POETIC COMPLICATIONS, LADY ARPELS PONT DES AMOUREUX MODEL, REF.3480170, CIRCA 2016

The Lady Arpels Pont des Amoureux is perhaps the most delightful of Van Cleef & Arpels ‘Poetic Complications’ series. Set with 54 diamonds weighing around 2.4 carats, it is an artistic and technical miniature masterpiece with retrograde hours and minutes display, the painted enamel scene of the present watch, which is offered here in superb condition with full set of Certificate, literature and box, is one of six versions available and depicts the romance of Paris by night. The enamel takes around 40 hours of work by one of Van Cleef & Arpels master craftsman to produce and sets the backdrop for the two figures to meet and finally kiss in the centre of the bridge as the hours and minutes progress towards 12 o’clock. The lady indicating the hours and the gentleman the minutes. Framed by the 38 mm white gold case with diamond-set bezel and complementary diamond-set buckle, the Lady Arpels Pont des Amoureux is a wristwatch that is both extremely beautiful and a tour-de-force of haute horology and rare craftsmanship. In the words of Van Cleef & Arpels “watches whose dials bring the fairytale world of the jeweler to life”.