographed the bouquet’s opening, closing, and the butterfly’s flight; the other that keeps time via the rotating ring. The trials, the calibrations, the dozens of micro-adjustments required to make metal behave like lavender swaying in the wind — those aren’t visible, but they’re palpable.

Even the lacquer work is a full art: hand-shaped sprigs, layers of pigment mixed, airbrushed, sanded, polished, glazed, each step designed to give the lavender its lifelike softness. Standing before the Brassée de Lavande Automaton, it doesn’t feel like one is observing time. It’s more like witnessing a breath translated into enamel and metal. For collectors, this is not simply a mechanical marvel. It is a reminder that time can be tender and that craftsmanship can be emotional. 

‍